Life in Porcon Bajo

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

Peru | Sunday, January 13, 2013 | flickr photos

In the Peruvian Andes there is a small village named Porcon Bajo. The "development" of society, had made the villagers forget their ancient traditions, like the use of natural medicine, there's even shame when talking his own mother language, the Quechua.

Grimaldo is around 80 years old, and he still walks and climbs the fields of his Porcon Bajo, picking up plants, he likes to cure himself and others with what mother nature offers to him.

The Quechua of Grimaldo is a difficult one to understand. He talks about how we kids don't know how to throw partys anymore, how they used to have numerous bands, with a lot of "clarines cajamarquinos", an air instrument that sounds like a clarinet from the earth itself. He sais that the only thing we do now is walking around with our stereos hanging from us.

I love when i met people like him on the road, it moves me, and having a camera hanging from me, not a stereo, i think, is the best way to let people know about distant realities and raise awareness, for me, an experience like the assignment in Oman is the thing i need to take my passion for traveling and photography to next level, I will love to have that kind of a job for a living.