Magnificent Monoliths: The Enigmatic Idols of San Agustin

by Richard Quinn | Jul 13, 2023 | Archaeology, South America, Travel

The San Agustin Archaeological Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Huila Department of Southwestern Colombia, a mountainous region near the headwaters of the Magdalena River. Within the park is the largest complex of funerary monuments and statuary on...

An Overabundance of Bowlers: A Brief History of the Headgear on the High Plateau

by Richard Quinn | Jan 25, 2023 | South America, Travel

Original photographs by CARL DUISBERG The Bolivian altiplano is a land above the clouds, a high plateau situated between the eastern and western cordilleras of the Bolivian Andes, with an average altitude well in excess of 12,000 feet. There is less oxygen in the...

Chinchero: The Place Where Rainbows are Born

by Richard Quinn | Jan 18, 2023 | Historic Photos, Travel

VILLAGE OF CHINCHERO, PERU, AS IT APPEARED IN 1971 original photographs by CARL DUISBERG  In the time of the Inca, when the city of Cusco was the capital of a mighty empire, the village we now call Chinchero was known as the birthplace of the rainbow, in honor of the...

Children of the Altiplano

by Richard Quinn | Jan 13, 2023 | Historic Photos, Travel

HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS OF ANDEAN VILLAGERS BY CARL DUISBERG  In 1971, my good friend Carl Duisberg traveled through the remote villages of Peru and Bolivia, capturing candid portraits of the people and their daily lives, still essentially untouched by the modern world....

Puno Day Festival: A Centuries-Old Tradition on the Shores of Lake Titicaca

by Richard Quinn | Jan 11, 2023 | Historic Photos, Travel

ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARL DUISBERG The Peruvian city of Puno is known for its colorful festivals celebrating the history and traditions of the Quechua people, the proud descendants of the Inca. One of the most famous of these is known as Puno Day, the culmination...

Portraits of a People, Lost in Time

by Richard Quinn | Jan 8, 2023 | Historic Photos, Travel

HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS OF ANDEAN VILLAGERS BY CARL DUISBERG My old friend Carl has a background similar to mine, including years spent in South America, and a long-standing love of photography. Not long ago, he came across a long-forgotten cache of 35 mm negatives that...

In the Vale of the Stone Monkeys: Peril and Petroglyphs in the Colombian Jungle

by Richard Quinn | Jul 8, 2021 | Archaeology, South America

Cartagena, Colombia is one of my all-time favorite cities. It has a gorgeous setting, on the shores of the Caribbean, and with the battered walls of the old town, and the Spanish forts with their rusty cannons still in place, it has a swashbuckling history you can...

Tumaco: The Arhuaco Connection

by Richard Quinn | May 8, 2021 | Archaeology, Historic Photos, South America

When I was living in Colombia, in the early 1970’s, pre-Columbian artifacts were a commodity, a form of luxury goods for the amusement of wealthy travelers. The best hotels had jewelry stores right off their lobbies, featuring spectacular Colombian emeralds set in...

Tairona Gold: The Curse of the Coiled Serpent

by Richard Quinn | Oct 8, 2020 | Archaeology, South America

October, 1971  The first time I saw Bahia Concha was in October of ’71, when my buddy Paul drove me out there in a borrowed Land Cruiser. He’d been talking about the place for as long as I’d known him; it was like his personal holy grail. A dig that...

Tairona Gold: The Rape of Bahia Concha

by Richard Quinn | Sep 11, 2020 | Archaeology, South America

Bahia Concha, “Shell Bay,” is a sheltered cove on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, located in the Tayrona National Park, just ten miles as the condor flies from the city of Santa Marta. It’s part of a protected ecological preserve where development...