Arica is the northernmost seaport of Chile, a few kilometers from the border with Peru. Like all places at the border, the entire city is a huge market where goods are exchanged and where people argue passionately about the prices of agricultural products and textiles, surrounded by the pleasant smell of typical Andean food: empanadas, chicharrones and rocotos rellenos. A colorful and friendly crowd that accompanies the life of this bustling community. A few kilometers from Arica, inward and towards the Atacama desert, lies a green jewel, an oasis of palm, fruit and olive trees that unexpectedly grows on the sides of a small seasonal river, the San Jose. The special climate of this valley, that is called the Valley of Azapa, allows the cultivation of various fruits, vegetables and palm trees and the famous Azapa olives, typically purple colored, enabling the production of a special oil. Thanks to these special and favorable climatic conditions, the Azapa Valley has been inhabited by humans since ancient times. The Archaeological Museum of San Miguel Azapa tells the last 10000 years of history of this land, through the beautiful Tiwanaku dresses found in many cemeteries in the area and through the Chinchorro mummies, curled up in a final infinite reflection. The whole valley is surrounded by hills that were exploited by Andean civilizations as open books to tell their history through representations of rock art (petroglyphs) of extraordinary complexity and size. The Azapa valley is an incredible testimony of wealth and distinction that gives a clear idea of the cultural and religious and scientific knowledge of Andean peoples, from the past until nowadays.

• Andean highlands, desert and telescopes
• Where the atacama desert begins
• Saint Lawrence, patron of the miners
• Through the window Brazil, Argentina, Chile
• Santiago de Chile: poetry, recycling, arts

During the last year, the high petrol price has stimulated the production of biofuels from alternative sources (biomass). For effect of the crescent corn demand (used to produce bio ethanol) on the part of the North-American market, the price of this cereal increases, breaking up any record. The main producers, United States, China, Argentine, Mexico, Brazil, and in general the whole Latin American region, go on consequently to increase the production and the extension of agricultural territory. In this scenery, the cultivation of transgenic maize becomes more than a temptation, rising a question: is it ethical to transfer the production of a basic element in the diet of millions of people towards the tanks of our cars? Ecuador represents an emblematic example of this contradiction: in the Amazonian river basin the extraction of oil and in the Western region the crescent maize production, while many people continue to face the challenge against starvation. As we don’t like to talk about problems that seem far from the possibilities of any single person, at least without giving a little hope, we flag some Ecuadorian associations that operate in the field of human rights, rural communities and ecology; maybe someone would be interested in activities of cooperation/volunteering in Equador: Sinchi Sacha, Ecuador volunteer, Fundacion Brethen y Unida, Jatun Sacha, and many others we didn’t contact directly (mainly aiming at supporting rights of the indigenous communities of the Amazonian rainforest).

• Towards Ecuador, goodbye Colombia
• Tena, a look to the Amazon
• Last shamans of the Amazon
• In Quito
• From Coca to Iquitos