Silke Gondolf // America
2017 Trump Country
Ohio, Arizona, Nogales, Tucson, Warren, Arivaca
Traveling in the United States of America 2017: one year with Trump
2017 Cuba
Havanna, Vinales, Santiago de Cuba
The times they are changing
2016 New York
Wall Street, NYSE, Borough Park
Being a Shabbat guest is special – even more being German. The 2016 NYSE exchange is a relict of former glory. Times are changing fast everywhere!
2013 USA
New York, Brooklyn
I often go back to the former home to get inspired. Breathing in the different speed and the energy of NYC. I am glad I have moved away. I am able to come back and be a guest.
2010 Argentina
Bariloche, Esquel, Tierra de Fuego, Ushaia, Isla Martillo, El Calafate, Strait of Magellan, Bajo Caracoles, Nahuel Huapi Lake, Ruta 40, Ushuaia
Gaucho country, endless fields, endless lakes and skies. This country invites you to breathe and open your view. Best steaks ever.
2010 Chile
Santiago de Chile, Osorno, Chanaral, Pan de Azucar, ESO Paranal Observatory, Torres del Paine, Porvenir, Iquique, Humbertstone Salpeter Mine
ESO, the biggest observatory in the world, is in Chile. Seeing the full length of the Milky Way with my bare eyes was a very touching moment.
2010 Peru
Atacama, Lima, Cusco, Tacna Sibayo, Chimbote, Chiclayo, Sipan, Piura, Lambayeque, Arequipa, Nazca Lines, Arequipa, Colca Canyon, Tacna
The Atacama is endless. I swore I will hug the first tree I see, after days of driving through nothing. But then I visited a guinea pig restaurant in Lima.
2010 Ecuador
Quito, Guayacil, Sigsig, Macará, Cuenca, Catamayo, Cajas National Park
Caja National Park has an average of 4,000 meters of altitude – it’s a Tundra. The air is so clear, that you can’t judge distances.
2010 Colombia
Buenaventura, Cali, Ipiales
Buenaventura is a harbor town with some illegal, strange activities. The main police station was on the other side of the hotel – it got attacked 2 days after I left.
2010 Panama
Panama City, Colon, Pacific & Atlantic coast, Darién Gap, Yaviza
The little villages along the Panama Canal are completely untouched, people from those villages work all for the Canal. The Darien Gap, a muddy Isthmus between Panama and Colombia, is called one of the most dangerous places on earth. It is a drug and people smuggling highway, commuting through the dense, uninhabited jungle.
2010 Costa Rica
Golfito, San José, Piedras Blancas, Canoasv, Monteverde National Park, Gulf of Nicoya, Tamarindo, Langosta Bay
Living in a treehouse. Sleeping at eye level with toucans and listening to the night sounds of the jungle. Zoom on long steel zip lines through the jungle of Costa Rica, to the next tree house.
2010 Nicaragua
Border El Espino, Somoto
I got in contact with the wrong sort of Sandinistas, the ones that were, after elections, no longer supported by the newly-appointed government – and since then I am an enemy of the state and I am not allowed to ever travel in this country again.
2010 Honduras
Choluteca, Pacific & Atlantic coast, San Lorenzo Reserve, Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula
At the border crossing El Salvador/Honduras the officers wanted a big bribe.
2010 El Salvador
Sunzal, San Salvador, Tazumal, La Libertad, El Amatillo
I had armed guards with me at all times, even when buying an ice cream. The guards didn’t want to be treated for an ice cream, because when they share an ice cream with you – they cannot fight off attacks.
2010 Guatemala
Guatemala City, La Mesilla, Huehuetenango, Panajachel, Reserva Los Tarrales, Quetzaltenango, Atitlan, Antigua, Volcano Pacaya, Las Chinamas, Finca Santa Isabel
The sound of liquid lava is like that of breaking glass. On May 27, 2010 – 3 month later – the Pacaya volcano erupted, followed in several tremors.
2009 Mexico
Mexico City, Nogales, Hermosillo, Copper Canyon, Creel, Cerocahui, Mazatlan, Jalisco, Guadalajara, Tequila, Mexiko City, Teotihuacan, Puebla, Popocatepetl, Oaxaca, Juchitan de Zaragoza, Huatulco, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Palenque, Sumidero Canyon, Chiapas de Corzo, La Mesilla
Mexico being in the news for no good things is actually a very interesting, cultural rich and welcoming country. They are the nicest people!
2009 USA
West Coast: San Francisco, East Los Angeles
Hanging out with a Low Rider gang in East L.A. was special. I never felt so safe.
2003 USA
Manhattan
Tankman, building the watertowers of Manhattan.They stand at the crest of the New York skyline like rustic, weathered sentinels. Their design has changed little in more than a century, and though they resemble a relic from a forgotten time, wooden water tanks remain a fixture of the cityscape.
2003 USA
Utah: Bonneville Salt Flats
Filming old men with fast cars. Motorcar racing has taken place at the salt flats since 1914. Racing takes place at part of the Bonneville Salt Flats known as the Bonneville Speedway.
2001 USA
San Francisco
Berkeley, Muesli and hippie town. Going everywhere with a car. Hiking in the mountains. Too scared to get on a flight to NYC, after Sep 11th. The terrorist attack on the WTC had changed everything for me.
2000 Cuba
Havana, St. Lucia, Guanabo, Matanzas, Vinalae, La Palma, Cigar Factory, Malecon, Trip to the Beach, Matanzas
The US didn’t let me fly from New York directly to the “enemy” in 2000. I had to fly first to Canada and then to Havana.
2000 USA
New Orleans
Café du Monde Beignets: Bliss.
1999 Belize
Hopkins, Ambergis Key, San Ignazio, Blue Cave, Punta Gorda, Dangriga, Belmopan, San Antonio
The Chicleros, the bubble-gum harvesters, took me through the jungle to collect rubber from the trees. The horses ate oranges.
1999 Guatemala
Tikal
Stairs to heaven and no one there. The place was almost completely empty when I visited!
1998 Venezuela
Caracas, Merida, Condor Valley, Puerto Columbia, Pico Bolivar, Macuto Beach
Condors cut through the air. They make sounds like moving swords.
1998 USA: New York
New York City, Coney Island
This is where the NYC working class has fun. Best Russian food in Brighton Beach – and a Gypsy fortune teller.
1997 USA: New York
Long Island
Filming amateur rocketeers. They shoot their self-build rockets into the sky, very close to JFK airport. Every time I am approaching JFK airport I have to think of them.
1997 USA: Michigan
Detroit, Lake Michigan, Belle Isle Aquarium
Motown, empty city, empty roads, fat people, wooden houses and the nicest Aquarium I have seen.
1997 USA: New York
Coney Island
I admit, I am a total Coney Island fan
1997 USA: New Mexico
Taos, Colorado River
Native American home Country, Pueblo Indians, a very busy Colorado River.
1997 Brazil
Iguazu National Park
You get wet from the Iguazu water falls standing a kilometer away from them.
1997 Uruguay
Montevideo, Colonia
The City with the highest quality of life in South America.
1997 Argentina
Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, Trelew, Palmar National Park, Gualeguy, Calafate, Punta Tombo, Puerto Madryn, Chacabuco, Gualeguaychu, Corrientes, Posadas, Puerto Iguazu
Buenos Aires has the best ice cream ever, thanks to the Italian immigrants. The traffic is a nightmare. My similarity with someone famous in Argentina made people stop and stare. I don’t know whose lookalike I have been.
1996 USA: New York
NYC, Long Island, Caribbean Carnival Brooklyn, Coney Island, Yankee Stadium
Abroad, I always felt more German than in Germany.
1996 USA: New England, Vermont, New Hampshire
New England: Boston, Salem ; Rhode Island: Glenn Farm, HWY 15, Vermont, Newport, Cape Cod, Millinocket, New Hampshire, Mt. Washington, Cog Railway
Filming the Indian Summer in New England and experiencing an international Polo tournament in Rhode Island was special.
1996 USA: Utah, Arizona
Utah & Arizona
Meeting a Polygamist and his extended family, trying to understand how the wives schedules quality time with “the man”.
1996 USA: Washington
Seattle, Space Needle
Interviewed a guy who sells licenses for sexploitation films and who had 12 guinea pigs in his office.
1995 USA: NYC
Manhattan: The Big Snow
New Yorkers love a good challenge.
1995 USA: Florida
Florida: Keys, Everglades
Driving a hovercraft, getting really close to crocodiles and Pythons – in the most beautiful light.
1995 USA: California
California: Yosemite Park, Death Valley
Death Valley, cracked earth and endless roads. It was snowing in Yosemite Park, little foxes were making trails in the snow.
1994 USA: New York & Texas
New York City, Texas, Houston
The Space Center Houston, NASA. I was impressed by what flew into space – and came back in one piece.
1994 USA: Hawaii
Big Island, Honolulu
Walking on the lava beach, seeing two Orcas playing around in the Pacific. It was my birthday.
1992 USA: New York City
New York City
I arrived the first time in Manhattan after I had visited Tokyo – and I was not impressed.
1992 USA Los Angeles
Los Angeles, Hollywood
Here I decided to change to documentary film making, the advertising scene in the 90ies was a bit annoying.