Over 60,000 people are working in toxic, informal gold mines in the Peruvian city of La Rinconada. We braved the extreme elevation and the subzero temperatures to investigate what life is like in the highest inhabited place on earth.
All posts by Nick
Lima: South America’s Culinary Capital
South America’s Culinary Gem
In the eyes of foreigners, Lima often plays second fiddle to Cusco. Sure it has horrendous traffic, and it’s unsafe in parts, but most Limeños (people from Lima) love their city. And what’s not to like? Bohemian neighborhoods that once housed Peruvian writers such as Mario Vargas Llosa are perched on rocky cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, spring like weather occurs all year around, and welcoming locals will quickly become your best friend. Ultimately, when it comes to singing Lima’s praises, it’s all about the food. Spicy, fresh, organic and raw, Lima’s cuisine is one of the best in the world. It’s gastronomy is a synthesis of everything that is Peru; it takes its ingredients from the Amazon jungle, the high Andes and the Pacific, blending it together with Peru’s multi ethnic make up. The largest number of Asians in Latin America reside in Peru, adding to the flavor of many dishes; Afro-Peruvians, Quechua and Aymara natives, Spanish, Italian and Germans have contributed as well. If you come for one thing, come for the food.
Most tourists give Lima a day, maybe two. They see the somewhat uninspiring streets of Miraflores and then they leave, claiming that Lima ‘isn’t that interesting’ or ‘it’s just a big city’. But that’s their loss. Lima is hot, chaotic and in your face, but it’s also beautiful, cosmopolitan and incredibly diverse. Skipping Lima for the tourist shops of Cusco or the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu would be to miss arguably the most important part of the country; it would be missing Peru at its most sophisticated, contemporary and progressive. While Cusco and Machu Picchu look towards Peru’s past, Lima looks towards its future.
View of Miraflores from the cliffs of Barranco. Miraflores is one of the most upscale neighborhoods in Lima, and is filled with an array of great restaurants, bookstores and ocean views.
Local resident in the neighborhood of Barranco. Barranco feels more like a small Mediterrian town rather a neighborhood within a city of 10 million people.
Barra Cevichera José y Juanita in Lima’s La Victoria neighborhood serves up some of the best ceviche in Lima. Traditional ceviche, like this one, is made with raw corvina (sea bass) marinated in key lime and served with corn and sweet potato. It cost 15 Soles ($5), while delicious ceviche can be found on the street for less than half that price.
Ice cream vendor on the streets of La Victoria, one of Lima’s chaotic neighborhoods south of downtown.
For a few dollars, Parque de las Aguas in Lima provides cheap entertainment with water, light and sound.
Turn of the century architecture around Plaza San Martin, one of the European squares in the city.
The street markets of Ate.
Rock Fish and plantains steamed in a Patioba leaf? This tasty meal can be found in the Amazonian section of the Ceres market in Ate.
The announcer at Brisas keeps the crowd entertained.
Dancers at Brisas del Titicaca performing a traditional dance from the highlands of Peru.
Brisas del Titicaca is a cultural center/restaurant/nighclub that highlights dancing and music from Peru’s many distinct regions.
While out filming in el centro de Lima we ran in to la señorita Mishel Serna, who was crowned Miss Lima 2014. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join in the photoshoot.
Riding the buses though the very chaotic and congested streets of Lima will only cost you a few cents, but they’ll take you on a roller coaster ride you won’t forget for a long time.
The cliffs of Miraflores come alive at sunset. Miraflores is a upscale neighborhood in Lima, Peru, popular with shoppers and tourists.
Local resident at the Plaza de Armas in Centro de Lima.
A young woman performing a song from the central highlands of Peru.
Graffiti covered streets in Quillca, an area with old school bars, underground punk shows, old record shops and more radical bookstores than you can count. This graffiti says “Femicide-74% are mothers of 1 to 3 children-assassinated.”
Buying records in Quillca.
Plaza de Armas at night.
Pre carnival celebrations in Centro de Lima.
Preparing for carnival in Centro de Lima. Carnivals in Peru are know for their water street battles, a tradition that dates back to the 1800s.
Manolo’s is a classic spot in Miraflores that has been serving up tasty sandwiches and churros since 1968. The crispy, sugary churros comes in three flavors, manjar blanco, chocolate and crema pastelera. They are all delicious, so get all three!
More pre Carnival celebrations in Ate.
Ayahuasca is an upscale bar in an old converted mansion in Barranco. The bar features numerous drinks that combine unique ingredients from Peru, such as coca leaves and starfruit mixed with Pisco.
A businessmans store that has been converted into a shrine to Peruvian football. This man spoke nostalgically of the time when Peruvian football was at its height. The last time Peru was in the world cup was 1982.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Walker then majored in International Relations and Chinese at the New School University in NYC. He began traveling during a high school exchange to Argentina, and hasn’t stopped since. Walker has always sought out the more unusual and off the beaten path locations and is combining his love for photography and travel to kickstart a career as a journalist, striving to redefine the profession in rapidly changing world.
Memories from Carnival in Rio
I spent three weeks filming and conducting interviews for our upcoming documentary series on Carnaval. We worked with Mayor Eduardo Paes’ international communications team in the Palácio da Cidade covering all aspects of Carnival, while focusing on what goes on behind the scenes. Here is a selection of my favorite shots.
In recent years there’s been lots of negative press concerning Rio and the upcoming olympics. The goal of this project is to document all the hard work and organization to show a side of Carnival that tourists and international press often overlook.
Ipanema beach at sunset, looking out towards Dois Irmãos.
Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio, starting the week of Carnival celebrations at the City Hall. The mayor began Carnival by handing off the key to the city to the King Momo, the official King of Carnival, joking that the King will now inherit all of the cities problems. Eduardo Paes has been busy hosting the World Cup last summer and the Olympic Games in 2016. Despite the stress, Paes is a pragmatic and energetic man who loves Carnival and Samba as much as any Carioca. Paes once said, “I don’t want to compare my city to Zurich, thank God we’re not that boring.”
Raquel getting ready to dance like a Baiana (a woman from Bahia, Brazil) at the Cordão do Boitatá.
Cordão do Boitatá in the histrotic old city of Rio.
Taking a break before Cordão do Boitatá begins at Praça XV.
Raquel preparing another costume.
The people you find in the back alleys of Rio during Carnival.
The Sambódromo around 2:30am, with many hours of parades to go
Lady from Vila Isabel, waiting in the rain for hours before entering the Sambódromo.
Orquestra Voadora.
Rio is eager to clean up its image before the 2016 Olympic Games. Much of the cities waterfront was once an area with elevated freeways, homeless, crime and trash. Last year the city tore down the freeway, is converting the new spaces into parks and plazas, and planting new trees and plants with the intention of radically changing the area. The area is known as the Porto Maravilha (the Marvelous Port), and it is one of the largest urban renewal projects in Latin America.
Inside the Porto Maravilha area the new Museu do Arte do Rio examines Rio’s past and present. I’ve never seen a museum that portrayes histroy, race, economics and gentrification so honestly. The exhibition Do Valongo à Favela (from Valonga to the Favela) traces Rio’s histroy from the slave port to the contemporary favelas.
Exhibitions also examine gentrification, fighting for public space.
Praia Vermelha and Pão de Açúcar.
View from the top of Pão de Açúcar.
A few blocks from the Museu de Arte do Rio is the wonderful Pedra da Sal. This area was once where the slaves from Africa were bought and sold, and it is rumored to be where samba was born. Today it atracts people from many walks of life who come from the samba, the spicy food, the art and the good times.
Samba in Pedra da Sal.
The old and the new in Porto Maravilha.
I spent the last few days in Rio exploring Zona Norte. This is the Complexo do Alemão, one of the largest favelas in Rio, which now has a gondola which facilitates transport to the rest of the city.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Walker then majored in International Relations and Chinese at the New School University in NYC. He began traveling during a high school exchange to Argentina, and hasn’t stopped since. Walker has always sought out the more unusual and off the beaten path locations and is combining his love for photography and travel to kickstart a career as a journalist, striving to redefine the profession in rapidly changing world.
Pan Pipes and Ping Pong
Sampling a Traditional Peruvian Meal
by Nick Neumann
LIMA, PERU
We met a friendly Limeña while watching the 49ers game at an American sports bar in Lima’s upscale neighborhood of Miraflores. After chatting for a while, Yirka invited us over to her house on the weekend for a traditional Peruvian lunch. So on Saturday morning we met at her house in the outskirts of Lima and headed off to the local market to buy ingredients for Papa a la Huancaína, while grandma prepared the cuy (guinea pig).
We started off by buying Queso fresco, yellow pepper for the Huancaína sauce and lots of potatoes, of course, followed by onions, tomatoes, and avocados for the salad. Produce in Lima is always extremely fresh and delicious, grown on small family farms in the highlands or in the jungle. There were many jungle fruits that neither of us had ever tried before. The friendly fruit vender let us sample a grenadine (a delicious, sweet passionfruit), a dragon fruit and a juicy golden pineapple.
After a quick juice break, we took a detour to the shamanistic section of the market. There are lots of weird things for sale in this part, including dried llama fetuses, dead frogs and snakes, hallucinogenic cacti and piles of coca leaves. The llama fetuses are buried under the foundations of many Peruvian houses as a sacred offering to the goddess Pachamama.
We arrived back at the house and Yirka began preparing the Huancaína sauce and cooking the potatoes. Although the dishes name is derived from Huancayo, a city in the Peruvian highlands, it has become a staple throughout the country. 
The cuy, a traditional food of Peruvian Andean people, was in the oven. Grandma had prepared it simply with a stuffing of various Andean herbs and put it in the oven for about six hours. There isn’t much meat on their tiny bones, and their giant buck teeth are a bit off putting, but they are pretty tasty.
After thoroughly enjoying lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon playing the pan pipes and ping pong with her family.
Growing up in downtown San Francisco surrounded by tourists, hobos and crackheads gave Nick a unique perspective on inner city living. His diverse upbringing conditioned him for a globetrotting life of urban adventure. After traveling extensively through South Asia, he kicked it with Maasai warriors during a four month stay in Tanzania, majored in Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College and recently spent seven months backpacking around South America making documentaries.
Tanzania’s Water Crisis
Katuma: River of Contradiction
Tanzania’s Water Crisis is caused by a convoluted mix of corruption and climate change, and heighten by competition between an exploding population and the dwindling wildlife.
Directed, filmed, and edited by Nick Neumann
In Tanzania water is not just a basic human need, it is a most vital resource that permeates every facet of society. Water ties people, communities, industry and wildlife together within a complex interconnected network. More than any other resource it determines the livelihood and well being of families, villages and entire regions; as such the inextricable link between water access and poverty is more visible here than almost anywhere else in the world. The relationship is complex, but at the same time simple tounderstand, boiling down to the fact that access to adequate amounts of clean water is essential for maintaining good health and access to water for agriculture is essential for food production.
In recent years in Mpanda, Tanzania access to water has actually been decreasing despite decades of national and international efforts to improve it. This can be attributed to various human factors and environmental changes. As Mpanda’s population continues to increase and investment into water infrastructure remains minimal at best, it appears as if the situation will only get worse.
This will have devastating ramifications for the majority of Mpanda residents who rely on crop production to support their family. It is also bad news for the women and children who already spend many hours each day collecting water for use in the home. Water collection and water born diseases contribute greatly to the loss of manpower on the farm and children unwillingly forgoing their education.
Furthermore, diminishing water levels could also spell a sharp decline in tourists, and the money they inject into the local economy. The fatal effects on the wildlife in neighboring Katavi National Park are clear to see, especially in the declining population of hippos, the key attraction of the park.
Poverty can be a result of political instability and ethnic conflict, but in peaceful Tanzania the greatest cause of poverty is the lack of access to water. This video follows the Katuma River, the lifeline of the region, from its source along downstream past Mpanda town to the entrance of Katavi National Park. It explores the dynamic role of water in Tanzanian society with regard to poverty through interviews with villagers, officials and experts that were conducted while studying abroad with the School of International Training. Ultimately, I hope to draw attention to the importance of water in the development of societies and garner support to a region that desperately needs it.
Growing up in downtown San Francisco surrounded by tourists, the homeless and crackheads gave Nick a unique perspective on inner city living. His diverse upbringing conditioned him for a globetrotting life of urban adventure. After traveling extensively through South Asia, he kicked it with Maasai warriors during a four month stay in Tanzania, majored in Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College and recently spent seven months backpacking around South America producing documentaries.