Machu Picchu.

Arrived before sunrise, and closed it down. Beautiful place.

Salkantay Trek. Part Three!

Salkantay Trek. Part Two.

Still more to come...

Salkantay Trek. Part One.

Four days of walking in Peru from Sayllapata to Hidro Electrica. Then we hopped a train to Aguas Calientes aka Machu Picchu Pueblo. We climbed very steep trails to high altitudes, and spent hours coming down even steeper trails. It was hell on the knees, and the lungs. On the final day we caught 5:30am busses to the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. It was a fantastic experience that I'm not rushing to do again.

Salkantay to Machu Picchu

For the next 6 days I will be somewhere between Cuzco, Peru, and Machu Picchu, walking on the Salkantay trek.

There are 12 people in our group. The youngest is around 19, the oldest is 51. Everyone is from Australia, England, and the USA. There is an extra horse for anyone who can't make it, hopefully that will not be Megan or me.

4:00am is coming very quickly.

Cuzco, Peru From Above.

So this is nowhere near perfect, but I thought you might like to see what the city of Cuzco, Peru looks like. If you look for the big brown church with the giant square park in front, that is the center of the city, the Plaza de Armas. Our hotel is very close to the city center.

Cuzco, Peru.

Double Alpaca Burger and Fries. Cuzco, Peru.

From Sumaq Misky on Calle Plateros. It's really good.

The Photo Industry

When we arrive in a new place I like to wander aimlessly with my camera. I have been doing this since day one of this trip. Depending on the place, there are often a lot of indigenous people dressed in their traditional clothes, selling hand made souvenirs, running their private businesses and or just going about their daily lives out in public. They are very interesting to me, and from what I see they are of great interest to most camera toting tourists.

The thing is, the indigenous people are sick of having their photo taken, at least for free. I think one of the reasons for this is every tourist shop I wander into sells postcards. 90% of the postcards for sale have fully recognizable images of indigenous children and adults trying to go about their lives. These images are often made with very long lenses from far away. I have no clue, but I seriously doubt any fair amount of the profits goes to any sort of indigenous anything. Postcards are just the tip of the iceberg, posters, tourist brochures, guidebooks...

I have stopped trying to make images with indigenous people in public. Not because I have some sort of moral ideal about it, but because they are always aware of me, and my giant black behemoth of a camera. They see me coming 2 blocks away, and wait for me to even point the lens in their general direction. I have had experiences where I was not even trying to make an image of them, but they were in the general area and they scattered like I was firing a shotgun. My camera is a Canon, maybe that is the problem.

I don't blame them, they are tired of being exploited by everyone, tourists and their cameras included.

On the other side of this, you can have as many images as you want of business minded indigenous folks. The going rate from Peru to Guatemala seems to be about $1.00 a shot. Seems about right to me. Here in Cuzco I have had the first experience of people actually approaching me in the street, dressed from head to toe in beautiful traditional clothing, and often leading a live alpaca offering their services as models. These willing models are extremely friendly, patient, and persistent. They often wait in the best light, and almost dare you to try and photograph them without paying for it. If there is an adult and a child in the image, you are expected to pay both of them separately. Almost any transaction is up for negotiation in Latin America, and this situation is no different.

This image cost $1.00 in the Plaza de Armas. Cuzco, Peru.

Mas Paisaje. In the Desert On the Coast of Peru.

Above Nazca, Peru.

The Nazca Lines. Nazca, Peru.

Hummingbird
Monkey
Condor
Spider
Alcatraz

As of today, in Cuzco, Peru...

we have logged over 260 hours on various busses since August 2005. We also have put in another 100+ hours on boats.

Plaza de Armas. Lima, Peru.

From the balcony of our $12.00 USD a night room. We really like it here in Lima. On the left is the National Palace, where the president lives, and on the right is the cathedral where Francisco Pizzaro's remains are kept.

One Afternoon in Lima, Peru.

The Nicest Bus We Have Ever Seen.

We took a 15 hour Ittsa Bus-Cama (bed bus) from Piura, Peru to Lima, Peru. It was nuts. The seats were leather, they served dinner and breakfast, and the seats actually turned into a bed. Not the kind of bed one has at home, but I slept pretty good. It was also the most expensive bus we have taken on this trip at $30.00 US, but it was 1st class. I think we are now past the 250 hours on the bus mark.

Shave & Haircut in Piura, Peru. $2.50 US.

Photo by Megan Lyles.

Sometimes Megan wants me to shoot things, and Im too lazy to do it. So I hand her the camera. On our way to the Peruvian border, she took a great shot of a landslide that held us up for 20 minutes. Nice shot, baby.