ecuador
I have a slideshow in today's Wall Street Journal about Ecuadorean mountaineer and guide, Edgar Parra. Edgar is a great guy, who has led expeditions on some of the most challenging mountains around the world.
Rux and I have a piece in the New York Times opinion section on November 04, 2014, about some of the positive impacts that migration is having for some indigenous women in the Ecuadorean province of Cañar. Though certainly there are many hardships for families and especially children due to migration, in Cañar - the region that has the highest rate of out-migration in Ecuador - many indigenous women who stay, or who return from abroad, have increased financial independence, increased freedom, and more power in their families and communities.
Wow... it's hard to believe that almost 10 months have passed since I last wrote, when I was just starting my Scripps Fellowship at the University of Colorado-Boulder. But with a then-infant, and now-toddler in our lives, it seems that time passes ever more quickly, and it's often hard to find the time to do things like stay on top of new updates. I had an incredible year during the Fellowship - met lots of great people and learned tons of new things that are already informing the next stages of my work and new stories that Rux and I are working on.
Portrait of a young couple near the Centro Historico in Quito, Ecuador. 05 June 2014
Boulder, CO was a great, mellow home for the year, but we've moved on and are now settling into our new home base in lovely Quito, Ecuador, where we can be closer to the region we've been focusing on over the last several years. It feels great to be back in S. America, and we're excited to be exploring and meeting lots of great people here in Quito.
Rux and I have also started an online photo/audio/print journal in which we're sharing thoughts, images, notes, etc. from the field and from daily life here, as well as a weekly series of photographic and audio portraits of folks with whom we cross paths that we're calling Quito Portraits. We'd love for you to check it out... and check back periodically as the series, the journal, and our work evolves.