Photos from Pisac

 Enjoying the sun!

 For the Incas there are 3 gods, Condor - god of the heavens, The Puma - god of the earth, The Snake - god or the underworld. The drainage system has been made into a representation of the snake.

 The main road where we got dropped off by the bus.

 A cool building, you can see they have etched in the Condor, Snake and Puma.

 More Inca terraces.

 My friend Elwyn trying on hats in the market.

 These 2 decided to join us on our hike up the mountain.

 This is a rare mountain flower called a shooting star. I found it fascinating, because, when I learned about it years ago, I was told it was only supposed to be found in the Rocky Mountains, (maybe it is a cousin).

 Chilling out close to the top where we stopped to have lunch.

Photos from Machu Picchu

 Proof I was there! LOL

 It is amazing how they would cave out standing stone to make, steps, sitting areas, ect. I can't imagine the time and effort it would take to do some of this work.

 This is a terraced area inside Machu Picchu  that had really great acoustics so it is thought to have been a gathering area for meetings, entertainment ect. Kinda like a town hall.

 You can't see it because of the clouds but this naturally placed stone mimics the mountains behind. There are no tool marks on the stone so it formed naturally that way.

 One of the cool plants in the area.

 This is the view from one of the terraces where we decided to have an afternoon siesta. At the end of my feet it drops off about 30+ feet. Don't roll over it is a rude awaking! Just kidding Mom, there was lots of space. LOL

 Reflecting pools used in ceremonies.

 A perfectly framed mountain through one of the windows in the guard area before the entrance to the main area.

 A view of Machu Picchu from the guard tower/area. This is where most of the postcard photos are taken from.

A Christmas tree made from green pop bottles, (in the town at the bottom of Machu Picchu ).

Photos from Ollantaytambo

 The town of Ollantaytambo from about 1/3 of the way up.

 The Incas used canals a lot.

 At the bottom looking up.

 One of the main entryways. You can tell it is a main entrance my the double frame.

 Me at Ollantaytambo

 My friends that I went to Ollantaytambo with. A lovely couple from the US.

 It is amazing how perfectly straight and uniform this ledge is.

An amazing fountain that still works perfectly.

The stairs at the end of my street. I have to climb them when return from the market. The first 2 weeks in Cusco I thought they were going to be the death of me every time I climbed them. Amazing what getting used to the altitude can do, I can now sprint up them.



One of my favorite pedestrian only streets in Cusco. I walk it frequently to and from Plaza de Armas (main square).

The other side of the wall, (and looking the opposite direction), from the previous picture.

 Another nice pedestrian only corridor. The stone building on the left is a convent.

 This is the view when you just enter Plaza de Armas from the street in the previous photo. It is the main church in the plaza, (there are 2).

This is the view to the left from where the previous photo was taken, (and the other church).

New Update

Jan 18^th

Well I tried a Peruvian dish today called Cuy (baked guinie pig). It is quite a delicacy here and the locals really like it. I found it to be ok and edible but a lot of work for what you get. I am glad I tried it but I won’t be eager to have it again. I shared it with my friends Damian and Rebecca and they felt the same way about it.

Jan 22^nd

Thing have been quiet here, there is not too many students here in the language school and being the slow season not too many tourist either. My friends Damian and Rebecca have left and I have made a new friend with a new student (Elwyn).

Jan 25^th

I have been spending my days studying Spanish and spending my evenings talking with Elwyn. She is a fascinating person and it is easy for us to lose track of time when we are in one of our many conversations. Tomorrow we go to Pisac and Ollantaytambo.

Jan 29^th,

Pisac was fun and we met a couple of very interesting people along the way. We started from the town side and hiked up, I had for gotten that my friends Annie and Renzo had told us to take a cab to the other side of the ruins then we would only have to walk down. Therefore we never made it to Ollantaytambo. It was good though, on the hick up we met 2 people who decided to hike with us and ultimately the 4 of us spent the day together. Elwyn left to continue her travels and then return to the US. It is an interesting thing about being in a tourist town, you make quick friends as everyone tends to be quite real and without pretense but everyone moves on quite quickly as well.

Feb 10^th,

Things have been quiet and nothing really to write about. This past weekend I went out with some of my friends/instructors at the school as it was someone’s birthday. We ended up going to a Karaoke club, as that seems to be fairly popular here. It was fun as a number of the people in our group can sing very well. I don’t really sing but they did convince me to participate in one song. Thank god it was in English as my Spanish is not that good yet.

 Feb 17^th,

I have stopped going to Spanish school as I now need to integrate what I have been learning. Nothing really all that exciting has been going on. I went out with some friends dancing at one of the clubs. I ended up staying later as some other friends showed up just as we were getting ready to leave and they asked me to stay for a bit. Over all it was fun but I did end up getting home way later than I originally planned. No the sun was not up but the sky was getting lighter.

 Feb 24^th,

Today I went for a hike with a couple friends, (Annie & Gallia), from the house. It was a hike that Annie knew about and not a typical tourist hike. It was good but with it being the rainy season there have been a number of landslides. We had to cross 4 of them on our hike but it was ok as it was a sunny day with no rain and the landslides had dried out some, so they were not slippery or in danger of shifting more. If it had been raining we would have turned back and not attempted it.

It has been interesting here for the past week as this week has been the festival of carnival. One of the traditions is for people to run around with buckets of water, water balloons, and water guns trying to soak as many people as possible. As you can imagine it is very popular with the younger people. More than once I have been used as a shield on the street by the young girls hiding behind me. Apparently, frequently I am the biggest thing to hide behind. While normally no one is immune from getting wet, (tourist and local alike), I have been spared from getting wet. I guess the young boys/men don’t want to take the chance with me.

Over all I would not have cared and was fully expecting it to happen. Water does not matter, however in the last few years they have also started using silly string and a type of non-permanent aerosol paint to tag their victims with. I would not have been impressed with that as that can stain cloths.

There is a humorous story though, from early in the week when I was returning from lunch with my friend Mark, (Mark is tall but quite thin).

As we are walking down the street, this young girl, (about 14), grabs me to hide behind, and the young boy, (about 11), is running so fast he cannot stop or dodge me. He ends up bouncing off of me, falling to the ground with his bucket of water on top of him. Of course the girl thinks this is very funny and the boy rushes off to get more water and I am sure the chase was on again.

Since leaving the Spanish school I have been going to a different place for Salsa lessons and have met a nice group of people. We are trying to find an evening to go out to practice as a group. This Wednesday is our first attempt we shall see how it is to get a larger group together to go out.