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…
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…
Incan temple ruins – Ollantaytambo, Peru photo essay
“Mama!” the guard says. We follow his pointing finger to see a plump yellow bird sunning herself on a rock wall. Smiling and nodding, we look back to the guard, whose main job seems to be to keep tourists from…
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…
The innocents abroad
Unless he was a much better secret keeper than his writings suggest, Mark Twain never tramped through the jungly ruins of Machu Picchu, “discovered” shortly after his death in 1910. Yet, here we are at Machu Picchu and there’s Twain—or…
Blue times at Machu Picchu
When your family is going through rough times like mine is, you read into everything each person says, because there’s so much being left unsaid. Shortly before Todd and I left for Peru, I visited my family in New York….
Sketch at Machu Picchu
After the intense hike up Huayna Picchu, and the harrowing rain-soaked hike back down, we got a respite of sunshine to sit and rest at Machu Picchu. So I drew it. Looking up toward the temple ruins between the rains…
