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.

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!

Day 100 14-06-06

And on the 100th day my harddisk was full! I still have 3 weeks of travelling to do, so I've got a lot of deleting to do.

Day 99 13-06-06

This time I didn't forget to take a picture when flying to Medellin. This, by the way, is a typical areal view of Colombia. Green, green, green. I love this country!

Day 98 12-06-06

The large barrequeros mine in Choco is open for individual miners once every few weeks. They can come and scavenge for the leftovers. (Which can be very profitable).

Day 97 11-06-06

Goldminer Ameriko and buyer Alfredo are enjoying the sight of an exeptionally good find. Ameriko who represents a small group of miners received more than US$ 3000 for this lot.

Day 96 10-06-06

In a little cargoplane we flew from Medellin to Choco, the hot tropical coastal province of Colombia for a story on goldminers. In the back you see the big (closed) ramp that we used to enter the plane.
Goldmining in Choco is a familybusiness. Whole families work together on small personal lots in the jungle. Here Maria Cilse is loosening soil that Alejandro filters for gold.

Day 95 09-06-06

Dyed Colombian flowers, ready to be shipped to the US.

Day 94 08-06-06

Aaaaaaah, another flight to Medellin and again no photo ops.

Day 93 07-06-06

Another boring day at the office. So due to lack of inspiration another view from the balcony. This is the Avila, the big mountain that seperates Caracas from the Carribean sea.

day 92 06-06-06

This lovely couple is commercially exploiting the daily trafficjams that block the Caracas - Airport road since one of the bridges collapsed.

Day 91 05-06-06

A bum inhaling plastic fumes. I don't think he's bothered by the political grafittis that are already spoiling Nicaragua's roadsides eventhough the elections won't be held untill the end of the year.