Earth, wind & fire: sustainable energy: a unique look at how people are utilizing natural resources, from the Andean paramos in Argentina to the volcanic fields of Costa Rica and throughout the Caribbean.

• Author: Balaguer, Alejandro

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In the distance, a solitary caravan of llamas crosses the red-ocher stained desert mesa and gradually loses itself in the horizon. Hours later, a male vicuña with his group of females behind him pauses to look at us for a couple of seconds before moving his flock along a ravine covered by millions of dwarf bushes called tola . Like the llama and vicuña, the tola is one of a few species that can resist the altitude and the extreme hot and cold temperatures of the highlands. It provides cover for the other small plant species that make up the Andean páramos. Tilcara, La Quiaca, Rinconada, and Pozuelo Lagoon are behind us now. We've been traveling over rocky roads for more than half the day, and except for a few mirage-like groupings of houses in the distance, we haven't seen any other human beings.

Finally, when we are over 12,000 feet high, and just a few miles from the border between Argentina and Bolivia, we see a surreal sight among the ravines painted orange by the sun that is setting quickly over the mountains. A thousand sparkles of sunlight are reflecting off of curved mirror-like objects--an amazing, resplendent sight. This city that appears like a mirage in the scorching Puna Jujeña is Misa Rumi, one of the "Andean solar villages" of northeastern Argentina. I look around. There are no trees and vegetation is scarce; it's a difficult place to get firewood. I don't see any power transmission towers either, and that would normally mean a problem for cooking food and warming houses. But Misa Rumi has managed to overcome its energy shortage. Every patio of every house in the village has a solar cookstove, brought in courtesy of the EcoAndina Foundation.

I had begun to learn about the new solar culture a day earlier in a town called Tilcara. In a workshop located over the rubble of what used to be the local train station, my attention was drawn to a huge parabolic reflector with a boiling teapot perched on top.

"Come on in, friend. The water's ready for mate! " I was greeted by Armando Álvarez, a small man weathered by the sun. "Welcome to our humble house, the headquarters of new community-based solar energy. As you'll see," he said, pointing to the stoves designed for catching the suns rays, "here we have declared ourselves enemies of the fossil fuel culture. I say the fossil fuel culture because for me, my environment is not just this little village where I live, but the whole world, everything."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It was clear that Armando believed in what he was doing. "Our problems now are everyone's problems," he continued. "I have to be concerned about what is happening in the Antarctic and on the North Pole because the effects will be felt all over our collective house--this planet. And this house of ours has been changing for a while now. It's been brutally altered. So, the question is, what do we do? We do our part with solar products. We want our little creations to be part of a big...