Photographer Page

Tomás Munita

A Magellanic penguin appears unperturbed by a passing herd of guanacos in the Punta Tombo reserve on Argentina’s Atlantic coast. The Tompkins Conservation group, owned by a wealthy couple, is working to buy millions of acres of land across Chile and Argentina, then donate them to create new parks. (From “How an unprecedented gift built a legacy of conservation in South America,” April 2020.)

Sixteen-year-old Walter Saan is attended by nurse Gusman Kunchiku, at the health center in Chiriaco, which sits on a tributary of the Amazon River. Saan came down with symptoms resembling COVID-19 and came to the health center for a test. Many of the doctors and nurses who worked in this region were infected with the virus, leaving health clinics understaffed and under resourced.

Relatives dress and prepare the body of Julia Sebastian War, a member of the Wambi tribe who died at age 102 in Imacita, Peru. According to tradition, her body was kept at home for three days as relatives from all over the region arrived to pay their respects. In remote parts of the Amazon, there are few signs that COVID-19 has affected daily life or death rituals.

An indigenous Awajun woman walks to the village of Wawain in the Amazon region of Peru. Many people in this region are believed to have been infected with the virus, but now, according to photographer Tomas Munitas, the leaders have decided the pandemic has run its course. “Life is back to normal,” he says.

Bagualeros, or cowboys in Patagonia, pause in their search for cattle on Antonio Varas Peninsula in Chile.