Olympus Trip 35 | Fuji Pro 800NPZ
Actually, there was also a real schoolbus. Not sure which version came from further away. The school was directly across from my hostal.

Posted on Sep 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus Trip 35 | Fuji Pro 800NPZ
Hamaca time.

Posted on Sep 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Kodak 400UC
Cabo de la Vela. 5000 pesos to sleep in a hammock. No running water. A disgusting bathroom that they had the gall to charge money for (although it wasn't enforced). Bucket showers you had to pay for, and that WAS enforced. (I opted out).

Um. I kind of loved it.

(And we did have langostas, for a mere 20000 pesos/$10. Yum.)

Posted on Sep 22, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Pro 160S
I was intrigued by this Chinese restaurant, considering the relative remoteness of Manaure. There's chifas all over South America but I've never stopped in; out of curiosity I finally visited a restaurant in La Esperanza, Honduras a few years ago, giving the tired-looking owner's wife a chance to speak Chinese for a while. I thought this would be another opportunity to interview an immigrant in an unexpected place.

Turns out José Ching Torné is half-Chinese, born and bred in Barranquilla. His Cantonese father met his mother while vacationing in Barranquilla; the concept of a Chinese tourist in Barranquilla in the...'60s? maybe even '50s?...was baffling to me.

José couldn't have been more excited to see me, calling out "PAISANA!" while rushing to get me a chair and a delicious free mango juice. He gave me every contact detail he had, including his brother's number in Brooklyn, and told me that since his father died, he never gets to see "other" Chinese people. He showed me menus from all his cousins' Chinese restaurants, mostly in Barranquilla. When I questioned the many dubious items, he laughed and admitted it was mostly Colombian food.

José's Chinese blood was difficult to spot, but I couldn't tell him that I didn't see it. I asked him why he'd come to Manaure of all places, when the rest of his family was still in Barranquilla.

"Because there were no Chinese restaurants here," he replied. "I get to have the only one."

Ah. Now I saw it.

Posted on Sep 22, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Kodak 400UC
A lagoon nearish Manaure, actually a semi-harrowing 30-minute motorcycle ride away. The point of going here is to see flamingos, apparently loads of them, but we were a bit late and they'd moved on for the evening. So our drivers used this time to scare other birds into flying above us...it was sort of repulsive but kind of funny because they were so childlike in their zeal.

Posted on Sep 22, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Pro 160S
My informal guide through the salt flats. I had been standing around snapping photos when suddenly a large man in a ski mask loomed over me. His name was Andrés, and he felt it was VERY important for me to meet Apostos. Andrés apparently could pass me off because he claimed to already have two wives.

We walked around the flats far from the other workers, me keeping one eye on his swinging shovel most of the time. Sometimes he'd drift off, as in this photo, and say dreamily, "Naaancy...quiero conocerte mejor..."

I wasn't quite sure how to take that.

Posted on Sep 21, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Pro 160S
I was assured that children do not work in the salt mines. Women don't either, officially. But it was Saturday, school was out, and whole families pitched in to help. Each Wayuu family owns a rectangle of salt, and the more they can transport to the small processing plant on the edge of town, the more money the family can take home.

Posted on Sep 21, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Pro 160S
There's a big industrial plant on one end of the beach (that can also be toured--I didn't go), and these picturesque flats on the other end. These mines are owned by the indigenous Wayuu and the salt processed in traditional ways. I'm not sure if this portion of salt is sold nationwide or only around La Guajira.

Later in the day, a motorcycle ride out of Manaure revealed just how much salt there is here...everywhere I looked there were floating little montañas de sel. It's not quite as weirdly beautiful as the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. But it fascinated me because unlike the Salar it was completely functional, all being processed, rather than mainly being a bizarre flat white desert for tourists to drive through.

Posted on Sep 21, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Pro 160S
Saturday is market day according to my guidebook, but the area looked similarly busy every day. She asked me some questions about where I came from etc, but in a really bored way. I'd heard the Wayuu were reserved and unfriendly but this was my first mini-conversation with someone who wasn't hostal/restaurant staff. (Later I found the unfriendliness wasn't always the case).

Posted on Sep 21, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Pro 160S
Bike taxi driver kicking back. Industrial salt mine (featuring "montañas de sel", apparently quite the tourist attraction) in the distance.

Posted on Sep 21, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus Trip 35 | Agfa APX 100
Bensonhurst-bred Tommy is 25 years old and is in his 8th summer at Shoot the Freak. Game owner Anthony knew the kid from the neighborhood and brought him in to help during STF's second year. He's the manager now, although is also a capable barker when needed, and tended bar at Beer Island this past spring while the boardwalk in front of STF underwent repairs. He works in construction after the game shuts down for the winter, and is happily engaged to a young lady who works at Beer Island.

Tommy's seen a significant drop in the Shoot the Freak crowds. In 2008 rumors flew that Coney Island was shutting down, influencing shooters to turn out in record numbers for its last moments. This year, he muses people forgot they were still around.

Posted on Sep 17, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Neopan 1600 @ 3200

Posted on Sep 17, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Tri-X
21-year-old JJ is from Bed-Stuy, currently working for his seventh summer at Shoot the Freak. He was the freak for three years, he's an occasional barker, he helped build Beer Island, but he seems most comfortable kicking back with customers, collecting money and setting up the guns. Thanks to his experience, he's in charge whenever Tommy's not around.

Of all the jobs available in New York to a teenager, why Shoot the Freak--nearly an hour's commute from home? JJ laughed when I asked, saying he could never work in a fast-food joint due to the way his teachers disparaged them. A friend helped him get a job at STF, which paid a great wage in comparison.

He'd like to go to college someday. Maybe. He needs more time to think about it.

Posted on Sep 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Tri-X @ 6400
He was not-so-secretly hoping for a cool smoking photo. When I brought prints for the boys, he tried to take this one of Eric for himself.

Posted on Sep 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Tri-X @ 6400
Someday soon, little one...you too shall shoot the freak.

Posted on Sep 13, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)