Cayalti, north of Peru, mid 50's
Exciting adventures during my childhood in northern Peru ignited wanderlust in me. I remember a trip over lush green mountains, where during the night we heard a puma wrecking havoc in the goat pen before being shot down. Or the visit to Zaña, an old colonial city, whose ancient crumbling church, so people said, had been burned by the English pirate Davis in 1686. Or our perambulation around ancient Chimu mounds, where we would find pieces of ceramic and once, even an old needle with bits of cloth still attached to it.
My first solo trip was in the late 60's when I was still in high school. I took a bus from Lima to Cuzco, a long 36-hour journey, with a stop over in Arequipa, a city at the foot of El Misti, a volcano. Being under age, I had to get a notarized authorization from my father, who encouraged me to go, despite my youth. Good thing I had that document on me, since a couple of times I was "questioned" by police, sometimes outside the bus, much to the alarm of some of the passengers, who had become protective of me, a young "rara avis" gringo traveling alone.
These early sojourners whet my appetite and a couple of years later I took time off from university to go traveling abroad. I spent a year in the US southern states and northern Mexico, a month in New York City and 8 months in London, Paris and other European cities. I continued my "grand tour" with a trip to Istanbul on the Magic Bus before going back to school. I made my return trip to Peru by way of the Amazon jungle, flying to Sao Paulo first, then to Tabatinga, still in Brazil, then walking to Leticia in Colombia, before taking a rickety plane from there to Iquitos and then on to Lima. I was 19 years old at the time, bringing with me a BA in cheap international traveling with a concentration on the convenience of doing stints as a dishwasher as to be able obtain the necessary financial means to pay my way.
Since then I have just kept going, from Albania to Yemen, from Zambia to the Argentinian Chaco, from the Niger to the Nile, from Kuelap to Tikal. I began taking pictures because I wanted to revisit, in my imagination, places where I had felt very good. Here there is a sample of them.