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Bolivia 4 – Flamingos, Trains and Night Sky

When arranging our trip to Bolivia, we had two major photographic goals — the mirror scenes on the salt flats, and flamingos in the high desert lagoons. We never got the mirror images we envisioned, due to the current drought in Bolivia. Flamingos though, were a different matter!

We have chased flamingos across many countries. We were always promised flocks of flamingos, but when we arrived, they had just left, or not yet arrived, or were missing due to climate changes. Finally, in Bolivia, we saw more flamingos in one place than we ever imagined!

We saw a few in various lagoons, mostly far away with barely enough camera pixels to show a usable photo. Then we hit three lagoons with an amazing number of flamingos that we could approach close enough to get some reasonable images. On one of the lagoons, I was even able to put up my drone and see them from a few feet away (my new DJI Mini 3 Pro drone is so quiet that you would not know if it was flying 5 feet from you).

Above are just a few of the hundreds of photographs we took of individuals or small groups of flamingos on these lagoons. Occasionally other birds would join the feast too (lower-right).

Most of these lagoons existed in magnificent regions where it was easy to forget the birds, and instead focus on the surrounding landscape (center). Since we had really hoped to shoot flocks of flamingos though, we mostly kept our focus there, and above shows a few of the lakes full of the pink birds that we saw.

At one point, we saw an eagle on the side of a lagoon that had caught a bird and was eating it for lunch. We were able to walk to within about 10 feet of the bird, and my drone was able to get within 5 feet to capture images of his meal. Eventually we approached a bit too closely, and he flew away (lower-left), leaving the limited remainder of his meal behind (lower-right)

One of our more interesting stops in High Bolivia was the Train Graveyard of the Uyuni Salt Flats. For decades, this area was a major world supplier of Bauxite. Recall the “20-mule train” commercials we saw in the 1950s? This was the source, and still is today to a very large extent. This “graveyard” is where the old locomotives were dumped when transportation moved from coal to oil and the old engines were no longer relevant. There are also a few bauxite cars here that were damaged and brought here to be disposed of.

As can be seen in the (center) photo, this is a popular tourist stop for photographs. Fortunately, our guide, Alvaro (to be seen in future story block below) rushed us here before the tourist crowd arrived, and then showed us places in the area that were photographically interesting, but not crawling with other tourists. All the other photos on this block were shot in that area, blissfully empty of others. We only saw the crowds in the center image when leaving the area to return to our car.

We had lunch in the small town of San Cristobal. We had told our guide we had never eaten Llama, so that was served to us. Unfortunately it was overcooked, and tough. Alvaro (our guide) agreed with that assessment…

After lunch, we wandered around town, and found a wedding in progress in a small church. We were told that this was rather rare, since it was a small town, and many people chose to go to a more exotic (and expensive) location for their weddings.

Finally we checked into one of the famed salt hotels, Hotel de Sal Luna Salada. The entire hotel is made of salt, and is located at 12,000 feet elevation. The hotel was a significant surprise to me. It was elaborate, in the style of many upscale hotels we have stayed at around the world. Floors were salt crystals, though most (not all !) were covered with wood pathways (center). There were numerous comfortable meeting rooms off the main hallways (left column and upper-right), and the registration office had some very nice art hanging on the walls (lower-right).

The room was comfortable, well laid out for computer and office use, though internet access was limited (reasonable in the middle of a 4,000 square mile salt flat !). There was an in-room heater, though we never used it, since the blankets were so comfortable. To my surprise, this is a hotel I would recommend to anyone staying in this area!

We had scheduled two nights to go out and do some star shooting. Our guide was very cooperative and willing, but unfortunately the weather was not. From the night we planned our first night out until the end of our trip, the sky remained completely overcast.

Fortunately, I went outside our hotel the first night we arrived. Between the low temperature of a High Desert night, and the howling wind, I nearly lost my fingers from frostbite! But I did manage to capture exactly one decent night sky photograph, as shown above, with our hotel in the foreground.

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Bolivia 3 – Uyuni Salt Flats

The primary goal in going to Bolivia was to see the Uyuni Salt Flats. For years, we have seen photos of a mirror-like surface that stretched for miles, and we wanted to see it (and photograph it, of course!) for ourselves. We decided to go to Bolivia in the rainy season on a “private tour,” with the two of us, one guide and one driver. Our tour operator Kuoda Travel did an excellent job of providing a guide who was reasonably knowledgable about photography, as he had led private tours with other professional photographers in the past. Both the guide and the tour agency were also extremely flexible, responding to our needs — both physical (16,000′ elevation at our age meant we were moving slowly!), and based on our evolving interests as the trip advanced.

Alas, the mirror effect only occurs when there have been recent rains, and climate changes have resulted in a drought on the salt flats for the past year. With no recent rains, we only found small pockets of water with enough water to show any reflections. The wind also acted to make our photographic life more difficult by creating constant ripples across the thin layer of water, destroying the mirrors (center and bottom image foregrounds).

We arranged a couple of sunrises on the salt flats, and Alvaro (our guide) brought us to this location on our first morning on the salt flats. With the sun coming up, we had the view on the top row above. Beautiful colors… but a bit drab. What was missing?

Oh… We were being “followed” by a group of 15 Korean tourists, who seemed to show up everywhere we went this week. Sure enough, as the sun began to rise, they parked RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! Breathe… In… Out… Oh, wait… Maybe they did not ruin our shot after all…

The Koreans lined up and posed, while one of their guide cars drove around them with an iPhone and stabilizer shooting video of them (bottom two rows). When I looked at the photos back in my studio, and my blood pressure had returned to normal… I decided they actually added an interesting element to the sunrise photos. ☺

Our guide described a stop later in the day as “The Hand Of God.” This turned out to be a section of the salt desert set aside for artists to create sculptures entirely out of salt. It was actually not called “The Hand of God” as a region, but rather one specific sculpture was named such — as seen in the center image above, with our guide leaning on it. Yep. Our guide was the artist that created that particular salt sculpture. ☺

The area also had many other artist sculptures, entirely made of salt from the desert, as seen in the other images. Center-right can be seen a section of the field that has been cut up to provide salt blocks to the artists, while our guide kneels and points out the layers on the salt in the lower-right photo. The thickness of the layers here are very analogous to the rings on trees, and tells not only the age of the layer, but also the water environment of each year — thick layers being evidence of a wet year, while thin layers (like 2022) being evidence of a relative drought.

After visiting the salt art display area, we drove for an hour across the salt to have lunch at an “island” called Isla Incahuasi. Personally, when I think of island, I envision a rock outcropping from water. I was therefore having trouble visualizing when our guide kept saying we would have lunch at an island on the salt flat…?

Aha! An island does indeed refer to a rocky outcropping, but the area around it does not need to be wet. In this case, it was a dry seabed of the Salt Flats. After driving for a seemingly endless stretch over salt with no roads (lower-left), we finally came to our “island” and parked (center). These islands look like they’re floating in a mirage from a distance. This rocky outcropping was filled with cactus, which I never expected in such a salty area (top row and lower-right). While there, a very nice picnic table was brought out, with elegant silverware, wine, and a rather delicious cold lunch.

After lunch, we drove a short distance to the location of the original salt flat hotel, at which point dozens of flags could be seen planted (bottom-center). We were told that visitors planted their national flags at the site. The wind was so severe that some of the older flags were rather tattered, while others had clearly been replaced more recently with less damaged flags. I briefly considered sending up my drone for an aerial view, but a quick look at the position of those flags (ie, straight horizontal), shows how hard the wind was blowing. Combined with an altitude of 12,000 feet, I decided to keep my drone grounded…!

Another sculpture in the middle of nowhere (nothing visible for an hour’s drive in any direction) was named Stairway to Heaven. This was created for the 2020 Olympics held in Bolivia. When the salt flats are wet, the sculpture seems to float, and a person standing on top looks like they are standing on an infinite view of clouds, or Heaven. Originally there was a figure running up the stairs to light an Olympic fire at the top, all made of salt. Unfortunately, the Bolivian government removed those figures, but they did leave the stairs.

There is a natural springs that feeds water to a very small portion of the flats. There is a tradition to dip your feet into the baths (upper-left and lower-right). This spring is also “in the middle of nowhere,” though since it was on the route from the Stairs to our hotel, it was a nice 5 minute stop to stretch our legs and take the photographs shown.

The Salt Flats at Uyuni is the largest in the world covering more than 4,000 square miles, and considered one of the most extreme and remarkable vistas, if you’re lucky. At sunset and sunrise, we saw reflections on the south end of the Uyuni Salt Flats, as seen in earlier blocks here. Before arriving at the salt flats, we had to put on heavy duty rubber boots, so we could stand on the water (top-middle).

There is a new activity that is quite popular with Korean tourists, where the driver circles his clients with movie camera and video tapes them while posing at the salt flats, with their reflections (middle-bottom). Ana was a contortionist from Argentina who posed for us (bottom-left and bottom-right). While waiting for the sunset, we shared a bottle of wine, plus snacks. Although Bolivia is in a drought, we were still able to experience the magical salt flats, even though not in the way we had originally envisioned.

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Bolivia 2 – Copacabana

After leaving La Paz, one of our first stops was to Copacabana, on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca (you can see our visit to the Peruvian side last month here). To cross the lake, while staying on the Bolivian side of the border, you take tiny car ferries that only take two vehicles at a time (center and lower-center). These are basically nothing but simple flat-bottomed boats with planks to drive onto (top-center). Each ferry has two outboard motors, but only one is used at a time. The second is there as a backup, so that you are not stranded if the first motor fails

The town of Copacabana has approximately 6000 residents, and is nestled between two short mountains, near the lake’s edge (top-center). Looking across the lake gives an impressive view of the mountain range on the Peruvian side (middle). The first thing you notice upon arriving in town is the large Basilica of our Lady of Copacabana, built in the 16th century (top-left and top-right).

Bolivians have a tradition of bringing newly acquired cars to this church to be blessed, believing that doing so will prevent them from having any serious auto accidents (bottom-center). On the long drive to San Pedro, where the ferry is taken across the lake, we saw many such cars returning from the earlier ceremony of the day, fully decorated, as seen above. Many Bolivians will drive 8 or more hours to reach this blessing, and will not remove any of the decorations until they arrive back home.

Around the church are numerous vendors, primarily selling items to decorate cars for these blessings (top row and lower-right). Because we arrived after the morning’s celebration, many of the people were resting and talking among themselves in small groups (center). Of interest is that Bolivian women do not like to get their photos taken. Our guide suggested that many Bolivian women do not feel attractive enough for a photo. We marveled at how attractive the traditional clothing is in Bolivia, with the different style hats designating which regions the various indigenous groups originate, similar to the culture of the indigenous in Ecuador.

The Copacobana beach is a playground for kids of all ages. There are dozens of water toys to ride around the area, such as the adults on the dragon (center), waiting to be towed by a motorboat that will turn into a bucking monster trying to throw the riders off its back once it gets up to speed. We were curious to see one mother shove off a swan (lower-left) occupied only by two young children, maybe 3 and 5 at most. Though the mother kept an eye on the boat from the shore, she was clearly letting the children learn how to control the boat of their own, while not being constantly supervised.

Copacabana is the launch point to reach the Isla del Sol, a sacred Inca religious site. When we arrived, we found the locals heavily involved in renovation of the building, which had been damaged recently. We were told that everyone here was a volunteer, and they put in time each month as part of their civic duty to their town, in this case trying to improve the shrine to attract more tourists.

All the work was done manually, with nothing more advanced than a pick or shovel in sight. The women would line up at the bottom (top-left), and then carry heavy rocks from the pier up to the shrine (top-right), resting briefly between trips before bringing more rocks (middle row). The men did the digging, and the constructing of the wall (bottom row). The overall image center-right, shows most of the town’s crew working when we were there. We found it curious that the women were doing the heavy lifting of the stones from the boat and climbing the hill, whereas the men were on top either supervising or reconstructing the wall.

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Bolivia 1 – La Paz

We have thought about going to Bolivia for many years. We kept putting it off due the extreme altitude of the region, ranging from a low 12,000 feet to as much as 18,000 feet in places. We were concerned that Burt’s health issues might present problems at such high altitudes. The doctors in our new Honolulu region were fantastic though. They discovered a blocked heart valve and then performed surgery to fix it in May 2022. With the new vigor resulting from that surgery, we decided to try… and we are glad to report that there were no serious altitude-related problems during this entire trip!

One of our first stops was to Moon Valley, so named because Neil Armstrong (first human to set foot on the moon) visited this site shortly after his moon landing and declared “This looks like a moonscape!” The locals loved it, and renamed the area to Moon Valley shortly thereafter.

While we were there, a man, Valerio, began playing a flute on a lonely outcropping of rock (center). We talked to him for awhile, discovered he was selling the flutes he made, and purchased one, as well as a charango he played for us. We also used the drone to photograph him on his rocky perch.

We spent a couple days in La Paz, to acclimate to the altitude before venturing to the Uyuni Salt Flats. La Paz is at roughly 12,000 feet, so it was a good resting ground from the 8,400 feet of our Cuenca home, where we had spent the prior month.

La Paz has an elaborate cable car system, very analogous to the subway system in New York City. You can get almost anywhere you want in the city and surrounding areas on the numerous routes and stops available (left-center). We soared above the city for several legs (top-left), giving us a grand vista of the city (center) and nearby mountains (top-right).

One thing that struck us whenever looking over the city was how tightly packed and crowded it is. The entire population of the La Paz metropolitan area (politically split into La Paz below and Alto above), is roughly 2 million, with the living space constrained by the surrounding hills (center and lower-right).

We took the opportunity to fly my new drone in several places in Bolivia. One was at a popular outlook over the city, where the panorama was shot in the prior photo block. We also used this opportunity to create another “little planet” 360 view of the monument at this lookout, as seen here.

In our week in Bolivia, we ate many meals, of course. One that stood out was a lunch at Manq’a, shown above. The food was all locally sourced, cooked by culinary students (center and upper-right), and plated in a way that almost made you want to just stare and not break the scene (lower-left and lower-middle). We were brought here by our La Paz guide, Franz (lower-right), who did a thoughtful job of showing us around, and being flexible enough to make changes based on our interests.

We rarely visit museums on our travels, generally preferring to see how life is, rather than how it was. However, the Musero Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore museum was a treat, and we are glad we made this stop. It was dedicated to the indigenous peoples of Bolivia, showing wonderful carvings of how they lived (top row), and then diving into how birds fit into their culture. Everything past the entry statures was related to birds, and how their feathers were used (bottom row). One interesting artifact was a bow and arrow they use. As seen in the center image, it has a very broad tip, rather than the typical point. This arrow is meant to stun the bird, so that a few feathers can be removed, and the bird released back into the wild.

Witches Market in La Paz

Wherever we go, we almost always find something that surprises us. La Paz has the Witch’s Market, which was unique to our experience. The most common oddity on this street of vendors was the selling of llama fetuses, or the carcasses of still-born llamas (top-left and top-center). Llamas live in a very extreme environment here, with very high altitude and wide varying temperatures for the high desert. It is common for a pregnant llama to expel a fetus not suitable for birth, or for a baby llama to be birthed at night, when the temperature is too cold to survive.

When farmers find these, they sell them to “witches” (aka pharmacists) at this market. People buy these to use in their offerings to Pacha Mama (Mother Earth), believing they are an indication of Mother Earth giving and taking life in a continuous cycle.

There are also other items for sale to aid such offerings, such as the frogs (upper-right). While the local vendors do not like being called witches, they also take advantage of the nomenclature, and sell witch dolls (bottom-center) with a sense of irony. The air above the street is festooned with colorful umbrellas and tiny witches flying on brooms (center).

The local politicians decided to build a huge modern block structure in the middle of town for their government offices (lower-right), regardless of how out-of-place it looks among the other architecture, or how the locals felt about it… As was the case in many places in Bolivia, the drone was out flying, and caught this scene of a local round-about (center).

We always like to watch and photograph the local people though, and we have a collection of images reflecting that.

To get to Bolivia, we had to fly from Cuenca to Quito to Lima to La Paz. As we were leaving Quito, Mt Cotacachi was just outside our window and we caught the image above. This mountain is usually shrouded in clouds, so we were lucky to catch such a clear view — complete with smoke coming from the caldera. We read that evening that the volcano had actually erupted a couple hours after this was taken, so we almost got The Shot we have wanted for decades…

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Drone Over Cuenca

Years ago Evelyn let me have my first drone. It was fun to fly, but I was very new at it, and the flight electronics were adequate at best. I crashed that poor drone a few times on the Ecuadorian coast, and many other times in Cuenca, including one time it nearly hit a parade I was trying to photograph from the air, but instead crashed inside a sealed off construction site (back when Plaza San Francisco was being remodeled). It was also huge — and difficult to take on a photography trip. I finally decided to sell it to a photographer on Easter Island, Chile, in 2019, when it was 3 years old.

Drones have come a long way since then. My new DJI Mini 3 Pro drone only weighs half a pound, folds down to just a little larger than the body of my Sony A1 camera, and has massively improved electronics. I bought it in Honolulu, and flew it for a few months there, before taking it on this trip. Not a single crash yet! And, it’s so quiet that you can’t hear it if it is more than about 10′ away.

Wanting to see what Cuenca looks from the air, my first target was to recreate my most successful image from my prior drone. I therefore headed to Parque Calderon in the afternoon, positioned the drone above the center of the park, and created a 360 degree “Little Planet” image, seen above. I do like this one better than my first such image from 5 years ago.

I went back to the park later that night for some more images. Above is one of my favorites, the iconic lit blue domes at the New Cathedral of Cuenca and the adjacent courtyard that is filled with food vendors.

Parque Calderon has a giant neon sign with the word “Navidad” during the Christmas season. I tried several shots of it, but was most pleased with this image, where I turn the linear sign and distorted it into a circle.

Just across the street from Parque Calderon is the Church of the Immaculate Conception, commonly referred to as “The New Cathedral.” This Catholic Church is able to seat 9,000 people, almost the entire population of the city when construction began in 1885. By the time it was completed, 90 years later in 1975, the city had grown much larger, but this remains the largest church in town.

I flew the drone level with the front of the church, and created the same “Little Planet” effect I made for above the park in the first image of this post. I then shot the same image again at night. I couldn’t decide which I liked better, so I present them both here…

I had to wait a couple weeks for good weather that would make a pleasing image from Mirador de Turi, the church and observation platform with the best view overlooking the city. After several attempts, I think I like this one best, flying above the amphitheater, using the Turi church as the visual focal point.

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New Year’s Eve 2022 in Cuenca

New Year’s Eve in Ecuador is unlike anything we have seen elsewhere in the world. Though muted this year, compared to many pre-COVID years, it was still worth a walk around town to see the creative minds at work.

Every year, families and groups create their own manigotes, which are paper maché dummies in various forms, usually humanoid. These dummies are designed to represent something or someone that the creator wants to leave behind from the Old Year. Families usually pin notes on their person manigotes, making explicit things they want to start the New Year without. In past years, I have seen notes saying things like “liquor” or “unemployment” or “my boss”… or sometimes “my wife (or husband)”…

Given the events of the past couple years, it was not surprising to see how many of the major diorama displays were based upon COVID. Many had COVID-style spikes coming out of various heads, as seen above, or sometimes just the COVID protein itself (upper-left). First place in the annual Amistad Club Cuenca (Friendship Club) Contest was won by a display in El Vergel, which had a Chinese-looking man with a COVID body (upper-right).

Pre-pandemic, there were major manigote displays all around town. As with the Christmas Eve parade though, this year there were far fewer major entries into the annual contest. A large part of this smaller turnout was the very late decision by city officials to allow the manigote contest and displays proceed this year. By the time that decision was made, it was too late for many groups to organize themselves, design a display, raise funds, etc.

The largest display that we saw this year was at El Vergel Park, contained within their basketball court (above). Its theme was Calendario 2022: Return to Normalcy, showing significant events from 2022 that included Covid, the World Cup and Politics. This neighborhood group has won first place in each of the last five competitions.

Inside the basketball court at el Vergel Park was a fascinating collection of manigotes espousing various messages. Though COVID was common, the displays above were mostly of a political nature. JJ, a friend of ours, can be seen hamming it up with Lionel Messi, the Argentine futbol hero in the World Cup (lower-right).

There were still some manigote displays in other parts of town, some of which can be seen above.

Tradition has the manigotes burned at midnight, to leave the old problems behind. We left the scene a bit early this year, but one family had the same thought, and burned their personal dummy with its demons early also (lower-left). In most past years, a large percentage of the businesses showed their own manigotes in front of their stores on New Year’s Eve. This year, we only saw one though (upper-left).

As we walked home, we were captivated by the beautiful animated light shows we saw at two churches around Parque Calderon. Above is a series of images that were shown on the Old Cathedral, at the edge of the park.

Above you can watch a 65 second quick peek from a drone aerial view of the manigote diorama at el Vergel Park, along with videos of the light animation at both churches (Sanctuario Mariano del Carmen de la Asuncion at the Flower Market and Catedral Viejo).

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Christmas 2022 in Cuenca

The Christmas Eve Pase del Niño Viajero parade used to be massive, lasting for 8 hours and involving at least 20% of the city’s citizens. COVID put a sudden and unexpected stop to the continued growth of this parade in 2019, with the parade being forbidden in both 2019 and 2020. Last year, in 2021, only a truncated part of the parade was allowed by city officials. Though the government said that 2022 would allow a full return to normal, many people still fear COVID, and the parade was significantly reduced from pre-pandemic levels. In fact, this year the parade started at least an hour late, and was mostly finished early afternoon, though the newspapers reported there were 100,000 participants and spectators.

One aspect that has started to return, is the preponderance of smaller parades in the days before and after Christmas Eve. Groups from surrounding areas come to join the main parade on Christmas Eve, and they create their own smaller, spontaneous (or at least unannounced…) parades with family, friends, and neighbors. These parties and parades continue until the start of Carnaval, which is February 21, 2023 this year.

One thing these parades all have in common is that they are led by a statue of the Baby Jesus doll. The official Baby Jesus doll, for whom the original parade was created, is seen above dressed in blue (bottom), receiving royal treatment from the military and religious leaders, and adored by hundreds who crowd around.

Whenever the official Baby Jesus doll is on parade, the military and police act as official escorts. Parts of the Ecuadorian army, the Granaderos de Tarqui, wear their ceremonial dress uniforms (upper-right plus center row). A group of first-responders has the honor of clearing the streets of onlookers ahead of the parade (lower-left).

Many families have their own Baby Jesus dolls at home, which they bring out to walk along the parade route.

Music and dance are always a major part of any parade, and this was no different. Military bands are always included (upper-left and upper-center), along with other local marching bands (lower-center and lower-right). And, of course, there are always dancing groups. In the Christmas parade, many of the dancers are dressed as religious-themed dancers (top-right and lower-left) or in traditional clothing identifiable from local villages .

Many people participate as groups, sometimes on floats, sometimes on horseback, and often just walking together. One expat who always shows up is Peter Dudar (center-right), who has become a fixture of Cuenca and of these parades, and is often seen on horseback as one of the 3 Kings.

A great variety of people and groups participate in the parade, including educators, students, dance troupes, church groups, local neighborhoods, adjacent villages, activists, and many more. These people often don costumes that relate to either the Jesus birth story, traditions of local villages (el vaca loco aka the crazy cow – lower-left), or to indigenous Ecuadorian diablo human dancers who exorcise the demons (lower-right).

Above all, these parades are for the children and they are adorably cute. They join the parades by the hundreds, all in traditional costumes, even when they are too young to really understand what all the fuss is about (middle-right).

We always enjoy watching the audience watching these parades. Children watching from their fathers’ shoulders is common (upper row), as are people watching from their balconies (center and center-right).

In past years, we have often neglected to photograph what else is going on around town during the Christmas season. We resolved to change that this time, which was actually pretty easy since all the scenes above were within a few feet of Parque Calderon, in the heart of Cuenca.

Above is an 85 second quick peek at what the parades looked like this year.

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Cuenca Soup Kitchen Christmas 2022

Last year, in 2021, we volunteered at the Cuenca Soup Kitchen by offering professional portraits of all the kids they help, to give to their parents. We came back to Cuenca this year just in time to do it again. The Cuenca Soup Kitchen has grown to support some 250 families, and we ended up photographing 197 children this year. Each child was photographed, and the parents are receiving a print, as well as an electronic version of each portrait, for their phones or social media.

Above are a few of the staff that helped put this program together. In the middle is Des and Bill, two of the three main organizers of the group. Pam (lower-left) and Joseph (middle-left) were amazingly skilled at getting the kids attention while Burt was photographing them.

A photo studio was set up in the living room of Cuenca Soup Kitchen. A Christmas tree was used as a backdrop, and a variety of chairs to help accommodate children of different heights. Professional lighting was used to help assure results that both the parents and kids would be proud of. Above is a small sampling of some of the portraits being provided to the parents.

Some of the children were too young to sit alone, so their parents joined them for the portrait. In a few cases, the children were thrilled to have their picture taken, but they wanted to sit with their siblings (center).

Shooting portraits of children is tough, as kids have short attention spans. Also, some did not grow up around mobile camera phones, so are not natural hams in front of a camera. The center photo above was such an example of what needed to be done to pose those kids. Though we never really got a Big Smile from this child, she did finally settle down for a pleasant mother-and-child photo.

While Burt was busy with the formal portraits, Evelyn roamed the various rooms and captured impromptu photos of the families and staff, as well as capturing the family portraits around the larger Christmas tree (top row plus bottom-center), that will be distributed by WhatsApp or email to the families. Each child in the program also received a Christmas gift from their wish list (bottom-left and bottom-right). The gifts varied from clothes, toys, a riding car, even a chess board.

Franny Hogg, another volunteer, set up a “temporary tattoo” station for the children and it was a major hit. Many kids proudly showed off their new tattoos. At one point, Fran had to do “sidewalk” duty, as one girl missed getting the tattoo the first time through, and she was outside on the sidewalk near tears.

This was two long and tiring days of working with the families, followed by more than a week of intensive editing to create images that the parents will hopefully treasure for years. We finish here with a few more photos of the staff that helped put this all together. Some of the volunteers include Kiki, Sandy, Evelyn, Suzie, Sharyn, and Alberto, the security guard.

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Lima, Peru 2 – Museums

We also visited other museums in Lima. One of the largest is the Larco Museum, which has been on every list of “must see” attractions in Lima, displaying one of the largest collections of pre-Colombian artifacts. Lorena had gone earlier on her own, and said there was no reason to take any photographs this time. We linked up with a museum guide for our group of 7 (lower-right). The first place she took was the Storage Room for the museum. After Lorena recovered from her shock that she totally missed this room on her first visit, her camera came out! ☺

The title of the room was “Storage Room,” so it would be easy to pass by. However, the museum has over 40,000 ceramic pieces and over 5000 gold pieces in inventory. Of those 45,000 pieces, 30,000 are found here in the Storage Room, which is open for the public to browse. All the images above were taken in that room. Without a guide to tell you what you are looking at, you can only appreciate the craftsmanship from thousands of years ago. A guide helps bring it alive by telling more about what you are really seeing, and how it related to the lives of those who made the pieces.

The main portion of the museum is divided into four rooms, each of which shows artifacts from throughout history within a specific region. In one room are a series of skulls with holes in them (upper-right), that are the result of the earliest experiments in brain surgery, to relieve various ailments (real or supernatural). As our guide pointed out, most of these patients died, but some did survive, as evidenced by healing around the hole that had been opened in the skull.

Many of the gold ornaments were in nearly pristine condition, despite being very thin and fragile (lower-right). We were told the reason was that the masks and ornaments were retrieved from burial tombs. These golden artifacts were never meant to be worn during the life of the person. Rather, they were made for him, so that he would arrive in Heaven in a manner suitable for presentation to their God.

Beyond the four main rooms for tourists to roam, there was one additional room that was locked up, and required proof of age to enter… The Erotica Collection. Yep, an entire room of erotic ceramics collected from several thousands of years. It was clear that sex was high on their minds as far back as pottery could be made…

Towards the end of the room, near the end of the collection, was a set of three pieces that rather baffled me as to why they were in this room. I never received an adequate answer, but there were two paintings and one ceramic set depicting the birth of Jesus (bottom-center). In a deeply Catholic country such as Peru, I never quite figured out why those pieces were considered erotic, and available only to adults?

The last major museum we visited was the Museo Oro del Peru, translated as “Gold Museum of Peru.” We were surprised when we entered the museum and saw numerous suits of armor spanning hundreds of years, covering many military countries. Alla and Michael decided this was an ideal place to be photographed (center), since he much preferred the suits of armor over gold trinkets anyway!

The next room continued the war theme, with a huge display of weapons. There were samurai swords from Japan (upper-left). There were also several guns owned by past presidents of Peru (center and top-center). Unfortunately, most of the other military displays (bottom row) were just dozens and sometimes hundreds of items crammed into a display case with no indication of what anything was, other than the century it came from.

It wasn’t until we returned from that tour, that we discovered the proper full title of the museum is “Museo Oro del Perú y Armas del Mundo,” or “Museum of Gold of Peru and Arms of the World.” Oddly, the signs outside said nothing about the “Arms of the World” portion, though most online references do include that element.

When we moved downstairs, the gold collection was showcased, along with many other historic artifacts dating back thousands of years. There was an entire display case devoted to copper tweezers (bottom-right shows a small portion). There was another case devoted to early mirrors (right-center), which were basically polished obsidian on a string to be carried around. Early shovels were shown (lower-left), and arrowheads dating back thousands of years (upper-left). This section mostly showcased ritual knives used in performing human sacrifice. There were several dozen early metal ones (left-middle), and then some elaborate gold versions dating back to roughly 1000 years ago (center).

There was an entire room full of ceramics. The displays in this section were much better than upstairs, in that each piece, or small group of pieces, had an explanatory plaque that went with them. The erotic ceramics in this museum were simply mixed in with the other pieces (center).

Scattered throughout this area were also displays of skulls, frequently with the ornamentation they were buried with. Two full mummified people were displayed, curled in a fetal position (upper-right). There were also a couple of examples of early tattoos (“Brazo tatuado”), as seen lower-left.

And then, of course, were three large rooms full of gold artifacts. As in the Larco museum, these pieces are mostly in pristine condition, because they were taken from burial sites. The gold ornamentation was never meant to be worn in life, but was instead created specifically for the burial rites, and placed on the bodies, so that the deceased would be recognized for their status in the prior world.

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Lima, Peru 1 — Food, Death and Art

We went to Lima primarily to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. We spent an extra week to explore Lima, since our last visit here was in 1999, or 23 years ago. Since then, Lima has been transformed and is now known as the culinary capital of South America. We started by taking TripAdvisor’s top rated 4-hour walking tour of the Barranco neighborhood in Lima, which is the bohemian arts district filled with urban street art, adjacent to Miraflores, where we stayed.

The first stop was at a small shop selling Peruvian chocolates, Peruvian liquor, and other Peruvian delicacies. Our guide for this tour, Moises, laid out an assortment of tasting treats (upper-left and middle-left), all of which gave us a hint of how promising this afternoon tour would be. Another stop included going into a restaurant kitchen to watch lomo saltado being made on the flaming stove (lower-left and center). The tour of the historic home housing the restaurant with original artwork was also a treat. Pisco Sour is the most famous Peruvian alcoholic drink, and we were shown how to make it at a colorful, local bar (right column), where our guide was well known. Caricatures of the bar owners were painted on the wall and we were introduced to the owners. We will all remember the smiling faces using bitters painted on the pisco sours by our bartender (lower-right).

Several of our friends joined us on this Food and Arts Walking tour. We can all be seen sitting at a table (center), about to eat Peruvian ceviche, after the chef, Diego, demonstrated his recipe for making the dish. Moises, our guide joined us (upper-right). We ended the tour with a trip to Moises’ favorite ice cream shop (bottom-right). The hair net on Alla (top-center) and Burt (lower-left) were from the kitchen tour mentioned above.

One of the most anticipated historic visit was the the Catacombs. Construction began in 1535. The walls are built to withstand the frequent earthquakes of the area. This was accomplished by using the bones of people from the area, as this was the community cemetery until 1808. Besides the untold thousands of bones in the walls, there are also the bones from an estimated 70,000 people displayed decoratively throughout the known caverns (above) — it is generally believed that the network of tunnels actually extends through the entire old part of the city, though only a few parts have been excavated. It turns out that on the day we visited, the Finale Game of the World Cup was playing, and we could hear wild cheering when Argentina won, while we were exploring the Catacombs.

We visited the home of Victor Delfin, a celebrated artist who has lived most of his life in Lima. He has a unique style to all his work that we saw, which is spread throughout what can only be called a mansion. Above is a small selection of some of his artwork that focusses on people.

His subject matter spans a wide range of topics. Perhaps the unifying technique is that his flat artwork (paintings, tiles, etc) are all abstract, yet very recognizable. Even the tiled bathrooms were part of his creation.

Delfin’s work also include sculptures, again with a range of subjects, as seen above. Our guide, Gabriel (upper-left) showed us through the home and told us stories of many of the art pieces. Evelyn and Alla even had a chance to chat briefly with Victor Delfin (lower-right).

Another stop during the week was at the Pedro Osma museum. The museum was divided into several rooms, each with a theme, though they all revolved around Christianity. Most of the work shown is from the 16th and 17th century, and the museum has an active restoration program to bring back the original luster of the work.

Besides food and museums, the streets of Lima, especially around the Barranco district, have many colorful murals spread throughout the city that we explored. Every time we walked another block, it seemed we would find another mural, or often a group of related murals.

Alla took the opportunity to become part of the scene here (center).

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