A few pictures of Peru

Trip to Colca Canyon & El Misti (click on picture):












Random pictures from Peru (click on picture):

Peruvian music

Peru has a great and complex musical history...there are some real gems if you look beyond the cumbia that assaults you in every cab and combi ride. Here's some of my favorites--

Psychedelic jungle music:

Roots of Chicha http://www.barbesrecords.com/rootsofchicha.html

Afro-Peruvian/world beat fusion:

Novalima http://www.novalima.net/afro/

There's a good background on Afro-Peruvian music here

Musica criollia, the national music of Peru, is closely related.

I've been learning to play the Cajon, famous in Afro-Peruvian music...

This upcoming week I'm planning to visit Chincha, heart of Afro-Peruvian culture, during their Carnaval celebrations...heading there with my photojournalist friend Ric Francis to take some photos, etc...more to come...

Mzungu!!

In Zambia from Mar-May 2008 I led a team of 20 or so fieldworkers in Luangwa district--a rural area bracketed by the Luangwa and Zambezi rivers, Mozambique across one bank, Zimbabwe the other. I spent my days coordinating malaria field work, visiting village chiefs and headmen to explain our activities and obtain permissions (this required frequent gifts of cooking oil and millie meal), and managing the field team....which was not without drama, as we had a fair amount of resistance from the communities, who thought we were satanists come to steal their blood, and some of the interviewers were chased from houses with rocks...

The wildlife in Africa is incredible. And everywhere. While in Haiti we would leave the field before dark to avoid kidnappers, in Zambia it was for elephants. We frequently diverted our activities due to rumour of herding elephants--a real nuisance--as they often trampled homes and really aren't all that friendly. But by contrast I found stumbling across a heard of baboons exhilerating, and witnessing the night movements of a jaguar about the coolest thing in the world. However I've not had the best of luck with the animal kingdom--having been mauled by doberman as a kid, then put on rabies shots due to a ferocious street dog in turkey, and again the same in panama. I thought I was exhibiting similar caution when I approached some zebras to shoot some photos--actually, they were on the path on the grounds at probably the fanciest hotel in Zambia, at Victoria falls, so I couldn't really avoid them..but was curious about a frail, shaken looking Indian women who was on the ground with her family ahead of me, and amongst them. As I approached, I was suddenly and without warning given the most exruciatingly painful kick to the back of my leg and quickly lay writhing, shaking, and sweating on the ground next to the Indian woman; she had suffered my same fate...
We were both carted away to the local infirmary to recover, nursing wounds to our bodies and our egos...and my leg took over a month to recover.





I camped with some friends in Zimbabwe's Mana Pools NP on the Zambezi river--camping in Africa can be a terrifying experience to the uninitiated, with some of the planet's most ferocious beasts most certain to visit, only a thin layer of polyester away. I woke under moonlight in my camp next to the river to realize I was sitting amongst a bloat of munching hippopotamus, one stumble or clumsy back step, and I was squished. I spent much of the night ready to bolt from my tent, but thankfully headed the creed of African campers, that you NEVER leave your tent at night in the African bush... pee in a cup, whatever, once you exit you are a MEAL. I woke to find that one rather ungracious hippo had relieved himself on my tent.

The hyenas you notice more from the smell when they enter your camp than anything else. They reek of death, rotting flesh, and they come snarling into camp, aggressively poking their noses into tents, seeking unguarded toes and eyeballs. I heard the story, from an opthamalagist tech, of one lady who chose to sleep outside under only a mosquito net, and was dragged across camp by her eyeballs, literally. So yeah, sleeping in the African bush is pretty exhilerating. And just about the most beautiful place in the world.

Check out some photos from Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique here:

Zambia-Mozambique