An Indigenous woman from the Inga community in the Condagua reservation in Putumayo, Colombia, is leading the struggle against a Canadian mining company that plans to mine the communityβs sacred mountains for copper and molybdenum.
Within Soraida Chindoyβs territory is the DoΓ±a Juana-Chimayoy pΓ‘ramo, where eight rivers have their source and where there are 56 lagoons. The site, where the Amazon rainforest and the Andes meet, is sacred to the Indigenous population.
Her campaign against mining was borne of tragedy. In 2017, she and her family were among the almost 22,000 people affected by the landslide in Mocoa, when Mother Earth provided a stark warning as to why it is so important to take care of her.
"A rare glimpse of a mother Andean cat guiding her kitten through the rocky terrain, captured on camera trap footage in the high Andes above Santiago, Chile.
Living high in the Andes Mountains, these small but mighty cats are one of the most threatened cats in the Americas, facing threats from habitat loss and climate change. Alianza Gato Andino @alianza_gato_andino is working to protect these endangered wildcats through research, education, and conservation efforts across Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru."
Top: Werner Herzog in Patagonia - Cerro Solo is in the distance - from his documentary, Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2019). With him is Chatwin's custom-made leather rucksack, given to Herzog just days before Chatwin died in January 1989.
Machu Picchu is an Incan citadel set high in the Andes Mountains in Peru, above the Urubamba River valley. Built in the 15th century and later abandoned, itβs renowned for its sophisticated dry-stone walls that fuse huge blocks without the use of mortar, intriguing buildings that play on astronomical alignments and panoramic views. Its exact former use remains a mystery. Wikipedia
(Photographer unknown, image sourced from @worldbirds32 on Twitter)
(Photographed by ecoregistros.org moderator, Emilio Martin Perez)
Sappho sparganurus, commonly known as the red-tailed comet (but known to me as the Holiest Lesbian Hummingbird), of the tribe Lesbiini of the subfamily Lesbiinae