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Happy International Mountain Day! (December 11)
Five years ago, the U.N. General Assembly Declared December 11 “International Mountain Day.” The celebration is part of an ongoing effort by the U.N. to increase people’s awareness about the importance of mountains to life on this planet, and to build partnerships that will “bring change to the world’s mountains and highlands.” The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations notes: Mountains are crucial to life. Whether we live at sea level or the highest elevations, we are connected to mountains and affected by them in more ways than we can imagine. Mountains provide most of the world’s freshwater, harbour a rich variety of plants and animals, and…
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Woman Spinning Wool, Ausangate
photo by Barbara Drake Time for an Andean reality check. Too much Paris Hilton bikini nonsense. I met this woman last month while trekking around Mount Ausangate, in southern Peru. Her name is Vicentina Chuchicari Mamani, and like most people in the area, she spins her wool and makes her own clothes. People have been crafting their textiles in this way for more than a thousand years. Vicentina is 48 years old. She has spent every day of her life sitting in the lap of Ausangate, spinning wool from her herd of llamas and alpacas. She likes to be busy, she says. When I tried to take a photo of her at rest,…
