A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
010: Navajo guide
When we entered in Monument Valley on an exceptional rainy day, we were advised to leave our rental car at the entrance. Our car wasn’t suitable to drive on the trail that is full of holes and lose stones. Instead, we were introduced to one of the park guides. This stoic man of the Navajo tribe offered his services and van for quite a overrated fare. Nevertheless, we accepted his offer, and entered the old van. We quickly noticed that the road was indeed unsuitable for our car. The van shook and vibrated with every hole and loose stone. The guide was a gifted driver and managed to maneuver swiftly along big holes and stones. He stopped regularly at the most popular viewpoints, where he waited somewhat impatiently until we entered the van again. He then had to kick hard to have the sliding door closed. We were worried that this door would fall off during our drive, but fortunately, this door proved to be stronger than we could have imagined. The guide wasn’t eager to pose for us, but allowed us to take a picture at a longer distance.
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 1999, 2017