Well, I meant to update the blog before we set out for our bike ride across Iowa, but it just didn't happen. Too many things to finish first. So, here I am, just hours before we set off, killing my 5 minutes of free time. Of course, 5 minutes isn't enough time to upload new photos, but I did want to encourage you to check out the RAGBRAI web site if you've never heard of this bike ride we're doing. There will also probably be lots of articles about the ride in the Des Moines Register this week.
So, I will get back to posting Peru photos as soon as we get back to Arizona, but in the meantime feel free to monitor the progress of 10,000+ cyclists in Iowa.
Oh, and the answer to the latest trivia is "Bike everywhere," because it's damn hot in Arizona this time of year. We do bike some places, but not everywhere.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Market Day
After spending a few days wandering in and out of the museums Cuzco has to offer, we set off for Pisac. Pisac has the largest market of the villages nearby Cuzco; therefore, it is a bit touristy. Nevertheless, it offered a great sampling of goods and a bit of local color. We bought tapestries, placemats, and other souvenirs, plus Sharon got a nice hooded llama sweater. She tried to steer clear of the meat market though, because it's a bit gross. Of course, the meat, fruits, and veggies are Mike's favorite part; so we shopped while Mike went photo hunting. Here are a few of his market day photos:
Quite the load!
Creating impressively balanced fruit displays must help the produce sell better.
Mike really likes taking pictures of wrinkly old women.
I really like the composition of this photo.
Pretty dyes.
The villagers in areas surrounding Cuzco wear some very interesting hats that you simply don't see anywhere else in Peru. This is one variety, but the next several pictures will feature others as well.
The hats are cool, but the masks are just creepy -- if you ask me.
Hats are very important, but so is hair. Most local women wear their hair in two braids, and often the braids are joined together at the bottom like this. In fact, this is a pretty iconic look, and you'll see it reflected in a lot of artwork from the area. Every artist's gallery features at least one "fat woman with braids" picture -- if not 300.
Moving on down the body, let's focus on feet for a moment. Many locals wear sandals made from old tires, and most of these sandals have seen a lot of miles. I wouldn't be surprised if the locals walk more in a week than 70% of Americans do in a year. The sandals are a bit basic for the harsh terrain and weather conditions in the Andes mountains, however, and most people's feet end up looking like petrified wood. Many of the porters who carry gear for the tourists on the Inca Trail and alternative treks wear these exact same sandals. So, the tourists saunter along wearing their fancy heavy-duty hiking boots (bought special for their vacation) while the locals do the heavy-lifting in their tire sandals. Seems fair, right? There are more and more advocacy groups looking out for the welfare of porters, but from what I've seen they're not doing enough. Occasionally a generous tourist will donate gear to a porter in addition to giving a tip, but from what I've heard the porters are more likely to sell the donated items for extra cash than to use them to their benefit on the trail. (Probably because they are not paid well enough for their services.) So....enough with my rant -- back to the market...
Any guesses? Lamb? Goat? Dog?
Several corn varieties. Most of the corn we ate in Peru was whitish-yellow, but the kernels were much larger than those on U.S. sweet corn. Also, the corn wasn't as sweet and tasted starchy.
What could be cuter than a 92-year-old woman with no teeth eating a popsicle?? ...actually, she was probably in her 50's.
Torritos for sale! Remember the bulls on top of our arch? Here are some for sale, though we bought ours elsewhere.
Mike takes a lot of wrinkly old women pictures, but he also got some great wrinkly old man pictures this time around.
A general marketplace side-street shot...
This is the last photo Mike's wide-angle lens shot on our trip. Seconds later it plummeted to the ground because it had not clicked into place properly on the body of Mike's camera. The wide-angle has finally been fixed by the local camera shop, but it was such a tragic loss at the time that I cried myself to sleep that night.
The end...for now...check back later.
Quite the load!
Creating impressively balanced fruit displays must help the produce sell better.
Mike really likes taking pictures of wrinkly old women.
I really like the composition of this photo.
Pretty dyes.
The villagers in areas surrounding Cuzco wear some very interesting hats that you simply don't see anywhere else in Peru. This is one variety, but the next several pictures will feature others as well.
The hats are cool, but the masks are just creepy -- if you ask me.
Hats are very important, but so is hair. Most local women wear their hair in two braids, and often the braids are joined together at the bottom like this. In fact, this is a pretty iconic look, and you'll see it reflected in a lot of artwork from the area. Every artist's gallery features at least one "fat woman with braids" picture -- if not 300.
Moving on down the body, let's focus on feet for a moment. Many locals wear sandals made from old tires, and most of these sandals have seen a lot of miles. I wouldn't be surprised if the locals walk more in a week than 70% of Americans do in a year. The sandals are a bit basic for the harsh terrain and weather conditions in the Andes mountains, however, and most people's feet end up looking like petrified wood. Many of the porters who carry gear for the tourists on the Inca Trail and alternative treks wear these exact same sandals. So, the tourists saunter along wearing their fancy heavy-duty hiking boots (bought special for their vacation) while the locals do the heavy-lifting in their tire sandals. Seems fair, right? There are more and more advocacy groups looking out for the welfare of porters, but from what I've seen they're not doing enough. Occasionally a generous tourist will donate gear to a porter in addition to giving a tip, but from what I've heard the porters are more likely to sell the donated items for extra cash than to use them to their benefit on the trail. (Probably because they are not paid well enough for their services.) So....enough with my rant -- back to the market...
Any guesses? Lamb? Goat? Dog?
Several corn varieties. Most of the corn we ate in Peru was whitish-yellow, but the kernels were much larger than those on U.S. sweet corn. Also, the corn wasn't as sweet and tasted starchy.
What could be cuter than a 92-year-old woman with no teeth eating a popsicle?? ...actually, she was probably in her 50's.
Torritos for sale! Remember the bulls on top of our arch? Here are some for sale, though we bought ours elsewhere.
Mike takes a lot of wrinkly old women pictures, but he also got some great wrinkly old man pictures this time around.
A general marketplace side-street shot...
This is the last photo Mike's wide-angle lens shot on our trip. Seconds later it plummeted to the ground because it had not clicked into place properly on the body of Mike's camera. The wide-angle has finally been fixed by the local camera shop, but it was such a tragic loss at the time that I cried myself to sleep that night.
The end...for now...check back later.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Center of the Inca World
It's been a while, and I've been getting harrassed a lot lately, so here's a new blog for all of our avid readers. I left off our travel tales just before Mike's parents joined us in Cusco, so that's where I will resume the story.
After Mike and I got back from our epic trek to Machu Picchu we rested up in Cusco, knowing that we would be go-go-going once Sharon and Bernie arrived. Mike made them a sign (like those you often see at airport terminals), which read "19 Bars of Soap Budget Travel -- Mr. & Mrs. Zysman." We went to meet them at the Cusco airport, sign in hand, and were happy to see that they made it to Peru with a reasonable amount of luggage. Sharon mentioned that they had seen the Salkantay mountain (which we passed on our trek) from the plane window. Since they had had a long day of traveling already we headed back to our hotel (which did not feauture crusty old soaps in the bathrooms).
Although they were tired from traveling and starting to feel the altitude, Sharon and Bernie accompanied us out to the main plaza for a short bit. We left with the intention of getting breakfast. However, we were side-tracked when we learned that the local schools were holding a huge rally with all of the students in full uniform at the center of Cuzco. After watching the proceedings for a while we did manage to grab a bite to eat before heading back.
After breakfast we went back to the hotel so that Sharon and Bernie could rest up. The altitude turned out to be a bit hard to get used to, but the combination of it and the crazy, steep Cusco stairs would get to just about anyone. We let them sleep it off and encouraged them to drink lots of water and eat these strange green coca cookies. I don't know if the cookies helped much, but we were able to take in the sights of Cusco despite a little altitude adjustment over the next few days.
Having visited India not long ago, Sharon and Bernie were a bit surprised by the clean, crisp atmosphere of Cusco. Admittedly, so were we. It's not exactly representative of the rest of the country -- after all, one has to put on a good face for the tourists, right? Even the beggars in Cusco look pretty well off, comparatively. Although it seemed a bit Disney-Peru to us, we enjoyed seeing some of the old buildings and ancient Incan architecture on display in the city.
This bird looked and acted like a giant hummingbird, but I have no idea what it was.
Many of the streets are very narrow, and a lot of the buildings incorporate the old Incan foundations since the stone work was so intricate and flawless.
This cathedral was built right on top of what used to be an Incan palace, and much of the stonework is original. The fusion of Incan and colonial architecture is interesting and very apparent in Cusco.
The grounds of the church were very interesting as well, though I never really got the full story on them.
The inside of the church featured several bizarre paintings of children with wings. Unfortunately we couldn't find a plaque explaining them anywhere. Had the children died? Were they the kids of wealthy patrons? Was this girl the inspiration for Punky Brewster?
Mike actually prepared more pictures than this for me, but the next set features our visit to the Pisac market, and I thought I'd hold out on those so as to be sure that I'd have more material to play with in a few days.
Just because we've adjusted to life in the States once more doesn't mean we're not still constantly on the move. I've been busy working at my new Applebee's job (and I already got promoted from a server to a bar server -- woo-hoo!), and Mike's been doing everything from gardening to selling photos to inventory-ing his jewelry. Speaking of selling photos, he recently found one that he sold on a French tourism web site of sorts -- check it out! That bad-ass rock-climbing chica is me. Now I'm featured on French and Norwegian web sites, that I'm aware of. Ha!
Anyway...that's it for now, but be sure to take a stab at the new trivia question I've posted for you.
After Mike and I got back from our epic trek to Machu Picchu we rested up in Cusco, knowing that we would be go-go-going once Sharon and Bernie arrived. Mike made them a sign (like those you often see at airport terminals), which read "19 Bars of Soap Budget Travel -- Mr. & Mrs. Zysman." We went to meet them at the Cusco airport, sign in hand, and were happy to see that they made it to Peru with a reasonable amount of luggage. Sharon mentioned that they had seen the Salkantay mountain (which we passed on our trek) from the plane window. Since they had had a long day of traveling already we headed back to our hotel (which did not feauture crusty old soaps in the bathrooms).
Although they were tired from traveling and starting to feel the altitude, Sharon and Bernie accompanied us out to the main plaza for a short bit. We left with the intention of getting breakfast. However, we were side-tracked when we learned that the local schools were holding a huge rally with all of the students in full uniform at the center of Cuzco. After watching the proceedings for a while we did manage to grab a bite to eat before heading back.
After breakfast we went back to the hotel so that Sharon and Bernie could rest up. The altitude turned out to be a bit hard to get used to, but the combination of it and the crazy, steep Cusco stairs would get to just about anyone. We let them sleep it off and encouraged them to drink lots of water and eat these strange green coca cookies. I don't know if the cookies helped much, but we were able to take in the sights of Cusco despite a little altitude adjustment over the next few days.
Having visited India not long ago, Sharon and Bernie were a bit surprised by the clean, crisp atmosphere of Cusco. Admittedly, so were we. It's not exactly representative of the rest of the country -- after all, one has to put on a good face for the tourists, right? Even the beggars in Cusco look pretty well off, comparatively. Although it seemed a bit Disney-Peru to us, we enjoyed seeing some of the old buildings and ancient Incan architecture on display in the city.
This bird looked and acted like a giant hummingbird, but I have no idea what it was.
Many of the streets are very narrow, and a lot of the buildings incorporate the old Incan foundations since the stone work was so intricate and flawless.
This cathedral was built right on top of what used to be an Incan palace, and much of the stonework is original. The fusion of Incan and colonial architecture is interesting and very apparent in Cusco.
The grounds of the church were very interesting as well, though I never really got the full story on them.
The inside of the church featured several bizarre paintings of children with wings. Unfortunately we couldn't find a plaque explaining them anywhere. Had the children died? Were they the kids of wealthy patrons? Was this girl the inspiration for Punky Brewster?
Mike actually prepared more pictures than this for me, but the next set features our visit to the Pisac market, and I thought I'd hold out on those so as to be sure that I'd have more material to play with in a few days.
Just because we've adjusted to life in the States once more doesn't mean we're not still constantly on the move. I've been busy working at my new Applebee's job (and I already got promoted from a server to a bar server -- woo-hoo!), and Mike's been doing everything from gardening to selling photos to inventory-ing his jewelry. Speaking of selling photos, he recently found one that he sold on a French tourism web site of sorts -- check it out! That bad-ass rock-climbing chica is me. Now I'm featured on French and Norwegian web sites, that I'm aware of. Ha!
Anyway...that's it for now, but be sure to take a stab at the new trivia question I've posted for you.
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