esneeder

2009-08-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

2009-08-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

2009-08-27T18:03:00.000-07:00

they didn't have any fliers, so we were going to ask what they were protesting, but, well...
Supreme Courthouse

touristy
non-touristy

I've forgotten the rest of my Peru pictures for long enough, I have to interject with Virginia / DC

2009-08-27T17:58:00.000-07:00

2009-04-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

and stopped at this guys place for lunch
but we dropped below the clouds pretty quickly
and started down the other side, which looked cold and rainy
after walking under the glacier (and hearing it crackle as we went) we got to the pass, which was 15,253 ft

2009-04-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

our whole group in front of the Salkantay pass

The climb, at this point, still just seemed beautiful- not punishing.
and watched a farmer walking home with two dogs and one of his lost sheep
we woke up in the morning, the only two dry

2009-03-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite pictures. We camped right at the base the first night.
Then started up again, quickly passing this guy's hut, where he sold Snickers, Dots, Water, Coke, and... yep- Inca Kola

We stopped for lunch... with quite the view

2009-03-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

The first day was a bit of a shock for most of us, what with the altitude and all.
Every now and then we came across some farms. I'm really tempted to go back and live with one of these families for a month.
The next day we started the 5 day hike that would end up at Machu Picchu.

2009-01-21T01:30:00.000-08:00

Notice the purses and skirts. There were females in the combat units too, but no males in this one. Thankfully.

Later on in the day there was a parade

2009-01-21T01:20:00.000-08:00

The next day was Dia de los Muertos. Everybody went to the cemetaries to clean the graves and honor their dead. All of the caskets inside the buildings have a little box where family can put pictures or candles.

We had turned over the horses, and it was getting late, so I walked back down into town rather than taking a taxi.

2009-01-21T01:14:00.000-08:00

La puerta del sol. At one of the equinoxes (can't remember which) the sun comes right through the door to the middle of the temple.

2009-01-21T01:06:00.000-08:00

and those are the walls that are so famous at Sacsayhuaman

Here's a view from above of what looked like an arena.

2009-01-21T00:56:00.000-08:00

There was a field in the middle of what looked like an arena. It was mostly surrounded by... stone bleachers?... but there was this section that was full of chairs. VIP?

Then we rode back towards Cusco, and in the hills there's another set of ruins called the Sacsayhuaman ruins. They were the best.

The crack on the left of the wall is where one enters to go to the sacrificial altar

I dunno, but it looks like some sort of throne to me

2008-12-16T02:18:00.000-08:00

This was the sacrificial altar for both animals and humans. Usually they would pick young girls at age 3 or 4 and raise them specifically to sacrifice when they were 16 or 18. This was a great honor to them and their family.

Then we got to Q'enqo, an old temple.

Great view as we rode down the hills. This is my desktop background now.

2008-12-16T01:58:00.000-08:00

Our guide walked beside us instead of riding.

Then we hopped back on to go down to Q'enqo. My horse's name was Apatico, which means apathetic. I could have kicked bruises in his sides and he would still just wait for the others to move and plod along behind.

2008-12-16T01:39:00.000-08:00

There's a natural spring there, and the water system is still in use.

Then we went over to the ruins of Tambomachay. This was a sort of outpost along the Inca trail as it came out of the mountains into the city. It had a lot of extra rooms for travelers who would stay the night and take the trail all the way in the next day.

2008-12-10T02:12:00.000-08:00

Your average country home around Cusco

Fat cow crossing

2008-12-10T01:59:00.000-08:00

The next day I had free, before the Machu Picchu hike, so I went on a horseback tour. We started out near the Cristo Blanco and headed up into the hills.

These guys were great. Their voices blended well and they had a cool sound, so I bought their cd. 10 soles. About 3 bucks. I'm all for supporting good musicians.

2008-12-10T01:45:00.000-08:00

There were street performers - music, tumblers, magicians - and all the kids dressed up, holding out bags for candy saying "Halloweeeeeen." Trick or treat doesn't tranlate well, so they just say "Halloween."

Now, Peruvians know how to celebrate. Halloween was a huge festival. The Plaza was full, as well as the 4 or 5 blocks all around it.

Here's a lady and her llama. The llama looks bored. Not a city llama I guess.

I didn't mean to make it look like Temple Square, but...

2008-11-30T22:20:00.000-08:00

They still chime the bells three times a day.

This is my meal of Cuy. Great view. Gross food. I tried, I really did, but there's not much meat, so you have to dig around the inside of the cuy (prepared only by dipping in boiling water to remove the fur, then cooked whole) and pick out the meat, which tastes... like I imagine a rat does.

2008-11-30T22:08:00.000-08:00

The original Cusco, stone-built by the Incas, was in the shape of a Puma. Now the plaster and adobe buildings fill the valley.

The Cristo Blanco overlooking the city.

This room was where they held the Inquisition in Cusco. Notice the skull and crossbones over the archway. Now it's a painting store.

2008-11-30T21:52:00.000-08:00

This is an archway over the road (yes road- carts and mini cars drive along it) between a cloister for nuns and an abbey for monks. They found out decades after it was built that there's a secret tunnel in the archway. They were not supposed to have contact with anyone, especially of the opposite sex, but... the call it the arch of the union.

This was on "la calle de los siete serpientes." Seven Serpent street. How'd you like to have that address?

Me and a llama.

The religion in Cusco held a belief in the "triologia," or tri-ology; the puma for strength, the serpent for wisdom, and the condor for peace. You see those three carved in a lot of buildings, like the serpents over the door here.

2008-11-30T21:39:00.000-08:00

The Spaniards destroyed part of this wall and tried to rebuild it. You can tell their part has sunken in, crumbled, and been patched.

The Incan buildings are all still standing as originally built- no mortar, no cracks. These stones are perfectly shaped. The smaller ones at the bottom absorb tremors from regular earthquakes. All the Spanish buildings have fallen at least once.

This is "the rock of 12 angles." Fairly famous, first for its religious significance, but also as the trademark for Cusquena beer.

I arrived in Cuscu late at night, but found that my hostel that I had reservations at was just off the plaza, about 20 steps. Cusco was my favorite town.

2008-11-26T08:20:00.000-08:00

These are the Spanish guys I met on the boat.

The Plaza de Armas in Puno

I went to talk to these guys, thinking it'd be a great chance to learn some more of the culture of the islands- all they wanted to talk about was the election.

2008-11-26T07:57:00.000-08:00

Right as we left the island it began to rain. By the time we hit the mainland it had stopped. That was one of the two times it rained my entire trip. How cool is that?

She's spinning thread.

2008-11-26T07:46:00.000-08:00

...where we hike to the top of the island. This was the first serious walking I'd done, and the elevation was killing me.

Then the 2 hour motor boat ride (Lake Titicaca's huge!) to the island of Taquile. No, not Tequila.

Freddy's wife is the one in the red jacket. I'd like to think that when they sang to us as we left the island it was very authentic, but I'm sure they do it for all the tourists.

2008-11-24T01:00:00.000-08:00

Freddy seeing us off in the reed boat.

Their new kitchen. Freddy and his wife used to live on another island, but the mainland authorities were doing some "controlled" burning on a neighboring island, and the flames hopped to his.

Freddy was making miniature boats from strands of reed and thread.

I forget her name, but this is Freddy's daughter. She's learning to weave.

2008-11-24T00:47:00.000-08:00

This is my second experience eating stick. The first was (unknown to me until I bit into it) sugar cane from a Mexican guy in California. This was the root end of an Uros reed. Much more bitter.

Living on the islands is a very simple, comfortable life. Everyone's barefoot.

One of the floating islands. The red-roofed building is the local school.

The reeds on Lake Titicaca

2008-11-19T00:37:00.000-08:00

Lake Titicaca

Here you go, mom- the lighthouse, er, lamp on lake Titicaca.

Then I went to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. I went to another cheap place. Maybe a little too cheap. "Hot water 24/7" apparently means wires coming out of the wall heating the pipe above your head. Yep. I got shocked.

2008-11-19T00:25:00.000-08:00

Cuy.

This is a piece of beautiful engineering. To wash their clothes they'd come to these basins, stick their hand in to dam the water, it would rise to the level of the pipe opening, and start filling the basin.

2008-11-19T00:09:00.000-08:00

The convent has been painted since it was opened as a museum, but that's about the only upgrade. It made for some nice artsy pictures.

The kitchens. Those cubby holes underneath are where they would breed and keep the cuy (guinea pigs). Nice and handy when you wanted to make a quick midnight snack.

A water purifier. After 3 hours of water seeping through the stone, about 2 liters of purified water is collected.

2008-11-18T23:58:00.000-08:00

The monastery is like a town in a town. It's got it's own small streets, even.

it also had plenty of original paintings. These were around the courtyard, painted to help the girls memorize certain phrases if they weren't good at reading. 55 phrases, 55 paintings around the courtyard.

This is a tour of an old convent. Part is still blocked off, where the nuns live in seclusion today. This is where the second child, if she were a daughter, would have been forced to live until sometime in the mid 1700s when it became mandatory from age 10 to 14, then one could choose to stay or not.

This room is where they would have the little contact with the outside world the higher-ups were allowed- through wooden slats.

2008-11-18T23:50:00.000-08:00

There's a town square above the main city that has these famous arches with phrases patriotic to Arequipa written over the top of each. This is where I bought my paintings.

2008-11-18T23:42:00.000-08:00

Inside were a bunch of original Spanish paintings on the walls depicting various saints and the deeds they did to become saints

2008-11-18T23:25:00.000-08:00

They took us to another cathedral we were allowed inside of.

Arequipa's surrounded by three active volcanoes, the most famous called Misti. If any of the three were to blow, they're very close to the city.

...like this guy in an alfalfa field (I think) with his dogs.

2008-11-18T23:15:00.000-08:00

Then, outside the city, there are plenty of farms and terraced gardens

These are all 16th and 17th century pieces of architecture on buildings still used today.

This and other ladies in even more flamboyant "typical" dress and by no means just for the tourists. They definitely cling to their old styles.

2008-11-18T22:42:00.000-08:00

I got to Arequipa late at night, but in the morning I found my hostel was about a block from the Plaza de Armas, and Arequipa was much more beautiful and green than anything so far.

2008-11-18T22:34:00.000-08:00

...and then became the road. This picture doesn't show it, but they seriously covered the road. we had to stop and wait for a tractor to come by to plow a lane free.

2008-11-18T22:22:00.000-08:00

...which started blowing across the road

and then we drove next to the sand dunes

we saw a condor on the bus ride, which is good luck... the condor, not necessarily that it was on the bus ride.

2008-11-16T23:21:00.000-08:00

Some small city between Nazca and Arequipa

This is Alesandro, the security guy at the bus place in Nazca. Not only was he super funny and gave everyone a hard time, but he had a sweet old-school revolver on his hip with a solid wood grip.

lomo saltado y una Inca Kola... siempre

and my favorite- the monkey

The dog... with two tails for some reason

2008-11-15T03:02:00.000-08:00

the parrot

the tree and the hands

more lines

..again

the hummingbird

2008-11-15T02:11:00.000-08:00

Then we started banking hard over the pictures, to get a good view. This is the spider.

Most of the Nazca lines are just that- lines. Wide, thin, short, long, angled, attached, whatever. They've found out that even though these are pre-Incan and they don't even know how they were made, most of the lines follow or point to the main underground waterways.

Here's the dry river.

Then I bought a ticket to fly over the Naca lines, and got in this plane.

There's lots of dogs all over Peru, cities and in the middle of nowhere. This one was on the roof. For some reason.

2008-11-15T02:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the ruins around Nazca

Nazca's in the high desert of Peru. Funny enough, Kuwait has no cactus - it has absolutely nothing - so even this vegetation was something worth taking a picture of.

2008-11-15T00:07:00.000-08:00

At the bottom of which plenty of water is flowing through underground rivers and streams. Funny enough, the river that goes through town is bone dry.

... so we saw the aqueducts. There's about 20 of these holes scattering the field.

I found a taxi driver to take me to the aqueducts, and he offered to take me to a few other places too, like the ruins.

This store is named after the lady's niece, whose name is Stacey, but to make it sound right in Spanish she re-wrote it.

Then I got to Nazca and found a cheap place to stay. Cement floor and an extremely droopy bed- but not droopy in the middle. Just off to one side. That was difficult.

2008-11-13T02:27:00.000-08:00

some good sunset pics along the way

and this dude driving a... lifted tractor?... a motor tower?... I'm not sure.

and took the bus past some farms and orchards

Then in the morning I drove out by way of the beach

2008-11-13T01:13:00.000-08:00

The slums, from above

The cross on top of San Cristobal

At the top of San Cristobal hill there's a good view of the city, and the bullfighting arena here behind me.

On the hills around Lima is where the slums are, but the city pays them to paint the crumbling buildings bright colors, and they put up signs saying things like, "keep Lima beautiful, don't dump trash." Quite the facade.

Girl on the tour bus.

2008-11-13T01:04:00.000-08:00

I'm not gunna label all these old buildings. They're just old and cool.

...and the Inca Kola band. Truly captivating.

Me and a huge bottle of Inca Kola. I didn't even know, but when I was there it was "la Semana de Lima." Lima week. There were tons of parties going on.

So I had to talk to them. They were pretty nice.

They have these on all four corners of the government buildings. How cool.

2008-11-13T00:54:00.001-08:00

This is the main government building in Lima

One of my favorite pictures. The Plaza de Armas and main fountain in the square.

Some of which are still used as their original purpose: worship

All of Lima (and most towns) are a strange mix of old and new. New stores in buildings. Usually 16th and 17th century Spanish architecture.

2008-11-12T23:58:00.000-08:00

...and the main shopping district

...to the Plaza de Armas in Lima

These are the two people I met at the airport in Atlanta that took me around the first day.

And a good meal the next morning. Papa a la Huancaina and Inca Kola

My first night in, found a good place to stay