Subject to harsh tropical elements, the Caribbean port of Bluefields carries an unmistakeable air of decay. But like any good Central American town, life here is conducted in the street, whatever its state. This photo set features an excerpt and link to a piece published on the award-winning Perceptive Travel website.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Nicaragua’s Rio San Juan province is one of the most verdant and entrancing locales in all Central America. Home to the vast and endlessly meandering San Juan river – a waterway that connects Lake Nicaragua in the west with the Caribbean sea in the east – the region was nearly selected as the site for a transoceanic canal. Fortunately, the concession went to Panama, and the province remains a bastion of remote intrigue, as this photo set attests.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
The island of Ometepe – reminiscent of some dark, prehistoric otherworld – rises from lake Nicaragua with misty twin volcanoes. Arid volcán Concepción is active and periodically spews ash. Smaller Volcán Maderas is dormant and swathed in cloud forest. The island’s unearthly feel is reinforced by scores of middle-of-nowhere indigenous villages and prolific pre-Columbian relics that depict everything from shamans to blood-thirsty snake gods. These photos were snapped in February 2010, during the dusty dry season.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
These images were snapped in León’s central market – one of the more cleanly and ordered I’ve encountered in Nicaragua. One of the most visually arresting (if slightly grotesque) sections dealt with seafood and poached meats. Dead fish and crustaceans were piled high amid buzzing flies, and between bowls of dead green iguanas I spotted sacks of turtles’ eggs for sales. Although turtles are critically endangered, their eggs are widely consumed by macho men hoping to boost their virility.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Nicaragua is a country particularly well suited to street photography. Everything of interest and importance happens on the street. Whilst snapping this collection in the markets and plazas of Granada, I was faced with many challenges of method and ethics. Ultimately, however, I found the subject too vivid and interesting to leave undocumented.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Granada’s old hospital stands in a state of abject destitution, broken and dilapidated after many years of neglect. Located on the west side of the city, close to the Masaya highway, this haunting ruin – replete with teeming visceral textures, intriguing shadows and frames – is a free gift to photographers and urban explorers.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The somnambulant village of La Boquita is awakening. A rotund and loosely dressed woman emerges from a ramshackle cluster of decrepit shacks and lurching, half-fallen structures. Gnarled branches, thatched palm leaves and weathered, colourful sheets are the simple materials of her family home.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Mexico’s Copper Canyon is a land of expansive vistas, crumbling mule trails and endlessly convoluted mountain scenery. Comprised of six monumental canyons and a labyrinthine network of some 200 gorges, you can’t do much better for sheer size, scope and geological grandeur. These images were snapped at various locations: the mountain-town of Creel, the look-out of Divisadero, the rocky road to Batopilas and others.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The state of Guerrero, central Mexico, is punctuated by miles and miles of incandescent coastline. Home to the quintessential pleasure resort of Acapulco, it is one of Mexico’s most touristic states, and yet it is also one of its poorest. Rugged topography means many parts of the region are secluded from the outside world. These images were snapped between two of the region’s best known tourist attractions: Acapulco and Taxco.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Mexico’s north is a lesser visited land of sprawling cattle ranches and endless expansive vistas. Tempered by harsh deserts and mountains, el Norte has always been a wild and uncompromising destination, as well as an historic bastion of political resistance. These images were snapped at various locations: Chihuahua City, the Copper Canyon, Hidalgo del Parral, Alamos and others.
Interamericana is an intrepid new travel blog about the people and places surrounding the Carretera Interamericana - a 6000 kilometre stretch of highway that links Mexico and the seven nations of Central America. Created by guidebook writer and journalist Richard Arghiris, Interamericana combines photography, video and the best in alternative travel writing.
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Mr Edgar ‘Rasta’ Coulsen is a native of the Caribbean town of San of Juan del Norte – an end of the world settlement perched at the mouth of the Rio San Juan. In this short video interview, Interamericana talked to him about the changes that have taken place in the region since his childhood.
One day, me and my compadres took a trip up the Río Istiam – a tranquil waterway that meanders inland at the isthmus between Ometepe’s two volcanoes, Concepción and Maderas. The river is home to abundant bird life, caimans, turtles and herds of indolent livestock. Many thanks to Jennifer Kennedy and the three Matts – Barwick, Hicks and Ashford, who appear in this video clip.
Via Via is something of a León institution, attracting Nicas and foreigners alike with its buzzing multi-cultural atmosphere, dirt-cheap bottles of rum and rousing Friday night music sets. Amalgama, featured in this video, are an institution in themselves, playing everything from rock ballads to crowd-pleasing revolutionary classics. In this clip they are accompanied by itinerant musician Richard Crandell and his Zimbabwean imbira.
As a poor chele, or white boy, rhythm was never going to come naturally to me. Nonetheless, my militant salsa instructor, Angel, patiently tried to teach me to dance. And when he could be patient no longer, he simply ordered me to the nearest disco…
Granada’s international poetry festival kicked off yesterday, 14th February 2010, with a belting set from Katia Cardenal. Performing at the Plaza Independencia, Katia sang a mixture of rousing folk songs and revolutionary ballads, including a superb homage to the Miskito people of the Atlantic coast (2nd song featured, actually in the Miskito language). Turn up the volume, pour yourself a rum, kick back and enjoy…
The land is scorched and broken. Piles of dark volcanic rubble litter the scene, yet to be properly eroded by sun, wind and rain. Years from now, these rocks will be transformed into fine, fertile silt. But for today, dead, black lava fields cling to the slopes like some monstrous reptilian hide – coarse, inscrutable, alien…
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Monday, July 19, 2010
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