We spent almost all of today in the so-called Valle Sagrado de los Incas, the Sacred Valley of the Incas, which is the valley of the Urubamba River.  (We’re still in it.)  It is generally reckoned as extending from the old Inca town of Pisac in the east through the old Inca town of Ollantaytambo to the spectacular ruins of Machu Picchu in the West.  It passes within about twelve miles of Cusco.     The Incas thought of the Sacred... Read more

    It simply demands saying:  We’re in hot water now.   But we began the morning with a visit to what is left of the once enormously important Inca temple of Coricancha (or Qoricancha, or whatever spelling you prefer), which was principally dedicated to Inti, the sun god.  The name, in Quechua, means something like “golden enclosure” — which seems to have been literally true:  It is said that the walls of the temple were plated with thick gold... Read more

    The relevant Wikipedia article says that the indigenous name of Cusco is Qusqu and says that, although the name was used in the imperial Inca language, Quechua, it actually originated in the Aymara language, which may or may not be related to Quechua but which remains today as one of the official languages of Bolivia.  According to this account, Cusco is derived from the phrase qusqu wanka (‘Rock of the owl’), which in turn comes from an Aymara foundation myth for the city.   Our local... Read more

    Today — 20 June 2019 — is the Catholic feast day of Corpus Christi, set sixty days after Easter and celebrating the supposed continuing post-resurrection physical presence of Christ in the wafer and wine of the Mass.  (Catholics believe that presence to be literal, and not merely symbolic or metaphorical even if not detectible via chemical analysis of wine and wafer).  In other words, the feast is very specifically and explicitly Catholic and isn’t celebrated by Protestants (or... Read more

    We headed out this morning to look at several very important Inca archaeological sites, beginning with the massive citadel or fortress — our local guide consistently called it a temple — of Sacsayhuamán or Saqsaywaman (or just about any roughly similar spelling that you care to choose; it sounds something like “sexy woman”) to the north of Cusco.  I’m not sure exactly on what grounds it has been pronounced a fortress.  The massive walls and the hilltop location would certainly... Read more

    I don’t know whether I’ll ever be back to the Peruvian Amazon.  Perhaps not.  Probably not.  It’s odd to think such a thing, but it’s true.  When you’re twenty, the future is limitless.  You have all the time in the world.  Endless possibilities.  When you’re in the vicinity of a hundred and twenty, though, as I am, you realize that the future is bounded.  You likely won’t be president.  You probably won’t play professional football.  The Nobel Prize... Read more

    I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Peruvian Amazon.  It’s a beautiful place, reminding me curiously of Pandora, the alien planet featured in the film Avatar.  (I realize that James Cameron was inspired, for that fictional cinematic environment, by the rainforest of Queensland in the northeast of Australia.  But the Amazon jungle brings that film very much to my mind.)   It has restored my faith in jungles, too:  I may be mistaken or misremembering, but I seem... Read more

    We were up really early this morning for a 5 AM boat trip back to Iquitos.   When we were first out on the water, the river was dark, but the moon was shining through a partly cloudy sky.  It was quite beautiful.  And also, rather surprisingly, even a bit cool as we hurtled along at a fairly high speed upstream,  Later, as the sun began to rise, the sky to the east became golden over the forest,... Read more

    On Tuesday morning, we were up very early and out on the River – the Amazon, that is – cruising briefly to Indiana, which really is called after the state of that name in the United States.  Apparently, the fellow who owned the ranch that formed the nucleus of the town graduated from medical school in Indianapolis and eventually moved back to the States, leaving a sizeable endowment from his land holdings for the support of schools in... Read more

    Our Monday morning expedition concluded with a bit of fishing.  For pirañas (or piranhas).  Now, given my notable success at attracting pirañas by means of my blog and my other writings, I figured that I would have no problem catching my quota here from a small boat in the Peruvian rainforest.  Alas, though, online skills don’t necessarily translate into real-world success.  While a few caught (and released) very small pirañas, I didn’t.  I caught only a small catfish. ... Read more