Nanni Fontana
Moskitia Indians
Photographs by Nanni Fontana
There area lacks any semblence of an infrastructure, and there is no access to medicine and medical assistance. The only hospital is in Puerto Lempira, the capital of the Dipartimiento de Gracias a Dios. There are two surgery rooms but they are badlt unequipped. Only the luckiest families can rely on small 15-horsepower motorboat that are required to reach the hospital and even those with boats it can take many hours to reach the hospital.
La Moskitia is only by plane or by boat. There are no roads that connect it with the rest of the country. Water is the predominant element in the life of the Miskitos, and many survive by working as lobster fishermen.
Rich businessmen from the Bay Islands send their ship in Puerto Lempira to collect people wishing to be employed. Their equipment is old and the divers are tempted to take chances by the prospect of earning a much needed payday. Many suffer from Decompression Syndrome which leaves them unable to work and even paralyzed.
Great pictures. I enjoyed the insight you provided into a place I never knew existed.
David Manning — September 17, 2009