Cusco Riot Police [Canon 10D]
(click in the image for a larger version)
On my final day in Peru there was a countrywide transit strike and large demonstrations protesting the high cost of gasoline and insurance rates for taxi drivers. This meant that no taxis, busses, or cars of any kind were operating that day. Since I had to get to the Cusco airport for an afternoon flight to Lima, this presented a bit of a dilemma. Apparently, even if I had been able to find a taxi driver willing to brave the demonstrators, he would run the risk of having his car pelted with large rocks if he ran into any of them. In the end, the proprietor of my hostal enlisted the aid of a friend and they used two dirt bikes to transport me and my luggage to the airport, using narrow, cobblestone back streets to avoid the main groups of demonstrators. By the time we left, things had quieted down considerably, so it was an uneventful ride, but we did drive along streets that were littered with rocks and large chunks of concrete, which I presume was evidence of previous violence.
This image was taken in the main Plaza de Armas. In this area of the city the protests were large but peaceful and the riot police in the Plaza spent the day on the sidelines. I asked if I could photograph them and they were most obliging. The man on the far right is named Amelio.
The scuffed and scratched surface is from an old piece of plastic that was scanned and then added in Photoshop.