Kyrgyzstan
Bishkek, the ruins of Balasagun, Mao maos (gravestones with faces), a drive in theater on the hill and a sunset.
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Khazakstan
A visit to Almaty. Great museum and visit to war memorials. Not the best light for photos that day but there in spirit.
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Afghanistan
Kabul – The palace, the museum, kite flying and the kite runners. The houses up the hills are built with no title – the city is for 500k people and now has 4 million. Seem to be if you can make it stick to the hill its yours. Lovely park for Barbur – the Uzbek who took India and formed the 300 year Murghal emprie. People were shy but friendly. Learning the history – wow, in the 1960s this was the place to be. Women in skirts, Kabul University lecturers had western educations – it was all on. More study required on how it fell apart, as with everywhere, very very sad that in a place of such rich history (Afghanistan was the center of silk road and intellectuals around 1000 AD). There were libraries with over 10,000 books at a time Europe was in the dark ages. Very lucky to have a friend and guide Mohammad Sulaiman Akbari who exemplifies the spirit of people who want to help their country. 12 years as a refugee, then gained scholarship and now a rising star at the World Bank. It brings home that when we see photos of millions of Syrians, Sudanese, Palestinians, and many groups without the PR that they have the same hopes, aspirations, and potential as everyone else. Well done Mohammed you are a legend.
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Panama
Short visit to see the canal. Very interesting history. Essentially Panama was part of Colombia but wanted to be separete. The USA realized it was cheaper and easier to negotiate with the Panamanians rather than a larger entity of Colombia so supported its independence. The Canal land was then leased ‘forever’. That resulted in plenty of protests and eventually the Canal was given back December 31st 1999.
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Nicaragua
Visit to Managua, Grenada, old Leon (UNESCO site) and the current city of Leon.
Like many of the central American countries the capital city is essentially American fast food joints strung together – however the colonial cities are lovely.
Highlight was a visit to a coffee farm on the Volcano though a lot of time trying to photograph the frogs. I’m not really good at small moving object.
A bloody civil war from 1979 through the 80s was yet another cold war conflict largely impacting civilians just trying to do their own thing. The Sandinistas won and the outline of Sandino (who had died almost 50 years earliers but was the inspiriation) is ubiquitous.
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Honduras - Copan
The magnificent ruins of Copan.
Situated just over the border from Guatemala this is a must see. The town pretty much only exists for tourism.
I couldn’t get the light right in the pics so now they are black and white.
Copan was a big player from 400ish to 1100ish – it contains the largest ‘story’ in Mayan history- basically a giant staircase of glyphs. It had collapsed over time and has been put back together hopefully in the right order.
Things went badly when in late 600s Quirigua (see Guatemela album) came and killed 18 rabbit who had built a lot of this stuff. Not a lot of building after.
A cool aspect of construction is that when a King died they built a new tomb over the old one – so underneath the one you see if another in great condition as the colors aren’t sun damaged. You go into a tunnel to see it. This stuff is stil being discovered even over last 20 years.
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Guatemala
I was mostly focused on Touchable Earth but managed to get to the three UNESCO sites
Antigua – the old capital city destroyed by earth quakes hence new capital in Guatemala City. Its a beautiful colonial town very popular with backpackers.
Quirigua – no one had heard of this – its harder to get to and much smaller than the other ruins in the area – but I enjoyed it. Has the largest free standing stone structure in the world – possibly now supported as it fell over in an earth quake and was damaged while putting back up. I wanted to visit in context of Copan ruins (Honduras) as Quirigua went over and killed their famous leader 18 Rabbit around 1300 years ago which was impressive given the relative size difference.
Tikal – the big one and most famous. It had been cleared 100 years ago but again covered in Jungle. Made it really hard to get a feel for the whole area. Back in the day it was all open so would be good to see it restored like that.
On the whole great visit, Antigua fav place in central America.
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El Salvador
2 day visit to San Salvador. Yet another country with a tragic history of violence in the 1980s and a reputation as a pit of gang violence and murder capital of the world.
However.. Like everywhere – lots of friendly people – interesting museums and post conflict art galleries.
Iglesia El Rosario Cathedral is magnificent with its rainbow of stained glass.
Vists to – Army museum – Art Gallery, History musuem of Anthropology, Romero Museum Museum of the Word and Image. What made the last in particualr very interesting was a focus on the impact of the conflict on women – in other ‘genocide’ museums I’ve visited it may be implied but never highlighted in such a sensitive way.
Sadly not an easy place for street photography due to risk of robbery so most pics inside.
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The Soudan (Sudan)
Khartoum, and 16 hour day trip to Meroe to see the pyramids. The Kingdom of Kush was closely aligned with Egyptian beliefs and briefly ruled Egypt. Hence they had similar images on the walls of temples, Amun Ra the god and Horus.
However these pyramids were build around 400BC forwards so 2000 years after Giza. The black in the sand at Meroe is evidence of the first iron smelting by Africans. Lord Kitchener won Sudan for the Brits – hence why Khartoum Place is the square next to Auckland Art Gallery and off Kitchener St.
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