Archives of #travel

Photo taken at Huaraz

In the rural areas of Cordillera Blanca is really common to find Quechua people still wearing traditional clothes, often made by hand. What is striking to me is that they don’t wear them only for special events but every day, even while doing heavy manual work in the field. Unfortunately younger generations are starting to wear just normal modern clothes
7 years ago

Photo taken at Huaraz

My guide Octavio invited me to visit Caserío de Yarush, the small village where he was born. His father welcomed us in his humble house and prepared some fresh egg soup using only products from his land
7 years ago

Photo taken at Huaraz

From Lima I took a bus to Huaraz, to explore how the melting glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca are changing the life of the farmers that live in the area
7 years ago

Photo taken at Surquillo, Lima, Peru

Quick technical stop in Lima, Peru, before heading to the Cordillera Blanca. I had to fix my camera bag and I knew some artisan in Surquillo market area could help me
7 years ago

Photo taken at Isabela Island, Galapagos Ecuador

In the highlands of Isabela I met Igniacio. “I was born here but now I moved with all my family down to the coast, where I work as a security guard. However I still have my land here and take care of it every day. Look how many beautiful plants there are! Actually before the National Park was created we used to have even more fertile land around here. Now it’s gone because we can’t use it
7 years ago

Photo taken at Isla Isabela, Galapagos, Ecuador

Moving far from the coast I was able to explore some of the highlands, where the landscape changes completely. While moving up the vegetation starts filling the horizon. Some of the land was left outside of the National park and is still being cultivated by locals to grow avocado, banana, coffee and others local products
7 years ago

Photo taken at Isabela Island, Galapagos Ecuador

On Isabela, the biggest but not so populated island of the Galapagos archipelago, I had a chance to chat with some of the elder members of the community. “When I was young there was no tourism here, we mainly survived on agriculture and fishing. There were no cars and only small gravel roads that went from the coast to the highlands, where most of us were living. Tourism improved our economy and most of us moved to the coast to take advantage of that
7 years ago

Photo taken at Galapagos Islands

But enough with postcard-like animal pictures from Galapagos. I want to take a moment to talk about how urbanization is changing the face of the island. Before, you could find mainly simple houses (like this first one on Isabela) and bigger houses made with traditional wood techniques (like this second shot on San Cristobal). Today they have been almost completely replaced by brick houses, with a lot of them having one or two completed storey and an additional one still half-built. The small towns on the main islands are growing vertically
7 years ago

Photo taken at San Cristóbal Island, Galápagos

The Galapagos green turtle is only commonly seen in a few other places in the world. This species is threatened mainly by habitat degradation and diseases, as well as light pollution which fatally attracts hatchlings away from the sea towards human settlements
7 years ago

Photo taken at Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador

Blue-footed boobies are large birds typical of Galapagos. Their distinctive color is linked to the large amount of sardines they eat. Research suggests that decline of their population in the islands in recent years is tied to a decreasing in the quantity of this fish and probably the amount of plastic in the ocean
7 years ago