Bolivia: Haunting Face Of The Altiplano

One of the many stunning faces of Bolivia’s mineral southern Altiplano, a high and bitter cold plateau between two Andean cordilleras, home to Quechua miners and llama and alpaca herder.

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L’un des extraordinaires visages du minéral Altiplano bolivien, un haut plateau glacé entre deux cordillères andines, terre d’indiens Quechua, mineurs et éleveurs de lamas et alpacas.

Ecuador: Lure Of The Sweet Mango

A 14 –year-old cowgirl stands on her wooden saddle to hit down a few sweet mangoes near Salitre, in Ecuador’s coastal Guayas State.

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Debout sur sa selle de bois une cowgirl de 14 ans fait tomber de l’arbre de douces et juteuses mangues près de Salitre, dans la province côtière Equatorienne de Guayas. 

A Time for Horses, A Time For Canoes

Flooded cattle plains near Salitre, in Ecuador’s coastal Guayas Province. For eight months of the year these grasslands teem with zebus watched over by many cowboys. Come the rains in January, and the men move the cattle to higher ground, leaving the savanna as a vast shallow lake covered in many places by water lilies. During four months, until the rains stop and the waters recede, the men will have to cook their own meals, for women and children will remain behind, now moving around by canoe. The seasonal effects on these lowland people and their landscape are stunning.

Honduras: Walking Home From School

Under the bright and heavy Roatan Island sun, off the coast of Honduras, two little girls plod wearily home from school under a vault of palm leaves.

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Sous le brillant et lourd soleil de l’île de Roatan, au large de la côte du Honduras, deux petites filles s’acheminent de l’école à leurs maisons sous une voûte de palmiers.

Bolivia: Selling Poultry On The Streets Of Sucre

The sale of these birds is all these Quechua women standing against a wall of Sucre’s market in Bolivia have to contribute to their family’s survival. And there are millions like them around the world. A reminder to be grateful for our own lives.

Brazil: Rio Negro Flood

Brazil’s Rio Negro, main tributary of the Amazon River, has flooded its banks, killing the forest and forcing families to move to their houseboats. The Rio Negro can rise as much as 14 meters.

Brazil: Red And White River In The Amazon

The Urucu River carries away the foam of its spectacular falls upstream. Its waters are reddish like tea because, when overflowing their banks, they infuse the forest’s dry leaves. They even taste like tea.

     The Amazon rain forest is not the Green Hell some explorers of old, in search of glory, would make people believe. At least not if you are not lost in it and losing your wits and your life.  It provides its Indians a happy and comfortable life working on average less than three hours a day.

     In fact, it is the world’s most beautiful garden. Photographing this river made me fantasize about floating down it on my back, as it seemed that it must lead to some terrestrial paradise.

My computer did not start this morning, apparently from some hardware problem. I'll try to get help tomorrow, Monday. I'm writing from my wife's computer, but have no access to my digital photos. I hope to start posting new pictures again soon.

Collecting Piaçava In The Brazilian Amazon

Caboclos, mestizos of Brazil’s Amazon rain forest, cutting piaçava—the fibers of decayed palm leaves used in the manufacture of industrial brushes, brooms, ropes, and more.

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Caboclos, métis de l’Amazonie brésilienne, coupant du piaçava—des fibres de feuilles de palmiers sèches et effritées qui s’utilisent dans la fabrication de balais, de brosses industrielles, et de cordes.

Colombia: Antioquia Market Day

On market day, in Colombia’s Andean town of Antioquia, a farmer returns home from the market with purchases loaded on an ox. Along the wall other farmers are waiting their turn to sell their bags of coffee inside the office of a coffee growers  cooperative where it will be evaluated first.

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Un jour de marché en Colombie, dans la petite ville andine d’Antioquia, un fermier retourne chez lui avec quelques achats que transporte son bœuf. Le long du mur d’autres fermiers attendent leurs tours de vendre leurs sacs de café a l’intérieur du bureau d’une coopérative de producteurs de café ou il sera d’abord évalué.