Wherever you go in Mexico you will see skulls. Why? Because the skull in Mexican culture represents death and rebirth, the cycle of life. People here believe that the afterlife is as important if not more important than your life on earth. The skull symbolises both sides, life and the afterlife.
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Observing or meeting children when we travel I realise that, even more than adults, they have far more in common with each other regardless of where they live than they do any differences. They enjoy play, they seek friendship, they need acceptance and respect. And of course they all need the basics of food, drink, shelter, education.
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While I hope I can say of many of my photos that it ‘tells a story’, I have chosen to call this particular gallery 'Every picture tells a story' for a reason. As a song (and album) title, it fits perfectly with my theme, mixing images with music.
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In 1531 a peasant, Juan Diego, reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the hill of Tepeyac, today swallowed up in the metropolis of Mexico City. The Virgin, he said, spoke to him in in Nahuatl, his first language, asking that a church be built on the site in her honour.
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In the remote mountainous lands of Chihuahua state in northern Mexico the Rarámuri people of the Copper Canyon still enjoy a largely traditional lifestyle, despite the incursions of the modern world. We were privileged to be able to meet a Rarámuri family, one that has chosen to blend a traditional way of life with the benefits that tourism can offer.
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The Piedra de la Fertilidad (Stone of Fertility) is a rock shaped like a penis which unsurprisingly is something of a fertility symbol for the Raramuri people of the Copper Canyon region. They believe that a man who touches it will become more virile while a woman doing the same will become pregnant.
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The tomb known as Tomb Seven is the most famous of many discovered at Monte Albán, as it contained the largest number of Mesoamerican objects found to date, both from the Zapotec culture and later Mixtecs.
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A few hours’ drive north of Ecuador’s capital, Quito, is the market town of Otavalo. Like similar towns the world over, market day is traditionally an occasion for local people to come together, to trade goods and probably a fair bit of news and gossip too.
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Like many people I have long been fascinated by the lifestyle of the Amish and Mennonite people. Their rejection of many of the technological conveniences we take for granted. Their seclusion from modern society. And the beliefs that influence the choices they make about how to live. One way to learn more is to visit.
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You might think that a place called Hellville would have a dark past. But this lively town on the Madagascan island of Nosy Be takes its name not from any Satanic connections but from Anne Chrétien Louis de Hell, a French admiral who was governor of Réunion Island from 1838 to 1841.
