Not long ago when returning to the country of my birth I decided to visit the lands where my grandparents’ properties were located: Cairoma and Araca, south of the city of La Paz (-67.538221 -16.902729 approximately from Google Maps).

The stories I heard as a child of long journeys my mother, her brothers, and sisters undertook as small children, traveling on baskets either side of mules through mountains, fertile valleys, high altitude planes, and multi-colored lakes, on narrow paths, through windswept canyons so windy that often the pack mules would be pushed to the precipice below.

As adults, my father and uncles rode horses whenever visiting their lands. They journeyed from west to east, following the valley. My journey was from east to west.

These childhood images have stayed with me and I have traveled in my imaginations with the images in this collection.

The monochrome photograph shows my father to the right wearing riding boots next to his father, wearing a hat third from the right; my uncle Alberto (my mother’s brother), third from the left, and his wife to the left of my grandfather Enrique Molina. This seems to be a marriage of two young locals.

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

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It is worth noting the various paths and roads and far away dwellings. The snow peaks are part of the Cordillera Real, specifically Cordillera Tres Cruces

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

A remote dwelling… Imagine living so far away from anywhere?

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

Cordillera Tres Crucez

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

16.989619-67.387249

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

Cordillera Tres Cruces

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

The fertile lands (the brown strip) have been tilled and the villagers are planting potatoes

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

This lake is truly that colour due to the minerals on the hills

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

A football pitch and a woman washing clothes on the very left of the frame.

To Cairoma Along The Kimsa Cruz Cordillera By Javier Molina

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Copyrights:
All the pictures in this post are copyrighted to Javier Molina. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.