The new student photo series continues again today.  If you have sent photos, thank you and we will work on posting.  If  you have yet to send photos see this entry for details.

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Ramón Peña-Franco (Incoming MPA)

The first picture was taken during a trip to southern Mexico in the spring of 2009, near the border with Guatemala and Belize.   This is the symbol and a small group of supporters of  the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN), a revolutionary leftist movement based in Chiapas, the southernmost State of Mexico. Since 1994, the group has been in a declared war “against the Mexican state,” though this war has lost strength through the years. Their social base is mostly rural indigenous people, like the ones shown in this photo.

I built a company along with some American businessmen that invests in agricultural projects across US-Mexico border to develop organic production and other agroindustrial activities. This photo was taken during a business trip to a Northern State in Mexico in the summer of 2010. One of our workers is driving a tractor and putting a plastic on the land where other workers would start the planting process afterwards.

In the summer of 2009 I made a trip along the Pacific coast of Michoacán, a Western State of Mexico, and I found several wild beaches that are visited by a very small group of people. I was amazed by the  beauty of the place and felt fortunate to enjoy such a wonderful scenery before it is filled with hotels and massive tourism projects.

The new student photo series continues again today.  If you have sent photos, thank you and we will work on posting.  If  you have yet to send photos see this entry for details.

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My name is Helene Roy, I am an incoming MIA student.  I would like to share with you some of the numerous pictures I took during a backpacking trip I did in Chile in summer 2008.

The first two pictures where taken in the Salar de Atacama, the largest salt desert in Chile, located 50 km  south of the small town of San Pedro de Atacama (Antofagasta Region).  The last picture was taken on the road to San Pedro de Atacam, in Chuquicamata, a city known for its gigantic open-pit copper mine.

Laguna Miscanti – A brackish water lake located in the high plain of the Salar de Atacama.  One of the most beautiful scenery in the area.

Chaxa Lagoon, Salar de Atacama – The Chaxa Lagoon provides habitat for various bird species, among which are those beautiful Chilean and Andean Flamingos.

Chuquicamata open pit copper mine – In the north of Chile, this copper mine is the second deepest open-pit mine in the world (after  Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, US)