Friday, October 31, 2014

Ecuador: Bringing Home The Flock At Dusk


Little indigenous girls herding their family’s sheep home at dusk near Ecuador’s Andean town of Ambato, south of Quito. The  sheep are all dragging leashes behind them.
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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Ecuador: Eating Breakfast At The Market


Hearty indigenous market breakfast at Ecuador’s Zumbahua, an Andean village in the Cotopaxi Province. The female cook is dropping a plate to be washed in  a pot of hot water on the fire.
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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Ecuador: Starting A Cold Day On Chimborazo's High Slopes


Hiking up a high slope of Ecuador’s snow-capped Chimborazo Volcano at dawn, I surprised this indigenous man as he was ready to herd sheep to pasture from the saddle of his horse. To protect himself against the biting Andean cold he had covered his legs with sheep-skin pants. His people, whose tribe name I failed to learn, live a harsh semi-nomadic life among their sheep, sleeping in small straw huts.
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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Colombia: Misty weekend at Ladrilleros Beach


Misty weekend at the Ladrilleros beach along Colombia’s Pacific Coast near Buenaventura. The beach is a popular with the people of hot Cali.

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Monday, October 27, 2014

Colombia: Travel On The Magdalena River


At Colombia’s Puerto Boyacá, passengers board a boat for a trip on the Magdalena River. Colombia is one of the world’s most beautiful and geographically varied countries I have had the fortune to explore. And its people, no matter their cultures and racial origins, are Latin America’s friendliest.
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Sunday, October 26, 2014

Colombia: Mompós, A Spanish Colonial City


Sleepy Mompós and its charming Spanish colonial architecture are built on an island of the mighty Magdalena River that bisects Colombia.
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Saturday, October 25, 2014

Colombia: Transporting Potatoes To Market


In Colombia, one early morning, two farmers are walking down from their cold Andean fields of El Cocuy Mountain, transporting their potatoes to the market of the eponymous village of El Cocuy, in Boyacá Department.
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Friday, October 24, 2014

Tenza, Colombia, Where Conversing In The Middle Of The Road Poses No Risks


Market day in Tenza, a small town in Colombia’s Boyacá Department, has brought to a corner of the central square people with baskets to sell and stories to share.
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Thursday, October 23, 2014

Colombia: Boyacá Misty Dawn



Under the mist of dawn, a path runs through pastures near Paipa, in Colombia’s Boyacá Department. A bewildered cow seems to wonder what a photographer is doing there at that hour.
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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Colombia: A Picturesque Boyacá Village

At sunrise, under Colombia’s snowcapped El Cocuy Mountain, in the Andean Boyacá Department, the cold village of El Cocuy comes to life.
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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Indonesia: Harrowing A Rice Field


Helped by water buffaloes,Toraja men and boys of Indonesia's Sulawesi Island harrow a rice field. The men and boys in front pull the water buffaloes while the men behind keep the harrows deep into the soil (c) 1968.
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Monday, October 20, 2014

Indonesia: Driving Muddied Water Buffaloes To Water



Moving through rice fields, this little Toraja girl of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island is driving her family’s muddied water buffaloes to water for a scrubbing. ©1968.
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Friday, October 17, 2014

Indonesia: Harrowing Rice Field


Helped by the power of a water buffalo, Toraja boys are harrowing a rice field in Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island. Rice is already growing in fields behind them. © 1968.
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Indonesia: Washing Muddy Water Buffaloes


Boys washing the mud off their family’s water buffaloes in a pond near Makassar, in Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island © 1968.
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Thursday, October 16, 2014

Indonesia: Toraja Elder


Toraja elder, of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, mourning a death at a village funeral 
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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Indonesia: How The Toraja Carry Small Animals


1968 photo of a Toraja man of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island carrying a piglet like a suitcase.
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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Indonesia: Transplanting Rice


1968 photo of a Toraja woman and her daughters transplanting rice in Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island.
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Monday, October 13, 2014

Malaysia: Kadazan Boys Riding Water Buffaloes


Lingering along the way to give their families’ water buffaloes a chance to browse, Kadazan boys are riding to a pond where they will wash their animals. The idyllic scene took place in 1968 near Papar, Sabah, a Malaysian part of Borneo.
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Sunday, October 12, 2014

Two Ways To Climb A Coconut Tree




Near Legazpi, in the Philippines’ Luzon Island, this man climbed a coconut tree depending only on his strong leg muscles to hug the tree as they pushed himself upward.


Sustained by a liana, a Baka pygmy near M’baki, Central African Republic, is climbing a coconut tree. He uses the ax hooked to his left shoulder to cut steps in the tree as he climbs it.
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Saturday, October 11, 2014

Colombia: Not Every Moment Of A Cowboy’s Life Is Hectic

Hereafter are a few more Colombian cowboys images.
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Pulling a raincoat from a saddle as rain starts falling.


Riding to work through the Llanos’ immensity. Besides the Sahara and Patagonia, few other places on earth have made me enjoy freedom as much as here. 


Reviewing cattle with the boss.


A quiet break from horses and cows. 


Filling a cup of cool drinking water.


Giant barbecue for carnivorous cowboys.


Cowboys bedroom.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Colombia: Stoicism Of A Barefoot Cowboy And His Horse


In Colombia’s Llanos Orientales a barefoot cowboy and his horse remain immobile under a downpour as they keep watch over a herd of zebus. Barefoot riding defines all Llanos cowboys.
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Thursday, October 9, 2014

Colombia: Cowboys Sitting By A Fire


Cowboys of Colombia’s Llanos resting by a fire while it’s heating their branding irons.
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Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Colombia: Of Men, Calves, And Mud

To mark calves in Colombia’s Llanos requires men to lasso the animals, to keep them down in the mud waiting for their turn to be branded, and to handle the branding iron. It’s all a game, really, full of hilarious situations.
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Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Colombia: Cowboys Marking Calves


Colombian cowboys marking calves inside a Llanos corral. Mud and water are two of the reasons why they always go barefoot. Much else was going on around in the corral. Like other men lassoing calves running wild. And it wasn’t easy to manage a camera on slippery ground while avoiding to be swept off my feet when caught by a moving lasso between cowboy and galloping calf.
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Monday, October 6, 2014

Colombia: Cowboys Herding Cattle To Corral


Cowboys of the Colombian Llanos, all of them riding barefoot as is their custom, are herding cows and calves to a Colombian  corral to be separated there. After the cows will have been returned to pasture the calves will be marked.

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Sunday, October 5, 2014

Colombia: Cowboys Lassoing Horses


As described in previous posts, rounding up hundreds of widely scattered cows that have been left alone fattening on the Llanos grass for several months is very hard on horses. So much so that such annual roundups see each cowboy exhaust four horses over a day. Though, as was also shown in my earlier posts, horse selection starts at dawn, it goes on long after the sun has risen. Here, cowboys are lassoing the ones they will use. More cowboys are arriving on horseback to pick their own.

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Saturday, October 4, 2014

Colombia: Cowboy Leading Horses To Corral


Horses following a cowboy to a corral in Colombia’s Llanos Orientales. Other cowboys there will select four of them each for the day’s work. In a giant round up, gathering widely scattered cattle, horses in constant gallop will need to be replaced for fresh ones as the day advances. 
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Friday, October 3, 2014

Colombia: Breaking A Horse


A barefoot Colombian cowboy breaking one of the four horses he will exhaust over a day to help other cowboys round up hundreds of cows and horses widely disseminated for months over their country’s vast Llanos grasslands. My previous post tells more on this.
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Thursday, October 2, 2014

Colombia: Barefoot Cowboys Of The Orinoco Grassland


Much of the year, peace reigns over Colombia’s Llanos orientales, the vast grasslands spreading east of the Andes Mountains. Cattle and horses roam freely, left alone to enjoy themselves and reproduce. At such times, few men are needed to keep the ranch going.

But when the time comes to bring the newborn calves to the corral to mark them, large numbers of freelance cowboys get hired—many of them young daredevils. All cowboys will ride barefoot. They will come with their own hammocks to be hung under a communal roof. And during the days their work will be needed they will be up at 4 a.m. to breakfast on beef ribs and black coffee.

It’s still dark when they start selecting the four horses each of them will exhaust in mad around-the-clock gallops. They are difficult horses that were never mounted before or had not been mounted for many months. The cows are equally wild. I had to photograph them from the safety of my own horse or of a tree limb.

The picture above shows two of the poncho-clad barefoot cowboys selecting, in the sparse light of a blue rainy dawn, the four horses each will need to alternate that day to do his job.

In the next few days I will post more of those cowboys’ pictures.
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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Colombia: Cowboys Watering Horses


Horses drinking water left behind by the last rainy season in Colombia’s Llanos Orientales, the vast Orinoco Basin's grassland spreading east of the Andes Mountains. Surrounding cowboys are herding them to a corral to ready them for a cattle roundup.
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