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Apart from becoming physically extinct because of violence from guerrilla, paramilitaries, cocaine plantations with their landmines, flu and bronchitis, the indigenous groups are quickly losing their identity thereby becoming culturally extinct.

The Tocaima for example have lost their original tongue - only the elderly remember some of it. Clothing in the Amazon area was made of the bark of a tree. Very uncomfortable of course, hard to fabricate and wearing very quickly in the humid climate. Logically they prefer to use cheap Western clothing. Now that Colombia is becoming safer to travel, more Westerners appear at the remote Indian sites bringing luxuries they never knew before. In the village of Atacuari, in the remotest corner of Colombia, the eye catcher is a cell phone tower. Although they only have 2 hours of generated electricity per day, they have 200 channels of cable tv.

When we arrived to the village we were welcomed by the local police that has a station there as it is the last corner of Colombia surrounded by Peru. They do not have a lot to do apart from reporting rainforest slaughtering on the Peruvian side where an environmental crime against humanity is taking place that is probably way worse than the Colombian cocaine issue. After having offered escorts as guides to the local Indian communities they gave us the fish with which they were supposed to feed themselves and lodging inside the station.

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PHOTO OF THE MONTH SITE

The 'photo of the month' is not meant as something pretentious, it is not even chosen by any jury. It could be an advertising photo I did, or a photo for a magazine or record cover. Something telling you of a journey I made or the city I'm in. Or a snapshot of my girlfriend. The only criterium it has to meet is that it was made in the last month. And that I believe it is worth bothering you with...
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