Cuzco, Peru, Ancient Inca Capital, Gateway to Machu Pichu!

Waiting for my pal Erin from Australia to meet me here at the infamous Hostel Loki. The header photo above is the view from my room. Not bad, eh? The photo of the large group of people is a bit of sunday afternoon comedic entertainment. A man pretend to taunt a Cholita- the native ladies who wear a most unique-to-Andean-culture, multiple ruffled skirts, knitted sweaters, and bowler hats! But the lady is really a man and was really hamming it up for the crowd, who were in stiches, even the attendant Cholita's themselves!

Cuzco is the ancient capital city of the Incan Empire, and has been a capital city for 900 hundred years. When the spanish sacked the city and murdered the last Inca King they then tore down all the amazing stones they could figure out how to move and constructed the cathedral on top of the ancient temple's, often literally using the old foundations. (Why not right. The massive mortarless stones obviously weren't going anywhere)This was done all throughout the empire and was meant to be a psychological move. "We not only have subdued you savage's but we've replace your temple's with our's. Our way of life even our religion is now totally forced upon you. So there!"

The McDonald's pictured is directly across the main plaza from the Catedral (pictured). The military parade in the photo takes place each Sunday morning. I made the mistake of standing on the nice green grass to snap a picture and then i was whistled at by an angry Peruvian. Like in most other countries besides the State's, grass is for looking at, not sitting or walking on! Shame on me. Felt very much the dumb gringo, with my two back packs on and my camera around my neck.

Last night i finished reading a book i'd started in Rio. "Richer by Asia" by Edmond Taylor. Published in 1947, it is the nonfiction account of his 28 months in wartime Asia, mainly in India and the a bit in Burma, working for the OSS studying how people think, and how to help the British-US allied force there get along and focus on the job of defeating Japan. In the book though, he mainly shares how the 2 years there changed his thinking of the East. After realizing he knew next to nothing about their religions and ways of life, which were then and even more now accounting for more than half the planets population, he began studying Hinduism and Buddhism and finally realized that if ever there was to be a united world, One World as he calls it, then the west would have to come to an understanding and appreciation of a number of the East's so called 'backwards' ways.

It was a fascinating read, especially as it was happening in an incredibly tumultuos period in world history, on the cusp of the violence and chaos of British withdrawal and Indian Partition, the rise of Ghandi's leadership and cultural revolution, the dropping of the first nuclear bombs, america's wrestling with the physical, spiritual/moral fallout from what could be basically considered mass murder on the scale of even our sworn enemies the Nazi's. It made me realize how much i really dont know about even US history, not to mention world history (for instance, i'd never even heard of the OSS).

I better go now. time to unpeel my eye's from my computer screen and say hello to the real world.

Happy Labor Day to all my friends back home,

Cheers!

Nick

Catching up on catching ya'll up

Apologies for the long absence. My excuse is good though! I was far far away from the city. First in Samaipata, a little mountain town for four days and then on a farm for 8 days and both had no internet!

Thursday August 26th I left the farm to return to Santa Cruz in one of the old beat up toyota wagons that are the de facto taxi's and are zip all around Bolivia, connecting distant towns, and they always pack people (and chickens!) in. My first ride was in the front seat which i shared for two hours on a bumpy road with another guy. i was basically hanging half out the window. i wanted a discount for that but no dice. had to pay the whole whopping $5 fare. The other time i was in a van taxi next to a very talkative bolivian lady who while super nice after two hours of halting psuedo-conversation where 90% of it was her and i trying to figure out what we were saying, and but then she insisted on showing me cell phone pics of her little black and white dog, which was cute and fun for all of a minute. Then to my relief she shifted her focus to the very tired middle aged Australian lady named Amelia in the back seat who spoke little more spanish than I (as in none).

Found out later when i ran into Amelia up at the El Fuerte ruins that there was a chicken in the back seat the whole time that never made a peep and belonged to a bushy eyed owl of a bolivian man we had picked up on the side of the road an hour out of Santa Cruz! There were actually two older bolivian men in that back bench seat and both never made a peep either. The lady apparently took on the job for all of us.

After getting dropped off on the highway out side Samaipata, I hiked by myself the long hot dusty road to El Fuerte, about 6km, with all my trip-ly possesions strapped to my back. El Fuerte is ancient city atop a hill overlooking incredible mountain vista's. First built by pre-incan's, it was occupies and expanded by Inca and then Spanish conqueror's who all left their own additions and subtractions on the site that may have supported up to 20,000 citizens at a time. Not much is known, really, about the site, other than the main rock was surely ceremonial in nature and never actually of true military significance. The ancient name has been lost. A bit more info can be found here through wikipedia. No one though desputes the presence of an energy field. Whether because of the ruins, or the ruins are there because of it. I could not deny feeling a powereful vibe while standing near the summit of the temple mound. Sadly, the public can no longer walk to the very top where is situated a sunken circle of alternating seats of triangles and squares. women are triangles men are...well, square.

After 2 hours exploring and staring down the mysterious hole in ground which some say was part of an underground passage system linking all major inca sites (and other's daresay was just a well), I started back down with all my heavy gear and shortly was offered a ride from a nice couple from Washington D.C. I hopped into the pickup bed and enjoyed a much easier way onward to my next destination, the sleepy mountain town called Samiapata, whose very name means "rest-in-the-hills". Immediately headed to a hostel, called "Anderina" whom my 3 year old Lonely Planet guide book said had a roof top jucuzzi as my legs and back were much in need of a soak. Got there and checked to the quiant place with an enclosed garden patio. They jucuzzi was there, but had never been finished so was just an empty tiled rectangle with a great, albeit windy, view.

The next day i spent wandering in town and observed the last heat of a time trial Rally race (what?!), the talk of the town, and the noise of it too as I could hear in the distance the race cars' exhaust screaming from clear atop El Fuerte, 4km away.

After 3 nights in Samaipata, including an all day hike to an remote mountainous area called Bella Vista, on Tuesday evening I headed south back to Ginger's Paradise Farm, sharing a taxi with 2 swiss girls, Karen and Sarah. I had been hoping to help harvest coffee and learn the whole process of making coffee. We arrived around 8pm and stumbled across the swinging indiana jones style rope bridge and the 10 minute walk down the trail across the river to the stone house where owner's Cristobal and Sol live with their amazing kids; 5 year old Ginger, 9 year old Dizzy, and 14 year old Nova. Despite arriving to a dark house shouting "Hola", we were welcomed with happy faces and Sol graciously ran off to make up beds at the guest house, an 8 minute walk back up the trail to the rope bridge.

I did learn to make coffee! The whole process was about 4 days. On my last morning, august 26th, I had a cup of the coffee i had personally harvested and wow it amazing, smooth, strong, and earthy. Sure beats the instant Nescafe coffee that is served almost everywhere in South America!

I then took a 16 hour bus north to La Paz, a dizzying 13,323 feet above sea level. I have been here a week which included a 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni, ( a 12 hour bus ride south) the largest salt flats on earth. The first day of that we cruised across the flats and in the evening were into more desert scrub brush landscapes, sorta like Washington's scab lands. stayed in the most unique lodging ever, a hotel made entirely of blocks of salt! A chewy dinner of Llama was enjoyed and washed down with a bottle of Bolivian red wine, "Vino Fino Tinto". Say that ten times fast.

The next two days were spent driving through surreal desert landscapes, surrounded by volcanos, and around twisting rock formations plopped in the middle of vast expanses of sand and dirt and shale rock, carved into fantastic shapes by eons of blasting sand storms. Throughout these regions were scattered vibrant lagune's, all colors of the rainbow, and in them all, bathing and refreshing in the mineral rich waters were flocks of pink flamingos! No cheesy plastic yard art here, just thousands of majestic birds doing what they have been for who knows how many millennia.

Well, i must go as i have to check out of my hostel room here at the Adventure Brew Hostel (they make their own beer!) in 8 minutes. Yikes!

I am off to Lake Titicaca today or tomorrow, and then to Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital in Peru, hoping to arrive sunday or monday in preperation of a 5 day trek to Machu Pichu.

So long and i hope you all enjoy reading about my trip and please check out my Flickr photo blog! I am proud of the many images I've been lucky to capture, and i feel it allows you to tag along with me.

Ciao,

Nick