Escuela cuzceña

Not many tourists in Cuzco take any notice of baroque paintings there, but it might be worthy as during the baroque era it was a centre of a very characteristic school of painting. So called 'escuela cuzceña' was especially known for monumental paintings of Our Lady with so many robes that she looks like a mountain. Some writers today suspect that this is a christianized version of Pachamama, Mother Earth, which is still worshiped in many places in Peru. In any case these images are common in Peru but it would be hard to find anything like this in European baroque.

Santiago fiesta in Huancayo

In Latin America they have a special cult of Santiago Matamoro, or Saint James the Killer of Muslims. In Huancayo in the middle of Peru they make street fiestas in his honour. They have a figure of Santiago on a white horse and they dance around it. Apparently all August there are street fiestas like that. 

Ancient Australian painting

One can see these in some caves in Kakadu National Park in the Top End of Australia. 
Nobody really knows when these pictures were created. Some say a few thousands years ago, but nobody knows for sure. 
Nobody really knows what for either. Some anthropologists say they have very important ritual meaning, although nobody knows for sure. They could just as well been painted by stone age hooligans on the walls of stone age habitations. 

Roads in Arizona

Roads that are straight as far as you can see and you can drive for hours on end and they seem never to end – well, there aren't many places in the world where you can see that.

Barranca del Cobre.

It has nothing to do with cobras, it means Copper Canyon in Spanish. It is situated in Northern Mexico, just over the Arizona border. It is deeper than the Grand Canyon of Colorado (in Arizona), but it is not so famous because it is not in the United States. The climate at the top, well over two thousand metres above the sea level, is quite cool, a bit like England. The climate at the bottom, for example in the town called Urique (at the picture), almost at the sea level, is subtropical and very hot. And there are Apaches living there as well, they are called Tarahumara here. They don't drive Cadillacs as the Arizona Apaches do these days, instead they walk in sandals they make out of Cadillac rubber tyres. But more about them later, now a few pictures from the Canyon itself.

Puna de Atacama

Salar de Atacama in northern Chile is a huge salt flat where water from the mountains flows and dries out, leaving salt. There are some salt lakes there in which flamingos find some vermin to feed on. In the Altiplano higher parts (over 4000 metres above the sea level), some rain falls and there is some grass, on which vicunias (wild ancestors of llamas) feed. It is a national park so flamingos and vicunias are used to tourists and don't run away.

Ancient Maya painting

Here is an example of something that is ignored by the press and book publishers because it is not in fashion, even though it is no less interesting than something similar that is in fashion. Ancient Greece is famous for its ruins, sculpture and painting on pottery. Ancient Mayas are famous for their ruins, but their painting on pottery seems to be almost completely ignored even though it is no less interesting than the Greek painting. It is demonstrated in museum exhibitions where one can see the Maya painted pottery. However, any publication on the subject in either language (I mean English of Spanish) is hard to find and comments in the museums are also extremely limited. Examples here come from museums in Guatemala and Mexico.