colonos

I recently had the rare opportunity of coming face-to-face with a Dragonfly in the rain forest near Loreto in the Napo region of the Ecuadorian Amazon - this is what it looked like (click on pix to see a slightly bigger version or ask for originals, if you have a good idea for using them):

and coming up close to the bugger…

—– great pattern, init?!?!?

This is a link to a 1200×803px JPEG shot of the Dragonfly - cropped a bit and compressed with The GIMP:

and also an un-cut 1024×768 on MyShutterSpace:

We watched Leonardo DiCaprio’s “11th hour” last night (you might be able to watch it here or via quicksilversreen.com and read more about it here) and although it was by no stretch of the imagination a very good film on any terms (structure, presentation of material, cinematography or in terms of delivering a profound radical political message) it was still a positive surprise. But hey! what would you expect, come on, be honest?

In the critical (mainstream environmentalist?) words of Rikke Bruntse-Dahl, writing for smartplanet.com:

“The overall message was that we’ve forgotten that we’re part of nature and even though the Earth as such will survive, it will not be a pleasant — or indeed habitable — place to be if we don’t start looking after it and each other. While it’s undoubtedly a good message, which we’d like as many people as possible to hear, the film itself is just not up to scratch.

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It is still early days of planning, but a small group of people are planning to travel, for the second time, down the Napo river - doing workshops relevant for indigenous peoples’ struggles, such as shamanic civil rights, and healing sessions in communities along the 1000km long and very exciting route from the beginning of the River Napo in Tena, Ecuador to Iquitos (where it meets the Amazon and the Ucayali rivers). The journey goes through one of the most biodiverse regions in the world - right past the Yasuni National Park, before crossing the border into Peru. After visiting The 4th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference: Magic, Myths and Miracles, which will be held in Iquitos, Peru - July 19th - 26th, 2008, we might continue to Pucallpa….

Contemporary developments in the global economy are very significant for the Amazon rain forest. While this might be said to be true for anywhere at any point in time there are nevertheless good reasons for paying special attention to what maybe the last battle for the survival of the largest rain forest in the world, the loss of which it should need no further justification to lament – and that is the basis upon which this invitation is written….

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This entry comes from a post to a thread on Tribe.net that became much too long winding - perhaps even for the blog, haha, well, not really - this should give some political ideas that might be useful for anyone performing shamanic practices (the links, abbreviated by Tribe, look funny but work

These statements are interesting (and the comments they afforded long):

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Seeking refuge in Europe, to breathe and to reflect, the long, light evenings and the friendliness of the forest (that is the absence of the eternal threat of creatures out to get you) have besieged our imaginations.

The loved ones, the long-time friendships and the new friends are the medium of reflection - telling stories, observing reactions and thinking about it all at a distance ….we get high on our own anecdotal supply with a little help from our friends.

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While doing some tag search for Ecuador photos I came across Paki Nuttah’s Ecuador set on Flickr, which is a nicely varied set in a collection by what appears to be a prolific, cosmopolitian photographer. I particularly liked this one:

Unfortunately one cannot download or link straight from a regular blog entry to her photos because they seem to be under a form of Digital Restrictions Management (she protects them somehow, haven’t figured out yet exactly how and why), but they’re certainly worth a look (and now I know how to “blog a photo” from Flickr, which then gave me an URI for the picture, -whatever good that’ll do me?!?!?!).

Having slothfully posted pictures intrusive of Bebe’s privacy, it all became clear: we need some sort of photo album, so i googled “flickr alternative” because I had heard of the Flick Off group, but nothing seemed to spring easily to mind. Then I realised that photo-import-manipulation software exists for GNU/Linux, which allows easy uploads to Flickr - so there we go: a lock-in to the Flickr framework - for now, for colonos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonos/ - there are only two pics up yet, just registered a minute ago; one thing at a time, tiempo ecuatoriano You can also go straight to the slideshow, and as the pics slide by you can click on any of them to read its description and then just choose “RESUME SHOW” to carry on.