The celebration of death in Varanasi

Life on the Andes

BOLIVIA | Saturday, 29 June 2013 | Views [387] | View Larger Image

But there are also lakes where some little pink shrimps and algae have found their habitat and where minerals are not harmful. In those lakes lives a big population of flamingos, that have developed to live at this hight and in extreme conditions. Humans had tried to install facilities for the extraction of minerals, but the conditions were too difficult to be able to stay and work, so the environment has been left to its natural development.

At an elevation of 4350 m, the Laguna Blanca is not far from the Chilean border and represent the first sight different from desert. The characteristic white colour of the water is caused by the high amount of minerals: that makes life really difficult in this lake and in a lot of others around the Bolivian Andes. Fishes can not live here, around it there are just sand, stones and short grass, in this way there is not space for animals, birds and humans, that can't work in such an environment.

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In some other places, humans have been able to exploit the unique characteristics of the environment, as in the Salar de Uyuni. Here, every day, the workers, who live in villages on the edge of the salar or in isolated houses on the inside, wake up in the early morning to begin the collection of salt, their life is completely devoted to that. Bolivia offers unique, difficult landscapes, and the task of man is to adapt to them and find ways to live in and survive.

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The celebration of death in Varanasi

Life on the Andes

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