Thomas Ives
I’m occasionally asked, “How did you meet your Ecuadorian wife?” This question always triggers a reflection on why I had come to Ecuador, not to find love but to find a place of peace, wide smiles and laughter — a place to cast off the energy of a busy past, an exciting, but somewhat cluttered […]
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It’s 6:04 AM. I’ve been up reading the wonderful anthology of travel essays: Unforgettable Journeys: Great writers on great places,” wherein I discovered two bookmarks, one a photographic print of an abstract image I had created ten years ago that I like less now than I did then. And a crisp new $20 bill which […]
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Moderate rain had forced me to take shelter under a large avocado tree near the Rio Yambala in Vilcabamba. I had closed my eyes so I could concentrate on the air-born smell of petrichor, that universal scent that wafts up from the soil and plants during a rain. It always transports me back to my […]
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Two of the most ubiquitous items seen daily on earth are on display in this quick snap taken at a local tienda here in Vilcabamba. One of my campesino neighbors is relaxing in the the waning afternoon light wearing ubiquitous item #1: a New York Yankees baseball cap. No other utilitarian item of apparel has […]
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(Yeah I know … not much happening here in the pueblo today.) Sprucing up for the celebration of the founding of the parroquia de Vilcabamba. I was curious as to how the colors were chosen so I chatted with one of the municipal workers on site. He said basically there was no executive decision about […]
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There I was up in Cuenca on official business with the Ministerio de Franz Kafka. It hadn’t been pretty …. I had to return to GO and not collect $200. Later, near sundown, I was in a sullen mood walking the streets: looking for cans to kick or those silly baseball sized rocks that are […]
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His Spanish is pretty good except for those pesky irregular verbs. He’s clever enough to mumble them hoping the tense remains clear through context. He carries a well-thumbed mini-English/Espanol dictionary, so we know he’s sincere about broadening his vocabulary. He is humble (for a North American) and occasionally self-deprecating, often funny and sometimes loud, especially […]
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Tranvía de Cuatro Rios worker’s hands Not for want of hard labor! — Thomas Ives Photo created August 16, 2016 in Cuenca; Copyright, Thomas H. Ives 2016, Contact: codexoceanus@gmail.com ________________ Thomas Ives is an American-born photographer who has worked for international news and feature magazines for over 38 years. His photo essays and images have […]
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Styling in the Parque Central, Vilcabamba — Thomas Ives Photo created in Vilcabamba, 2014, Copyright: Thomas H. Ives 2014, Contact: codexoceanus@gmail.com ________________ Thomas Ives is an American-born photographer who has worked for international news and feature magazines for over 38 years. His photo essays and images have appeared in National Geographic, Time, Geo, Stern, Newsweek, Life, […]
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‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free — From: Simple Gifts. (Traditional Shaker song) A summery country road, a farmer with his dog returning to the village after collecting chilena grass for his cuy, a campesino mounted on his burro. One could not have staged such a bucolic rural […]
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“La Mordida” (The Bite) Image created August 7, 2013, Vilcabamba, Ecuador, Copyright 2016, Thomas H. Ives. For sale: Size 30cm. x 40cm., Edition of 5; Medium: Fuji Crystal Archive paper, Matte finish; Unframed, print only; Price $350 Contact: codexoceanus@gmail.com
Work hard, play hard! Saturday morning finds this worker sleeping on a pile of empty cement sacks at a construction site in Vilcabamba. His young co-workers smiled when they saw me quietly studying him: his gentle posture, beat up hands, broken fingernails, strong arms, slip on shoes instead of construction boots, the ubiquitous baseball cap. […]
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The Cuenca Dispatch
Week of September 17.
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