IMAGES

This is to my mom and dad. Thank you for giving me my new camera! After the death of my old one, I had already made peace with the thought that I'll be travelling without trying so desperately to materialise my footsteps in images. After all it is such a difficult task with so much beauty around me. But then again, when I look into these photos - what great memories they bring! Taking pictures is in a way like keeping a diary.

From 11/08/09 I am travelling with a Colombian lad David who is on a mission to seek out his father who lives on an island of Bonaire near Venezuela. We took a rest in a Daoist temple in Duitama, Boyaca and visited my good friend Edna in Velec, Santander. Two silhouettes - perchance ours? An image taken from our way from Barbosa, to Bucaramanga. Colombia.

The canyon of Chicamochi, just before reaching Bucaramanga, Colombia. Picture taken from a window of a truck. This dude Jose, who picked us up has so far been our longest ride - went with him from Barbosa which is somewhere in the middle of Colombia almost to the very coast (25 km from Santa Marta) - a three day ride.

A place of rest in the shadow of a tree, Santa Marta, Colombia.

When I was eight my mother asked me which instrument I wanted to play. I said the piano. She asked if I would consider a flute - lighter to carry as I go travelling. No, I wanted to play the piano. No regrets threre, I still love the piano! Mom was right in one thing though - the flute IS much lighter to carry! Felipe, thank you for this gift!

We reach the end of the road in the peninsula of Paraguana, Venezuela.

My travel companion David in the Northern most point of Venezuela - Cape of San Roman on the peninsula of Paraguana. From here to the island of Aruba is just 27 km. Bonaire and Curacao are slightly further away. To be so close, yet so far: none of the fishermen want to take us there. A couple who picks us up advises us to seek for a boat to Bonaire in Tucacas.


The salines: soil effected by sea-salt, Peninsula of Paraguana seems like another planet.

Sister Liones and Sister Jasmine are missionaries of charity , a congregation founded in 1950 by Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Their mission, in the words of the founder, is to care for "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the leapers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."It began as a small order with 13 members in Calcutta; today it has more than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices, and charity centers worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine. In Venezuela there are seven homes, ours hosts ten nuns and about 40 mentally disabled or crippled girls, women and elderly ladies.

I shall be staying here as a volunteer until the end of September, meanwhile David is working and getting his documents fixed to be able to leave the country. We had already found the boat and talked to the captain in Tucacas, when the coast guard pointed out that David's Venezuelan passport had to be renewed. The road is full of surprises and everything always changes. Why? - that we only learn later.