Photo Gallery

Colombia is the only country in South America that borders two oceans. However, the strategic importance of the Pacific and Caribbean coasts differs greatly. The hard-to-reach Pacific alluvial plain, lined with mangrove forests, contrasts with the rocky Caribbean coast, which is dotted with bays (picture). The major longitudinal valleys that separate Colombia’s Eastern, Central and Western Cordilleras also open out onto this coastline. The Magdalena Valley was one of the main gateways for the Spanish conquerors. To the east, the river delta is bounded by the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, whose northern flank—indented by bays, peninsulas and islands—is constantly eroded by the surf. - Book: Picture 13 – Colombia - 1977

Colombia is the only country in South America that borders two oceans. However, the strategic importance of the Pacific and Caribbean coasts differs greatly. The hard-to-reach Pacific alluvial plain, lined with mangrove forests, contrasts with the rocky Caribbean coast, which is dotted with bays (picture). The major longitudinal valleys that separate Colombia’s Eastern, Central and Western Cordilleras also open out onto this coastline. The Magdalena Valley was one of the main gateways for the Spanish conquerors. To the east, the river delta is bounded by the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, whose northern flank—indented by bays, peninsulas and islands—is constantly eroded by the surf. - Colombia - 1977

The Magdalena Valley rift lies in the lee of the Colombian Eastern and Central Cordilleras and is therefore relatively dry. Open grassland, interspersed here and there with thorny shrubs and cacti, as seen here in the Neiva area, covers the broad valley floor. - Book: Picture 25 - Colombia - 1977

The Río Patía is the longest river in Colombia’s Pacific region and forms part of one of the most impressive landscapes along the famous Pan-American Highway between Popayán and Pasto. – Colombia – 1977

At the Pasta junction (Nudo), the three Colombian mountain ranges converge to form a high-mountain landscape that is difficult to classify. The rugged, deeply incised mountain flanks contrast with basins filled with volcanic ash and gently sloping foothills, which support the maize fields of the indigenous farmers. - Book: Picture 24 - Colombia - 1977

The Sierra Nevada de Mérida, approximately 500 kilometres long, forms the continuation of the Colombian Eastern Cordillera into Venezuelan territory. In its central sections, it consists of gneiss and granite, with young sedimentary rocks overlying both flanks. As a result of significant Tertiary uplift, the central mountain block reaches extraordinary heights. It culminates in the 5,003-metre-high Pico Bolívar, but the peaks of Pico Humboldt (4,942 m) and Pico Bonpland (4,883 m), visible on the right of the picture, are only slightly lower. - Book: Picture 9 - Venezuela - 1977

Separated from the Central Cordillera by the alluvial plains of the Rio Magdalena and the Rio Cauca, the isolated mountain range of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta rises in the far north of Colombia. It reaches a height of 5,776 metres at Pico Cristóbal Colón. Dense tropical mountain and cloud forest covers the slopes up to over 3,000 metres; the snow line lies between 4,700 and 5,100 metres. - Book: Picture 14 - Colombia - 1977

The Kogi Indians live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. In the picture, the elongated building on the right is the men’s house, where the men live whilst they are in the village. The round houses, which are also thatched, serve as accommodation for the women and children. The Kogi meet only at certain times, about twice a month, for ceremonial celebrations in the villages; the rest of the time they spend – living separately by gender in two huts – in their fields, where they grow maize, cassava, bananas, pumpkins, sugar cane and beans. Whatever they cannot produce themselves, they exchange for chickens, pigs and other produce. - Book: Picture 15 - Colombia - 1977

The floor of the Cauca Rift Valley, situated at an altitude of 800 to 1,100 metres, rises gradually towards the south, reaching an altitude of 1,760 metres at Popayán and continuing through the increasingly narrow Paria Rift Valley as far as the border with Ecuador. The picture shows the rift zone south-west of Popayán. - Book: Picture 34 - Colombia - 1977

Landscape near Cuesta Boba, a well-known, striking stretch of mountain terrain in the Colombian department of Santander. The area is situated in the High Andes within the municipal boundaries of Tona, near the village of Berlín and on the major road between Bucaramanga and Cúcuta. Altitude 3,200 m – 1977

Agricultural area near Pasto, Colombia. - 1977

Landscape near Cuesta Boba, a well-known, striking stretch of mountain terrain in the Colombian department of Santander. The area is situated in the High Andes within the municipal boundaries of Tona, near the village of Berlín and on the major road between Bucaramanga and Cúcuta. Altitude 3,200 m – 1977

The natural regrowth of the slopes of the Eastern Cordillera in northern Colombia, which have been devastated by overexploitation, is hampered by the dry season, which lasts several months each year. The ravaged mountainous region, through which the Río Sube flows into the Río Sogamoso, is largely of no economic value and almost completely uninhabited. - Book: Picture 22 - Colombia - 1977

The impressive ‘Cascada La Candelaria’ is a spectacular waterfall over 150 metres high, which plunges down a steep rock face densely covered in moss and jungle vegetation. It is situated very close to the small village of Santa Leticia in the department of Cauca in Colombia. – 1977

In pre-Columbian times, the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia was densely forested up to altitudes of at least 3,000 metres. Spanish colonists and land-hungry mestizos cleared the forests and cultivated the steep slopes with maize and cassava. Rain washed the fertile humus layer down into the valleys until the bare gneiss was exposed over a wide area. Today, vast masses of scree fill the valleys, where rivers meander between gravel banks, as is the case here with the Rio Chicamocha in the department of Santander. - Book: Picture 20 - Colombia - 1977

The photograph shows the picturesque ‘Salto del Bedón’ (Cascada del Río Bedón), a mighty waterfall in the ‘Parque Nacional Natural Puracé’ in the Department of Cauca in the Colombian Andes. It is surrounded by typical páramo vegetation, including the striking large leaves of Asteropeia plants (also known as ‘giant frailjones’) and sparse grasses. – 1977

The photograph shows a section of the Río Magdalena in the department of Huila in Colombia. In this area, the still-young river emerges from the narrow rocky gorges near its source at San Agustín and flows through a deeper valley flanked by the foothills of the Andes. The photograph captures the landscape in the region between Pitalito and Garzón. – 1977

The Río Cauca in the Caramanta region (in the south-west of the department of Antioquia) forms one of Colombia’s most impressive river landscapes. Here, the country’s second-longest river winds its way through a deep canyon between the Central and Western Andean Cordilleras. Typical of this altitude are the striking palm trees that rise sporadically from the grass-covered slopes. – Colombia – 1972

Like the volcanoes Huila (5,750 m), Ruiz (5,400 m) and Tolima (5,215 m), the ice-capped Santa Isabel (5,100 m) also towers over the vast, moraine-covered plateaus of the Colombian Central Cordillera. - Book: Picture 23 - Colombia - 1977

Children and teenagers washing pans and clay pots on the Río Galíndez. The river is situated in the department of Cauca in south-western Colombia. – 1977

A Sunday outing by lorry in the Colombian province of Huila. In the Andes, lorries largely replace buses. - Book: Picture 40 - Colombia - 1977

Chimborazo rises as a mighty landmark, 6,272 metres high, on the western edge of the Ecuadorian basin range. Alexander von Humboldt had climbed the heavily glaciated volcano – which was considered the highest mountain on Earth in the 19th century – almost to the summit on 23 June 1802. He had not yet seen the eucalyptus forests in the foreground. This Australian tree was not introduced until around 1850. - Book: Picture 28 - Ecuador - 1977

At 5,790 metres, the Cayambe volcano is the third-highest mountain in Ecuador. On its slopes, at 4,690 metres, lies the highest point on Earth crossed by the equator. However, due to glacial retreat in recent decades, there is no longer an icy point on the equator. During the rainy season, however, the southern slope is often covered in snow, making it the only point along the entire equator where snow falls regularly. The photograph shows the volcano from a south-westerly direction. In the foreground, one can see the characteristic agricultural hills and farmland of Pichincha Province surrounding the town of Cayambe. – Ecuador – 1972

Another view of the 5,790-metre-high Cayambe volcano from the surrounding agricultural highlands of Pichincha Province, where the indigenous people (the Kayambi) have traditionally practised agriculture and livestock farming. – Ecuador – 1972

Cotopaxi (5,897 m) in Ecuador’s Eastern Cordillera is the highest active volcano on Earth. Although it has not erupted since 1928, the column of smoke rising above its smooth summit on cool days proves that it is by no means extinct. - Book: Picture 33 - Ecuador - 1973

The Tungurahua volcano rises to a height of 5,016 metres, 140 kilometres south of Quito. Its most recent eruptions took place in the last century. The Los Baños thermal spa, situated at its foot, is Ecuador’s most visited health resort. - Book: Picture 32 - Ecuador - 1977

The alpine meadows above the tree line have their counterpart in the humid tropical Northern Andes in the páramos: vast grasslands dotted with tussocks of stem-forming composite plants. The silvery-grey, downy leaves and the stems of the espeletias (frailejones), scorched by willow fires, present a ghostly sight, particularly when the mist rolls in (Páramo de Purace, Central Cordillera of Colombia). - Book: Picture 35 - Ecuador - 1977

These cone-shaped huts are made entirely of páramo straw (ichu grass). They are a direct legacy of the Puruhá culture. They are actively maintained in communities around Cajabamba in the canton of Colta (Chimborazo province). The people wear traditional dress, which includes felt hats with short brims and thick woollen ponchos. These provide protection against the extreme cold of the Ecuadorian Andes. – Ecuador – 1977

The Chota Valley is an inter-Andean valley in northern Ecuador, stretching along the border between the provinces of Imbabura and Carchi. In contrast to Ecuador’s generally humid and lush Andean highlands, the Chota Valley has a semi-arid microclimate. It is hot and dry all year round. The valley is one of the most important settlement areas for the Afro-Ecuadorian community in the Andes. The inhabitants are descendants of African slaves who were brought to the region by Jesuits during the colonial era to work on sugar cane plantations. – 1977