I spent eight months in South America, from June 2006 to February 2007. I started of guiding on a British Exploring Society's expedition in the Peruvian Andes then continued traveling over the Western half and terminating the trip in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Setting my camera on self-timer I took a photo at the top of Nevado Pisco with the t-shirt my expedition group gave me. I was alone on the summit.
After being saved by this family of indigineous Andean Ecuadorians from a group of thugs I stayed with them in their little village in the Andes for over a month becoming a sort of au pair for the children.
In order to get out of the rainforest in the Madre de Dios river you have to sneak a ride on top of a transport truck. The journey goes over 36 hours, traveling from sea level to over 4000m over narrow mountain passes.
The truck crammed with as many people as can be fitted transports beer bottles and other merchandise. We had to try and make ourselves comfortable on top.
I had planned on summiting alone on this 6000m but I was grateful of the company of the three other people that also were attempting the peak. A group of two and the refuge keeper who had never summited before.
The cooperative mines of Potosi are some of the most dangerous in the world. The contrast of the working conditions between the iron ore mines I saw in Arctic Sweden the year before and these ones are startling.
This family, half Bolivian, half American spends each Christmas helping children in a hospital in Santa Cruz. They give gifts and pay for treatment that is otherwise unaffordable for many families.
