February 17th - 12:59

Title: February 17th - 12:59 Medium: Super-8 film Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Resolution: 2880 x 2160 File Type: H.264 Codec / MP4. Comments: There is a mountain in Peru that is as colorful as a rainbow. With seven colors layered on top of each other, which are caused by its mineralogical composition. "The seven colors of the mountain are due to its mineralogical composition: the pink colour is due to red clay, mud, and sand; the whitish colouring is due to quartzose, sandstone, and marls, rich in calcium carbonate; the red is due to claystones (iron) and clays belonging to the Upper Tertiary period; the green is due to phyllites and clays rich in ferromagnesian; the earthy brown is a product of fanglomerate composed of rock with magnesium belonging to the Quaternary period; and the mustard yellow colour comes from the calcareous sandstones rich in sulphurous minerals.The mountain used to be covered by glacier caps, but these melted in 2013." The first time I ever visited Rainbow mountain in 2018 it was covered in snow with patches of colors visible. It was a beautiful contrast. This time in 2024, I was able to see all of the colors! It was a harder hike this time around, as I was not chewing on coca leaves and charcoal that makes your steps faster and heart beating rapidly like it wants to dance out of your chest. This time was calm, cool, and slower. We arrived at a time that all the tourists had left and it was just Charlie, me, and our guide. Once we made it to the top we met an Alpaca wearing sunglasses and people selling giant ears of inca corn on the cob, a nice snack at this altitude. We sat on top of the highest point to make art. Pictures, portraits, and videos. As I had done in the past when this place was snow white. There is something about coming to a place more than once, especially on a nature hike like this one. How the world changes, how we change, how the landscape changes colors like leaves on the tree over the seasons. It is as if no moment is the same, even if you go over and over to the same place. We are different, the air is different, the clouds and sky and temperature. Always in flux. Change is the common denominator to experience. Change creates memory. We hold on to change with photography and video. A piece of existence lives forever like a time capsule. The present never existed until the shutter creates the proof. The flow of time ceases and the present instantly becomes passed. Rainbow mountain is a phenomenal phenomenon, there is only a few places in the world just like it. Layers of sand, layers of color. Nature is an artist herself.