Jesuits and Catholics have their day
There are two things to do on a Sunday in Arequipa, Peru. One is to soothe your hangover with a bowl of adobo arequipeño, a spicy pork stew. The other is to go to church. So I do as the…
What’s revealed around the corner in Cusco
If you wander deep enough into Cusco, Peru — away from the Plaza de Armas and generally in an uphill direction — you can escape the touts and the tourist traps. In the side streets and alleys, the city starts…
Incan ruins and alpacas at Sacsayhuamán, Cusco
Some people visit the ruins of Sacsayhuamán in the hills just above Cusco, Peru to see the remarkable Incan walls, bricks carved so perfectly that the thinnest blade can’t fit into the seam between them. Others come to see the…
Drawing of Cusco’s Iglesia la Compañía de Jesús
The Jesuits of the 1600s sure knew how use a church to get all up in the face of others. Built to outshine the nearby Catholic church, La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, or Church of the Society of…
The hills are alive with the sound of pan flute
“Where’s. That. Music. Coming. From?” I ask Todd as we pause our up up uphill hike to the ruins over Pisac, Peru. “Do you. See. Anyone?” “Nope.” “Wait. Is that, pan flute? It is. Ugh, pan flute!”
Cairns for Moray’s Incan engineers
I’ve always liked concentric circles. I don’t really know why. Perhaps it’s a preference I developed during my formative years, spent surrounded by the lingering psychedelic style of the late 1970s. Maybe it’s more about how the shape simultaneously shows…
If these walls could talk – Machu Picchu photo essay
Before I got to Machu Picchu, Peru, I knew I wanted to keep people out of most of my photos. Including people in travel photos can deliver a sense of scale, time, place, or emotion. But, at a world wonder…
