Saturday, December 16, 2006

Day 20, Friday 01-12-06




The last day in Nicaragua, baby turtles saved from La Flor beach, before they were eaten by birds. Parkrangers collect them and release them in the water after dark to improve their chances of survival.
And later, a sunset with a flock of pelicans over El Coco beach, an hour south of San Juan del Sur.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Day 19, Thursday 30-11-06


Fireworks sale in San Carlos. They sure take their security measures seriosly here. Ahum...

Day 18, Wednesday 29-11-06


The Solentiname Archipelago in southern Nicaragua is a great place to relax. There's not much more to do.

Day 17, Tuesday 28-11-06


Hilario celebrated spending his week's earnings on beers in a local riverside bar in San Carlos. This small jungle town lies on the border with Costa Rica.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Day 16, Monday 27-11-06

The playboy of El Corona, in Matagalpa province.

Day 15, Sunday 26-11-06

Our guide Berman on Ometepe Island in front of the Volcano Conception.

Day 14, Saturday 25-11-06

Swimming in a chrystal clear spring on Ometepe Island.

Day 13, Friday 24-11-06

Nightview of the crater of the volcano: Masaya, south of Managua.
And my travelpartner Marc in his travel outfit.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Day 12, Thursday 23-11-06

Inside the crater of Cerro Negro (black hill), a small volcano near Leon in Northern Nicaragua.

Day 11, wednesday 22-11-06

A plane load if Nicaraguans arrives at Managua airport after a free eye operation in Venezuela.

Day 10, tuesday 21-11-06

Grafitti of Mara Salvatruche, one of the main youthgangs of El Salvador. This wall is in the neighbourhood Mejicanos, one of the most dangerous places in San salvador where the Mara's (youthgangs) rule.

Day 9, monday 20-11-06

The monument for the massacre in El Mozote. 25 years ago the Salvadorean army murdered more than 1000 civilians here in this remote mountaintop village in Morazan province in northern El Salvador.

Day 8, sunday 19-11-06

Local beauty in Flores, Chalatenango province in Northern El Salvador

Friday, November 24, 2006

Day 7, saturday 18-11-06

FMLN, the former guerrilla movement is now a political party.

Day 6, Friday 17-11-06

Mejicanos is known as one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods of San Salvador. The streets are a battleground of rivalling streetgangs called Maras.

Day 5, Thursday 16-11-06

War veterans protested today for better pensions and medical care. They've been doing this for years, always on the same day, and are known for their original protests. Interesting fact: former army and guerrilla veterans protest together.
Genearal Blandon, was head of the armed forces during a large part of the war.

Day 4, wednesday 15-11-06

The hospital for the poor, in central San Salvador, is completely made of steel. Great idea in the tropics!

Day 3, Tuesday 14-11-06

Since my hotel in San Salvador blocked many websites including all weblogs, I couldn't update my blog for a while. I'll try to catch up now.
We met these women at Comadres, an organisation that supports mothers of disappered children, during the war in the 80's. They are still fighting for recognition and justice, more than 15 years after the end of the war.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Day 2 monday 13-11-06

Our first full day in San Salvador is packed with stories of the miserable state the country is in. It seems that Litino Americans derive a weird pleasure from claiming their capital is the most dangerous city in the world. So far I visited three most dangerous ones (Caracas, Lima and now San Salvador) and one former most dangerous city (Medellin).
Well, it just makes us a little more cautious. In this photo a glue sniffing youth I saw on the sidewalk downtown.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Day 1 Sun. 12-11-06

The continuation of a photo a day! I'm heading back to Latin America. This time for a visit to El Salvador and Nicaragua. But today the view from my motel in Houston, Texas where we spent the night after our KLM flight was delayed for five hours.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Day 125, sunday 09-07-06

Recreating on the Boyaca, the highway that is closed every sunday morning for trafic.

day 124, saturday 08-07-06

A view of Caracas from Galipan, a small village on top of the Avila, the mountain that seperates Caracas from the sea.

Day 123, friday 07-07-06

Well, my trip is almost over and I'm just working behind my computer this week, selecting and editing all the work I've done in the last 4 months. So I'm going to change the concept a little. Instead of 'A photo a day' it's going to be 'A photo a photoday'. The difference being that a photoday is a day I took photos. If I didn't there wont be a photo.
But don't worry, there'll be plenty of new work appearing since I've got more than enough work coming up after a well deserved summerholiday.

Day 122, thursday 06-07-06



create your own visited country map
I didn't feel like taking a photo today so instead I found this worldmap. You can fill out a form marking all the countries you ever visited and they will show up in red on your personal worldmap. I discovered I visited 65 countries so far.

Day 121, wednesday 05-07-06

Liberationday in Venezuela was celebrated with a very short airshow by the national Airforce stunting with jetfighters above the city.

Day 120, tuesday 04-07-06

Back in Caracas with a bag of clothes in desperate need of a washingmachine.

Day 119, monday 03-07-06

Vania Masias Málaga, a Peruvian dancer gave up her carreer at Cirque de Soleil to train Peruvian streetkids dance and acrobatics.

Day 118, sunday 02-07-06

Back in Peru, I had my first afternoon off in 3 weeks, so I decided to do a touristy thing and visit the floating islands in Lake Titicaca, near Puno in southern Peru. These people live on islands made of bundles of reeds. It feels quite strange walking on them for they do move quite a bit.

Day 117, saturday 01-07-06

A few days ago I was offered piraña for lunch already. Here they prefer monkey... The family in the background is waiting droolingly until it's done. They say it tastes very good. I let them enjoy it for themselves.

Day 116, friday 30-06-06

All the collected Brazilnuts go to a collective processingplant where they are opened manually, one by one, before they are packed to be transported to Europe.

Day 115, thursday 29-06-06

My birthday! with a beautiful Castañatree at sunrise, and a Piraña for lunch.

Day 114, wednesday 28-06-06

The Castaña is the tree that produces the Brazilnut. The highest tree, here in the jungle, cannot be grown in a plantation, so all the nuts are collected from wild trees.

Large parts of the jungle are cleared for slash and burn agriculture. The burn-part sometimes gets a bit our of hand...

Day 113, Tuesday 27-06-06


Flying from La Paz to Cobija in the northwestern corner of the Bolivian Amazon. This view is still very close to the airport of La Paz. I'm getting a bit sick of all the flying by the way.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Day 112 26-06-06

Back in La Paz, these women are walking along the fringe of the city at an altitude of 4000m.

Day 111 25-06-06

The former home of, current president of Bolivia, Evo Morales in the central coca region in his country. In the right front corner the leaves of a coca bush.

day 110 24-06-06

Employee of the central coca market of Sinahota in the central coca region. He sure knows how to enjoy his own product. He doesn't need it to counter the effects of altitude sickness for this town is located in the tropical lowlands of eastern Bolivia at an altitude of 300m.

Day 109 23-06-06

A blind girl running along a line to guide her across a sportsfield. She joined a sportsprogramme for disabled children in Cochabamba, the second city of Bolivia.

Day 108 22-06-06

Luckily, most roads in Bolivia are so bad that they don't have a lot of problems with speeding taxis. You can't really blame the drivers if they can't read their speedometers! Many taxis in this country are imported second hand from Japan where they drive on the other side of the road.

Day 107 21-06-06

Also at 4000m. altitude, in Oruro in Central Bolivia, the Mundial Soccer raises the temperatures. This woman and her son sell the stickers of soccrplayers that are a popualar collector's item all over the world.

Dia 106 20-06-06

Dried lama foetuses on a market in La Paz. These form an essential part in all kinds of rituals in Bolivian culture. For instance, you can't build a house without burying some beneath the foundations.

Day 105 19-06-06

Areal view of the Altiplano in southern Peru, just before we touched down in Juliaca, near Lake Titicaca. The high plains are at an altitude of app. 3600 m. so we had some adjusting to do. The amount of oxygen was defenitely low. We continued to La Paz in Bolivia today.

Day 104 18-06-06

My first impression of Peru. The view from my dingy, but expensive hotelroom near the airport in Lima. Just got here and tomorrow we're flying to the south of the country.

Day 103 17-06-06

A little jar of 'Green Gold', enough for a wedding ring.

day 102 16-06-06

Bad hairday, bad photoday...

day 101 15-06-06

HiTech Colombia! Internet banking is not yet widely accepted in Colombia, but they've been having DriveThru Banking for years!. Just pay your bills from behind the wheel! A concept totally unknown in Holland!