I am now in Nicaragua where I ran into these two clowns at the Mayoreo bus station in Managua last Tuesday. I was on my way to Jinotenga.

Find more photos like this on Connected Peace Corps


Here are photos of Peace Corps volunteers in the Highlands of Guatemala. This is just a small example of work from my documentary of Peace Corps volunteers. I will be posting photos from time to time here as I go along to whet your appetite, but most of the work will be saved for future publication. Please go to http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/making-peace-with-the-world to help me continue this important work of documenting the lives of volunteers at the cusp of the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps.

My primary work for the next year as I travel around the world is to photograph Peace Corps volunteers. However as I am documenting the daily lives of volunteers I take many other photos of where these volunteers live and work.

The majority of the photos of volunteers will be held until I have a body of work that I will be looking for a publisher to create a book to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps. However I plan to photograph galleries on this site periodically as I travel from country to country.

The following photos were taken while I was documenting the daily life of Peace Corps volunteer Aron Rosenthal in the Central Highlands of Guatemala. He lives and works in Uspantán.

Guatemala is truly a magical place. The people are warm, sincere and genuine. I was blessed to have wonderful hosts in Uspantán from the Peace Corps volunteers to the people in the community who were so open to me. Thanks to all of you.

If you are a photographer I highly recommend a trip to Guatemala. There are certain places in this world where the light has a luminous quality that surpasses the quality of light everywhere else. Some of those places in the United States are in Maine and New Mexico. Combine the stunning natural scenery with this light as well as the local people and it is hard not to take great photographs.

Hello. I am in Antigua, Guatemala and in about thirty minutes I will be catching a bus for San Salvador. Sunday I will leave there and go to Managua Nicaragua.

I have written several blogs at www.glimpse.org, so check those out.

I am putting together a new gallery for this site of photos from Guatemala. It might take awhile. So much to edit.

By the way, did I mention how much I love my new Nikon D700? It is wonderful to have my lenses be the proper focal length again. Also the camera performs wonderfully in low light settings, which is very important because I shoot everything with available light.

So, Kudos to Nikon!

The market in Uspantan is fascinating. It is probably typical of Guatemalan outdoor markets. Saturday is the big market day here. Mayans come down from the hills to sell their produce. It is a mixture of chaos and order with lots of colors which add to the scene.

The light in Guatemala is brilliant. The camera meter doesn´t seem to be able to handle it. If I go with the meter settings the photos are always over exposed. Even on a cloudy day as it is today it is still amazingly bright. This light creates wonderful contrast and saturated colors as you can see in the above photo.

I have a few days left here in Guatemala. Tomorrow I am visiting an Peace Corps volunteer working in the agriculture sector and follow him as he takes seeds to local farmers.

I am working on a slide show of images to post here of Guatemala.

Soon I will be heading to Nicaragua.

Tuk Tuks: the most awesome public transportation ever!

From the time I arrived in the Quiché District town of Uspantán I have been captivated by a certain kind of vehicles plying the calles and avenidas.

Before I discuss those vehicles I must mention something that has me amazed about the streets of Uspantán - they are mostly made of concrete laid squares, and their surface are practically flawless. The community also has sidewalks made of the same concrete, even though there is so little traffic, that most of the time you can walk in the street. The sidewalks are only delineated from the street by a small curb since the street goes right up to the sidewalk and then the sidewalk is flush against the buildings. The sidewalks are also in very good shape.

The streets and sidewalks all look like they have been recently poured. Very few potholes (something we in Indiana call Chuck holes, for some reason) can be found. My host here tells me that the streets are very good because this district is blessed with progressive leadership and a good municipal agency. He should know because he works in the municipal office.

Not to labor the point about the quality of the roads here, but it is something I just can not get over. I have traveled and lived in so many places where the streets are nothing less than treacherous as a result of their surface. Streets that would make the surface of the moon seem smooth in comparison.

Now the streets here are not all perfectly smooth. There are some streets made of cobblestone on the outskirts of town. Cobblestone is a very durable surface, but never could be considered a smooth surface by any means. Nothing can rearrange your organs like riding in a vehicle with bad shocks over cobblestone. However, here in Uspantán these cobblestone streets have two strips of smooth concrete running down them just the right placement for vehicle wheels.

Another modification on the streets that also amazed me in the foresight of it relates to the aforementioned Tuk Tuks, which you are probably wondering when I will get around to explaining what they are.

So, before I go on with my gushing appraisal of street engineering in this Highland locale I will describe what to me is a fascinating means of locomotion. A Tuk Tuk is basically a motorcycle taxi. Reducing it to that description really diminishes the wonderful little means of transport. Please bear with me as I attempt to give them their due.

So, how can a motorcycle be a taxi? Basically they are motorcycles about the size of the little 500cc Hondas or Kawasakis that look like mini-bikes compared to the behemoth motorcycles that most Americans prefer these days ( I won't mention any brands, as not to anger certain types of riders who might take exception to any form of denigration of their rides. Even though I am down here in Central America, one can never be too careful).

I believe these Tuk Tuks have two or four stroke engines. They have one wheel up front and two in back. The driver sits in front on a little seat. The machines have handlebars, like a motorcycle with the accelerator on the right bar, but they have little clutch and break pedals. In back there is a little bench seat.

The front seat would hold one American of average build and height (whatever that is these days?). The back seat might hold two Americans provided they aren't failed contestants on the TV reality show "The Biggest Losers."

The majority of the inhabitants of these parts are Mayans, and I don't think it would be wrong to point out that they are a bit smaller in stature than your average American. Put this way, I am probably a little below average in the height area, and spending time here has made me feel tall. (That really makes up for my feelings of small stature after attending a going away party hosted for me by a family in which all four members, including the two teenage boys, probably has an average height of somewhere around 6 foot 8 inch or so.)

But I digress. Although these vehicles are small, I have seen ones pass by carrying whole families. There will be mom and dad and two or three kids all in sitting in back. I've even seen two people riding up front. So, they are of perfect scale - a scale of economy.

This scale of economy is refreshing compared to what I've grown used to in the United States. In the U.S.A. everything is super sized. Can I use that term, or is it trademarked by the restaurant with the clown and arches?

Let me describe these little contraptions that ply the all too perfect streets in this beautiful country. The Tuk Tuks come in many different colors, however red seems to be very popular. I suppose it makes them appear to be speedier, even though I think they go plenty fast enough for their purpose - transporting people around the community. I know that they are swift because every time I try to photograph one in action I have trouble getting a shot before it buzzes by.

Tuk Tuks either have canvas tops that cover both driver and passenger, but the sides are open. Some have hard tops, and I have even seen some entirely enclosed with little doors.

There are so many reasons that make these motorized chariots wonderful. They are like the bicycle taxis of Asia, but these don't require the operator to have to toil to carry lazy passengers around.

Another tangent: back in the day when I went was in Peace Corps training in the Dominican Republic a fellow volunteer trainee was a bright fellow named Greg who was quite the world traveler and entrepreneur even before he signed up for Peace Corps. Greg had traveled extensively in the East and he bought a couple of bike taxis and had them shipped back to his native Chicago. There he operated one and rented out the other to a buddy to operate carrying tourists around. (I've always wondered what great things he has done since Peace Corps).

On first sight of a Tuk Tuk in Guatemala I wanted to ride one. Unfortunately, my hosts here prefers to walk, and who can blame him since it is much cheaper and nothing is really out of walking distance in this community.

Earlier today, I found an excuse to take my first Tuk Tuk ride. I had walked down to the center of town and when I got there I found out that meeting I was going to had been canceled. After I got that news I found out why. It started to rain.

I walked through the market, which kept me dry for a block or two, but I still had about a mile to walk to get back to the hotel. As I exited the market there was a Tuk Tuk just waiting for me. Well it was waiting for anyone and lucked out to get a gringo who did not know the correct price for fares across town.

There were two fellows sitting in the front seat. I approached and in my broken Spanish inquired about transport. Both young men responded with the price. The fellow on the right, who I later found out is Juan, said 10 Quetzales, just a split second before the black leather jacket clad dude on the left, Peter, could blurt out a higher price of 20 Quetzales.

Well, I didn't just got off the turnip truck yesterday (it was actually four days earlier), so I knew that they were inflating the price a bit. I refused Peter's price and accepted Juan's. Later I found out that was still double the going rate, but it was raining and I really wanted to ride in a Tuk Tuk.

It was a pleasant ride. We whipped away from the market and before I realized it we were flying down the tree lined street that takes me to my hotel. On the way Peter made polite conversation in Spanish and a little English. He asked me where I am from and introduced himself and the driver.

Peter and Juan made a little extra money and I got my first Tuk Tuk ride. It was a win - win for everyone.

Staying here in Uspantán I have become obsessed with the Tuk Tuks, as you can see. The only thing that captivates me almost as much is the street infrastructure. So, if you remember there is an aspect of street construction here that I brought up on the onset of this praise of Guatemalan engineering and transportation.

The streets in some places have speed bumps that rise to about a foot or two and are about a foot wide with ridges going up on either side going cross ways from the road.

When I first saw these speed bumps I didn't think anything special about their construction. It wasn't until I saw a Tuk Tuk approach one that I noticed a modification especially for that mode of public transportation.

Anyone who has ridden something with a single front wheel (bike or motorcycle or unicycle) knows that speed bumps can cause you to "pop a wheelie" and can be a little dangerous. Well add to that a vehicle with a front wheel and two little back wheels with most of the weight in the back of the little vehicle. Not a good combination for going over a speed bump that is made for larger vehicles.

In the center of every concrete speed bump in this community is a slot cut out the exact size of the front wheel of a Tuk Tuk. When I saw a Tuk Tuk driver center his vehicle to fit the front wheel through that slot I was so impressed. Of course the back two wheels still go over the bump, but hey, that gives the passengers a little bit of a bounce to add to the fun of riding in a Tuk Tuk.

I am currently in Guatemala photographing a Peace Corps volunteer in Uspantan. I arrived in country July 16th, and in this short time I am blown away by Guatemala.

There are not enough superlatives to describe the visual beauty of this country. I highly recommend photographers and artists to come to Guatemala.

Guatemala is visually overwhelming. Blue skies, impressive mountains and volcanoes as well as lush vegetation provides an overwhelming visual assault. Couple that with the people. Half of the 13.1 million population are indigenous, mostly Mayan. They are a beautiful people with dark black hair and brown skin, and they dress in colorful native textiles.

Guatemalans are warm and friendly people. Visitors and photographers, however, should respect the people when visiting their country and try to learn a little about their culture and customs. It is best to ask before directly taking a photograph of an individual, and children should not be photographed without gaining permission first.

Please enjoy a few of the many photographs I've taken so far in this amazing country. The hardest part for any photographer taking photos in Guatemala will be editing the photos because there are just so many visual possibilities here.






Captions for the above photos starting from the bottom photo:

The view around the Parque Central in Antigua; Guatemala. This is the Palacio De Los Captanes. Begun in 1558; the Captain-Generals' Palace was the governmental center of all Central America from Chiapas to Costa Rica until 1773. The stately double-arcaded facade; which marches proudly along the southern side of the Parque; was added in the early 1760's. Today the palace houses the Inguat tourist office; national police and office of he governor of Sacatepequez department.

Antigua was founded in 1543 and served as colonial capital for 233 years. Antigua was razed by an earthquake in 1773. Many ruins such as this one remain and Antigua was rebuilt retaining its character. Antigua is a national monument and in 1979 UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site.

Volcan Agua is one of three volcanoes surrounding Antigua. The other two are Volcan Acatenango and Volcán Fuego.

Guatemalan women walk past the Palacio De Los Capitanes along the Parque Central in Antigua.

Clay roof tiles and the street in Uspantan seen from above.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu
Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

Tomorrow I leave for Guatemala. This will start my year-long travels photographing Peace Corps volunteers around the world. I am looking forward to meeting Aron Rosenthal, who will be my Peace Corps volunteer subject in Guatemala.

I fly into Guatemala City and will take a bus to Antigua for the first night. Then we head out to the volunteers site. I will write more about that later.

The first part of my trip will be in Central America. I will go from Guatemala to El Salvador. Then from El Salvador I go to Costa Rica.

How often I post here depends on when I have internet connections and time. Please check back periodically.

Friday morning my cousin came to the house (his house) at Whittier and called attention to the fact that there was a deer in the front yard feasting on apples from the apple tree. This morning I looked out the front door and the deer was back. This time I went and got my camera and took this photo. The amazing thing is just how unafraid the deer was. Both today and yesterday the deer didn't scare away until we made a lot of noise. I guess those are some good apples.

This gallery is of photos I took on a visit to the Amana Colonies in Iowa July 5th and 6th. The colonies were founded in the 1850's by a religious group from Germany that first settled in New York state, but moved to Iowa in search of land for agriculture. The citizens of the seven communities comprising the Amana Colonies lived communally until the 1930's. For more information about the Amana Colonies go to this link: http://www.amanacolonies.com/

While traveling in Iowa over the Fourth of July weekend I passed through the town of West Branch. West Branch is the birthplace of Herbert Hoover. His Presidential Library is there. However that is not what caused me to stop. I paused in West Branch to partake of cold lemonade and cookies sold to me by the nice young ladies in this picture. I appreciated a cold drink since I was driving in a car without air conditioning.

The following is a gallery of photos I took while working for The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Indiana. I worked there on staff up until this past April.