Five months in Bolivia - Image heavy

[Tommo]

Spent five months at Tsimane Lodge Bolivia last year, guiding fly anglers on golden dorado. Worked a lot with the local Chimane indians who were incredible hunters and great shots with their bows.
Below are a few photos that I thought might be interesting for some.





Two sabalo with one shot.






Tools of the trade.


Building canoes for us to guide and fish out of.


Pushing them up rapids was part of the daily regime. This photo taken by Barry Beck.


Sometimes I was even allowed to pilot them, much more fun than pushing.


Big cook up of catfish and coati. When we did camp trips with clients the boys fished and hunted hard and always had plenty of bush food.


A tapir for the village.


Cooking it up, nothing is wasted.


Monkey anyone?


Golden dorado were the main target species. Lots of them and a fantasic sportfish for visiting anglers.






Of course being a guide has its perks too.

[bigbob]

wow , wow wow! Terrific scenery, great, what a life! The native bows certainly fit the 'primitive' category. the string looks like it was swiped from a clothsline. but they sure know how to use them.

[longbow steve]

Wow, awesome pics Tommo. You really immersed yourself in real life over there rather than what a tourist would normally see. Do you know what the bows are made from? Cheers Steve

[discord]

Amazing!

[Gringa Bows]

loved the pics

[Buranurra]

Very very cool - I am green with envy

[Macca]

Awesome Tommo, what an adventure, nice pics and thanks for posting.

Cheers Macca.

[Curvemeister]

Awesome stuff , living the dream there alright , love the paint job on that catfish , those dorado's would be unreal to have on the end of your line by the looks of them.

[Stickbow Hunter]

Excellent photos Tommo which really show how things are. You must have had some great adventures. I must confess some of that tucker doesn't look real inviting to me.

Jeff

[hazard]

What an amazing journey, animals, fishing and all of the rest not to mention the life style.

Amazing I envy your experience, thanks for posting it

Hazard

[UPTHETOP]

Tommo living the dream mate. Hope the family are fine.

Cheers Wayno

[rodlonq]

Awesome photos Tommo. What a great adventure!

Cheers....... Rod

[RobHunter]

Lucky Bugger!

What a job! Fantastic Photo's.

Those canoes look interesting, any details on there construction, I'd like to have a go at a smaller version one day.

Rgds

Rob

[lanky]

Really great photos!, but i'll think i will skip the roasted monkey though...

[andy80]

Great photos Tommo, What is Coati???? looks like roast dog

Would love to have a crack at those Yellow fish, unreal photos of them jumping.

Andy

[Sleepy]

Some nice camera-work in there Tommo.

My personal favourite being the one with the archer shooting down (and towards the camera) into the green pool/river with (almost all) the background being totally black (due to it being in shade); sometimes it's as much about what's not in a picture that makes a picture great, as compared to what is left in it.

In this case having the background a large black (and almost menacing) blank focuses your eye on what's happening in the photo.

A good example of a photo having everything in it that's required to make it's point... and nothing else.

No distractions.

Cheers.

[Tommo]

Andy here is a pic of a coati. There are a few different species and colours of them, never got to see one with the skin on but I am fairly sure this is the one.
http://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/ ... iguazu.jpg

Rob as for the canoe construction finding the right size tree was the most important part. The struts holding the plank sides were just nailed on. Tar was used to seal all joins up. Very labour intensive hollowing out the trunks.