This was not one of those bull fights with a matador. It was literally a series of bulls fighting with each other. There was some process of elimination, but there was no way I could figure it out.
Once again, click to view larger image.
While I´m think of it… what I miss: Alison, my bed, pizza, pasta, a clean warm shower, a clean surfaced bedroom floor, and broadband.
These are the weavers that the non-profit, AWAMAKI is working with to help them perserve their craft and culture.
the photos are uploaded as a gallery because this is the only thing I can do with these snail-paced connections. Just click on an image to enlarge.
I´m on a painfully slow connection (and funky keyboard), so these photos are in a gallery. You can see a larger version by double clicking on it.
Guine pigs are a Peruvian staple. These are in a pen ouside my bedroom window. I´m told they will be on the dinner table one evening. I may be saying “no”.
These pigs are also on the farm. They are not pets.
This is the couple I´m staying with: Jose and Silvia. They have two children, Paoula (3), and Gabriel (10). After drying the corn, they take it from the cob, then sift it to get rid of the small bits, then they hand pick out the bad ones for the chickens. The rest we eat. It´s very good corn, with huge kernals.
I leave for Ollantaytambo today, which is where I’ll be for the next month. I’ll be on the photo assignment, and will be studying Spanish while I’m there.
Here are some photos of Cusco.
At the local open air market…
More types of potatoes then you can imagine.
Selling live frogs, and also selling freshly filleted frog parts.
Yes, those are pig parts. Heads, innards, feet, all for sale. After a while I had to go to the vegetable section for sensory relief.
Fruit stands.
We started our ride at 14,000 feet and cycled to 8,500 feet, and along the way saw some fantastic sights.
Llamas are a regular sight on the roads.
At the top of the mountain pass, this was the road we drove up.
My altimeter showing 14, 170 feet.
A woman weaving on the edge of a cliff near the trail we rode down. One of the other riders wanted to purchase one of her items, but she would not sell because she said her husband only does the selling, and anyway, she needed the blanked to keep warm. She spoke an Inca dialect that one of our guides also speaks.
Most of the herders are women or children. After I took this photo she wanted a “tip”. I paid her what I’ve leaned is the going rate: One Peruvian Sol, which is about 35 cents. She was most appreciative.
We cycled through a small village just as the kids were getting out of school.
One of the riders brought 20 soccer balls (and pumps) do distribute to the children along the way. She got them used from a sporting organization. The children loved them.
The girl on the left had this expression that was priceless.
You know how it is when you’re going to a popular tourist destination that everyone hypes-up so you end up having this huge expectation and you’re hoping if reality can only partially live up to the billing you’ll be happy, but deep down inside you’re expecting that you might be disappointed but you try not to think about it because you’re going anyway and you don’t want to sour the experience with negative assumptions?
Well Machupicchu is one of those places that everyone says is “amazing, you must see it”. Well… they’re right. It’s no hype. Well, it may be hype, but reality lives up to every ounce of it.
The place is truly amazing, and yes, you must see it. However, if you go, I have a few pointers on how to do it to avoid the masses (as much as possible), and to get the most out of your trip. The photos below don’t really do it justice.
After the 1.5 hr train (assuming you’re not starting in Cusco, because if you are, add another 2 hours, which I would NOT recommend doing). The ride is an adventure in itself, passing ruins along the way. The train ends in a small town at base of the mountain, and then you take a 30 minute bus ride up a road with 12 switchbacks that feels much safer then it looks in the photo take from above.
The mountains in Machupicchu are so steep that some have almost vertical faces. After you leave the bus, you enter the grounds and after a steep walk, you see your first view of the ruins. It’s awe inspiring. There are hikes you can take from the ruin grounds, making it easy to spend the whole day there. However, there are no toilets, no food and no water on the grounds. All that stuff is outside the entrance, and all (including the toilets), come at a very steep price.
Getting energy from a rock.
The rock was carved in the shape of the mountains behind.
Views from the return train ride.
On the train ride back, the train had to stop because a van was partially on the track. A bunch of passengers on our train got out to push it.
The trails are great, but what we see along the way is amazing. Riding past Inca ruins and cycling on ancient Inca trails makes for some great days on a bike.
This is a Inca botanical laboratory. They planted various plant species at different elevations to see which crops grew best at a range of temperatures. It’s 5 degrees Celsius warmer at the bottom. To get the scale, notice the people walking at the bottom at about a 1/3 point to the left-center.
This is the first time I ever saw Adobe being made… the traditional way. Obviously a family affair.
Women in a small village we rode through.
The salt mine outside Ollantaytambo. This salt mine has been in existence since Inca times.
Finally, clean air. The Cusco area is really beautiful.
Inca walls are everywhere.
We cycled in the mountains above Cusco. Notice the shape of a Llama in the cave doorway.
Inca walls in the city
This is not a sight I’m used to seeing when I go biking!
A herder.
Making adobe bricks.
We rode past hundreds of Inca walls today.
The main church in the plaza in Cusco.
A rider in our group took a nasty spill in the loose power outside Lima.
We never saw the sun and the fog was continuous.
Our group in front of a 400 year old small church in the middle of nothing.
Mountain biking on the moon.
We went through an area of chicken farms. I could only hold my breath for so long. We were chased by some very nasty dogs. I cycled like a bat out of hell when they approached.
Cycling through the river bed. It almost never rains in Lima
I’ve been to plenty of deserts, but none that were so devoid of anything living. The low elevation desert along the Peruvian coast is almost totally barren. All the surfaces are covered with a talcum powder-like dust, which instantly gets into everything as your cycle over it. It’s in your ears, nose, mouth, and in every exposed and unexposed part of your clothing. The trail made for fantastic riding, but I’m looking forward to getting into the mountains. Once we’re at 9,000 feet, the air will be clear and we’ll be out of the sea-level pollution.
Incredible mountain biking trails.
The ride today required a 4.5 hour bus ride up a switchback road that took us from sea level to 11,300 feet on the spine of the lower Andes. Thank goodness no other vehicles were coming down as we were winding ourselves up. I’m positive I would have gotten out if that happened.
The countless number of switchbacks to the top of the Andean trailhead.
Our bus and the road.
The bike ride down was amazing. Some section were not so fun: rocky, loose, and steep. But most parts were fast, fun, and world class mountain biking.
The only signs of life at above 10,000 feet were goats and goat farmers.
We stopped at a small school in a tiny village at about 9,500 feet that was remotely perched on the side of the mountain side. The children were painfully cute.
Ruddy faces.
She asked me if I would take her picture and thanked me when I did.
Painfully cute
The ruddiest of all
After six hours of cycling, we ended the ride at the sea.
A taxi stand in a small town near lima
Pepper farmers
Lima: It’s not Paris.
reflections along the Lima shore. The sky is monochrome grey.
Visually, it’s not all that interesting. Most homes in the city core are behind 8-12′ walls with either razor wire or an electric fence above that, extending their bunker protection a full 15 feet in the air. Oddly though, it feels like a reasonably safe city. I’m sure that’s partly due to the fact that there are police and security guards most everywhere. But even walking around at night, it seems very safe, and that’s coming from a cautiously paranoid traveler.
Offering pork on a fork to passing cars... on a dusty road... yea, i'll eat that...
Woman at Christian Revival
An open air dance event that went on day and night all weekend.
Actually the most notable difference between Lima and other cities I’ve visited is the driving style. This makes Rome look like Seattle. I mean this literally: if you cross the street, plan on being run over. There are no cross walks, no little green lighted men telling you it’s OK to cross, and those annoying pedestrian beeps? Not a chance.
The only way to get across a street is to wait for a traffic jam. Or, what mostly happens is you wait until a mass of people congregate at an intersection, and somehow they communicate their intent silently like an army of ants, and then they move en-mass as a human phalanx, weaving a path through the traffic to the other side.
"taxis" taking mountain bikes up to a competition
Waiting outside the arena for the Christian Revival to start
Oh, and it’s polluted. Lima is squeezed between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes. This results is air that’s a soupy mix of fog, haze, soot, and smog. 9 million people, and about 5 million cars, most of which are taxi’s and buses all running on diesel. I’ve been here three days and still haven’t seen the sun. Thought, a few miles inland and the sun is supposedly blazing away. Kinda like the Southern California June Gloom, only its all year.
I'm in a paraglider flying over the mountain bike competition
The people are very friendly, and are particularly interested when they hear you are from the US. Seems like the legacy of Mr. Bush has worn off and Americans no longer represent evil incarnate. Well, maybe Bush still does.
All the buses have men "selling" their bus service and pushing you on the bus to hurry up the process.
robert j. mang cycling/travel 