Like a snake, Sote streaks from the rain forest in the Amazon, through the Andes to the coast of Ecuador.

Sote is an oil pipeline, carrying the black gold from the jungle city of Agro Lagrio and 550 kilometer to the port town of Esmeralda, at the Pacific coast.
Since 1972, when the U.S. oil company Chevron-Texaco began extracting oil in Ecuador, the people who live along the pipeline had become accustomed to its presence, for better or worse.
The oil has provided jobs for local people, better infrastructure and access to internet, right in the middle of the jungle.
Meanwhile, the company’s rampage has brought tremendous impact on the environment and wildlife, and people who live near the mining has had problems with their health.

A lawsuit against the company started in 2003. Behind it stands the Los Afectados –the Affected Ones. which is the name of the 30 000 people living around Agro Lagrio.
They require six billion U.S. dollars for the exploitation and degradation of their environment that the oil extraction has caused.
The trial is still continuing today, 2010.

For better or worse, the Sote pipeline has become a regular sight in people’s lives around the Agro Lagrio.

This picture:

Sote travels through all kinds of environments. By houses, cemeteries and over streams. Over tops of mountain peaks and down into the swamps. Sote, which is 500 km long, crosses the whole country of Ecuador.