I’m here now. And will be for a few weeks. Look out for stories on vagrant communities and a dwindling peacock population in an unexpected place…

Shots from the little Olympus OM-4 that I brought with me to South America. Sadly, it died halfway through the trip and I still haven’t figured out how to revive it.

And sometimes I remember to open the lens cover. And sometimes I point it at something pretty. And sometimes the light agrees. And sometimes the roll stays in there so long that 36 exposures span three continents. And sometimes I’ll even let you take a look…

Rumor has it that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid fought their last gunbattle about 40 kilometers north of this tiny tumbleweed of a Bolivian town. I think it’s one of the coolest places we visited. It just had this kind of mellow, ground down, rough around the edges sort of vibe going on.

A lot of the walls in town were painted with these old advertisements that had started to deteriorate from all the sand and the sun.

We happened to be there on the town’s birthday so there was a big celebration. People were firing these really primitive looking fireworks. They were hand held and made a really loud bang when they made loud bang. This little girl didn’t like the noise. I can’t say I did either.

This bike just looked kind of classic to me.

We rode some horses through the badlands. I think you kind of have to when you’re in such a wild west kind of place. It was fun but more bumpy than I thought it would be. Not a good activity if you have a camera bag and a camera around your neck.

A little over a week ago Patrick and I managed to make it through a three day jeep tour of the Bolivian desert. We braved brain crushing altitude, ice cold nights and long long bumpy “roads.”

During the excursion we spent a day on the sun bleached plains of the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat.

It was bright white, blinding, and as one might imagine… very very salty.

We also saw a train graveyard, some lagunas and a geyser field.

Is a port town about 2 hours east of Santiago. A lot of people told me that it was really nice here, I think I still believe those people despite my personal experience. Let’s weigh it out.

Cons:
Its been cold. Its been grey. Its been rainy. We got robbed.

Pros:
The food has been pretty good. We met some nice people who helped us fumble through our bad Spanish. Our hostel is cheap and familial.

Hmm. I think if I had visited Valparaiso in the summertime my opinion would be completely different. In the cold gray weather the colorful houses and bright graffiti murals seem to clash with the grey sky and the cool air. I can imagine this place being a little tropical paradise when the sun is shining but for now I just kind of wanna curl up in my hostel bed.

Whine whine. We’re jumping on a bus tonight and taking a 27 hour ride north to San Pedro de Atacama where cooler climates and more appropriate vistas are supposed to prevail. We’ll see.

For now here are some boring pictures I took of the town today:

I dunno if that’s how you say it because if I’ve discovered anything about myself on this trip so far it’s that I should have paid more attention during Spanish class back in college. Mi espanol es muy mal…

But, despite the cold weather South America or Chile to be exact is pretty wonderful. I’ve been shooting a lot with the little Olympus SLR that I picked up in New York so I don’t have much to show in the way of photos but I can tell you that it’s been scenic and enriching and satisfying and all those other good things.

Here’s a few things to look at.

I walked a lot yesterday. Up hills, through, alleys, through parks, through a spice market and a mosque. I saw a shop that sold deer antlers with giant knives imbedded in the end, I saw dead fish, I ate baklava, I drank orange juice, I saw too many hardware stores and not enough grit, I got lost and then found again, I almost fell asleep on the ferry, I worried about thunder and rain and gear damage, I battled to stay awake during class, I talked shit, I hung out, I drank beer and today… I’ll probably do it all over again.