Photos

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Jorge and Barbara at Machu Picchu in May 1995. As romantic as this photo looks, they both had altitude sickness at the time.

The coastline of Lima by the Malecón (Boardwalk), in the district of Miraflores. Barbara and Jorge lived for a few years along this stretch of the Malecón.

Credit: Jorge Vera

Pilgrims camping in the Sinakara Valley, Qoyllur Rit’i pilgrimage, 2008. This was Jorge and Barbara’s second trip to what is the largest indigenous pilgrimage in the western hemisphere. By then, the glacier had fled about 40 feet up the mountain compared to 2006.

Credit: Jorge Vera, 2009

Barbara and a celebrant at the Qoyllur Rit’i pilgrimage enact the ancient Andean ritual of Yawar Mayu, Quechua for “river of blood.” In this form of ritual combat, pilgrims lash each other’s legs with braided leather whips; while blood is rarely drawn, the act symbolizes nourishing Pachamama (Mother Earth) with blood to ensure fertility.

Credit: Jorge Vera, 2009

Villagers from the town of Huashao make snow cones from 50,000-year-old glacier ice harvested near Mount Huascarán.

Credit: Jorge Vera, 2009

Jorge, Barbara and their son, Sam, by Lake Llanganuco, in Huaraz. The couple were part of a group of scientists and writers invited to attend Adapting to a World Without Glaciers, a weeklong workshop sponsored by Peru’s Ministry of the Environment and the (US) National Science Foundation.

Credit: Jorge Vera

Barbara by Mount Huascarán in 2009.

Credit: Barbara Drake-Vera, 2009

A dog rests by the entrance to Yungay National Cemetery, in Peru’s north central highlands. On May 31, 1970, an avalanche and mudflow triggered by the Ancash earthquake destroyed Yungay and 10 nearby villages, killing about 30,000 people.

Left to right: NBC News correspondent Anne Thompson, French glaciologist Tomas Condon, local village leader Sra. Espinoza and Barbara Drake-Vera at Pastoruri Glacier during filming of the NBC Nightly News special “In Peru, Melting Glaciers Lead to Water Wars” (aired Dec. 8, 2009).

Credit: Barbara Drake-Vera, 2009.

Seated on the disappearing Pastoruri Glacier, Peruvian glaciologist Marco Zapata is interviewed by Anne Thompson (left) for an NBC Nightly News special in 2009.

An antique olive press in Parque El Olivar (Olive Grove Park), in the district of San Isidro, Lima. The olive trees were planted in 1637 by San Martín de Porres (1579-1639), the first Black saint of the Americas. Barbara’s father lived in a dementia residence near El Olivar for the last nine months of his life.

Barbara helps her father, John, as he blows out the candles on his 88th birthday cake. Behind him is a health aide and a fellow resident at “El Olivar,” in San Isidro, Lima.

Credit: Nati Nuñez

Barbara and Chata, Jorge’s late cousin, on their 2012 trek around Mount Ausangate. The expedition is recounted in the last chapter of Melted Away.

Credit: Barbara Drake-Vera

An alpaca stands amid ichu grass in Paco’s corral, in the village of Upis, near Mount Ausangate.