Easter Parade, Tilcara Argentina

Being an agnostic, religious festivals usually pass me by without much enthusiasm, but as I get older I try to learn something from whatever I encounter, and that of course it's all about story. 

This was one of the many tableaux that were displayed throughout the town and presumably used as one of the 'stations of the cross' parade on Easter Sunday (though I had left town by then). 

But religious symbolism aside, the 'story' is — that it was made by the staff of my hotel during my stay there. 

Over the course of a few days they worked together during their free time in the breakfast room, and I was impressed by their creativity with simple and natural components. 

As we're in the Andes the scene naturally includes Llamas and pan pipes and woven fabric. They have also used the red earth from the nearby (multi-coloured) mountains, along with seeds, herbs, flowers and herbs. 

This will never be displayed in an art gallery, just a communal effort to make something beautiful.

The Shepherd of Humahuaca

This is Julio. From the age of seven he worked as a shepherd, but when his daughter was born he wanted to do better for himself, and for her.When she was a child they used to stand together at the roadside, and wave at the passing tourist coaches. 

Often they encountered groups of tourists, and he was always interested to hear all the different languages that were spoken.

He came to Humahuaca and worked hard at various jobs to support his family.

He also went to evening classes and learnt to speak English.

He now runs the tourist information centre in Humahuaca.

This is the tourist information centre in Humahuaca.

Death Valley Sunset, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

The Atacama desert is one of the driest places on earth. My feet, fingers, elbows and lips quickly cracked like sun-baked mud. At nearly 2.5K metres it’s a modest altitude, but this is no place top up your sun tan. Any exposed skin will quickly redden and burn. 

Thankfully, San Pedro de Atacama is an oasis in the desert. 

Sleeping Rough

This little white street dog asleep in an empty tree pit turns out to be the first photo I make on arriving in La Serena Chile, at the start of a journey in which I will travel through the Atacama desert, the Andean uplands of northern Argentina, see some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet, and cross the Andes, twice.

A journey of a lifetime no less. 

So where’s the smiling selfie with an exotic backdrop? 
The high five whoop of pumped-up adrenaline for the ride ahead? 
A Facebook link-up with multiple ‘likes’ from friends in a virtual landscape? 

Truth is, leading up to this trip I had been going through a period of mental turbulence, caught in a vortex of depression and anxiety.
To an extent I managed to hide the worst of it from those but nearest to me, and remained ‘functioning,’ with the help of my daily fix of alcohol. 

I would drink to take the edge off the anxiety, which would gradually lull me into a place where I felt relatively 'normal' again. But the next day the anxiety would return, a vicious circle that kept spinning day after day. 

The opportunity to travel then was a release, a way to break the cycle, though it was not an instant fix.
A friend had planned a trip to Chile, a kind of pilgrimage to mark a significant birthday, working in a remote mountain area with a family who ran a small organic farm. 
The plan was to meet up afterwards and travel together. I hadn't necessarily been thinking about going to Chile, but having previously spent time in Brazil, the opportunity to visit another South American country was an appealing idea, especially as I had no other plans I was putting into action any time soon. 

I arrived at Santiago De Chile from Rio de Janeiro at midnight, and grabbed what sleep I could, curled up on two and a half moulded hard plastic chairs at the airport before my connecting flight at noon the next day. 
The other half of the third chair was occupied by the legs of another traveller also trying to get some rest.
Though no one was watching it, the TV remained on all night, and the same banal adverts punctuated my slumbers. 

From my starboard porthole on the short flight north, I had a condor's eye-view of the Andes mountains to the east, an incredible sight, but my camera remained in my bag. 

By the time I got to La Serena I was wasted from travel, lack of sleep and mental fatigue.  

So I guess I empathised with this little dog, trying to get a little sleep before the battles of a new day began, and perhaps it's more honest and fitting than a smiling selfie in the sunset. 

Henry David Thoreau’s Walden

'I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.'

Henry David Thoreau, from Walden: Life in the Woods