Redhed's Rambles: Christmas Eve in Cusco

Feliz Navidad to Family and Friends...

First of all, I want to wish all of my Family and Friends a very merry Christmas. I have been wearing my long underwear for the past few days, so I am beginning to get that Xmas feeling.

We took a walk around the local Plaza today in Cusco, and it is jam packed with stalls and all sorts of trinkets and baubles for sale. Ah...the Christmas Spirit...

I am grateful for my Family, and I am thinking about all of them as I ride through this adventure. The amount of helmet time in a day is considerable, and I only wish that I could figure out how to transcribe the thoughts and feelings of each days' ride into something significant and profound. Somehow my postings end up being a travelogue and very little else seems to be added to the mix, largely due to the fact that I am generally bagged by the end of the day. Also, and without exaggeration, the amount of visual input is really overwhelming and it is really difficult to take it all in and translate the experience into words. My pictures have been a poor substitute for the kaleidoscope of images,thoughts, and feelings that confront me on a continual basis.

Back to my Family, and specifically to my wonderful kid Sister who sends me daily thoughts of Love and reminds me by mind melds that I am 65 and no longer a kid, and that I do not need to prove anything to anybody by riding 1000 kilometers, or overtaking those stupid chicken buses. I know my Sis reads my blog and I do get those vibes about safety and taking care of myself. She has been my wingman for many years, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to ride this summer with her, her husband Brian, and my wonderful nephew, Sean. We had a great time, and I really appreciated burning up the miles with the four of us sightseeing the northern States. I am looking forward to next summer, and perhaps another ride with my Family.

I am fortunate to have other riders in the Family, and as I think of my two sons, I can only wish them the best as they deal with another Canadian Winter. There has been more than a few times when I have thought of our trip to Mexico, and the photo of the three of us standing on top of the pyramid in the Yucatan is always with me. What an exciting year it has been for both of them...
+Gord and +Natalie were married this July, and their wedding was another opportunity for rejoicing and celebrating with the clans..I am so proud of the newlyweds: both of them working extremely hard at their chosen fields and enjoying their new life together. +Ian has had a very successful year too, obtaining his helicopter license and not soon after moving to the North, first Fort Nelson, then Whitecourt, Alberta, and now he is settled in Yellowknife.

While not riding yet, there is not a days' riding that goes by when I don't think of her and how grateful I am for her in my life. She has long forgotten an adventure with her old Dad where we ended up hitchhiking out of Salmon Arm at 2:00 AM, bound for Vernon. I strive to be as eloquent and informative as my wordsmith daughter, and I could only hope to be as strong and relentless a parent as she has been to her two sons, +Grayson and Severyn.

I am the first to recognize that the boys, and Natalie too, get their drive, intelligence, and determination from their mothers. I am not so foolish as to not recognize that Caits' success and intelligence also flow from her mothers' genes too. I am so lucky to have such great kids, and even more fortunate that they have stuck with me, through thick and thin and downright black times.

I know that my wonderful niece Heather reads and appreciates my rambling rants, and with her great husband and friend Amon they have increased the potential rider factor of the growing riding gang by two, with the recent additions of Liam and Keenan to the Family. Her brother Sean, between flights to Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and everywhere else in the Westjet world, is an avid follower and a great rider wingman. I am looking forward to another riding adventure with him soon. I know that my niece Amy is out there, and maybe even reading the wanderings of her uncle, and I wish for her a most excellent Christmas too.

My Vernon Family is out there, and if you are reading this, Cousins, I wish you all the best in the coming year, and may your hay grow tall..and your tractors never stall.

I relied heavily on my friendship with Glyn and his wonderful wife Karli to allow me to take off and basically leave my house and watch cat, Willy, in their care. I trust that you Five are having a great Christmas break, and that the rain will break into a little snow for Santa.

The beauty of retiring from a stressful job is that there is very little time for guilt or remorse as I decompress and leave that world behind me. I have many friends from my VIWTU days, and I know that they are still working hard to keep Public Education in the minds of parents and voters. I wish Dana and Jim a very happy holiday, and I know that they will appreciate the break from any email blizzards...

Finally, to my riding buddies who are following along, I wish you the best of the Season, and again, my thanks for picking me up, and then Blondy, so that I can continue to ride....and my best wishes to those of you who are riding now: be safe.

I have been riding with a young fellow from Germany, for the past month, since we disembarked in Colombia. I have to say that his clear sense of direction makes up for my complete lack of spatial awareness, and his Spanish skills have frequently saved us from going down the wrong road...+Uli has been a great friend and has taught the old guy some new tricks..

Since a major component of the Season is nostalgia, I wonder if my Sister remembers a ride to Chetwynd in a blue Punchbuggy? How about you, +Mag?

Did I mention that we were getting into the mountains? The roads are terrific, and the Peruvian road engineers could teach their northern neighbours a thing or two.

I am a sucker for weddings, and this couple was getting married in Cuzco's cathedral, facing the huge main square

I thought these girls were going to give me a spanking, but they were more interested in the bride...

I don't know, but Cuzco cops are way prettier than some I have seen...

What you see is the Spanish city built on top of the Inca city, but the old city shows through..

This statue occupies the central Plaza de Armas, which is the main square.
A tribute to the Incan history...

And another church, just to remind us that the Old World came to the "New World"...

I wanted to show the flowers in January, and the beautiful green lawns, when this girl spotted Uli...

and sat down beside him and asked him if he was married....

I don't know if she was offering her sheep, or her daughter, but Uli politely declined...

and I paid the propina for the laugh on Uli...

did I mention that this was a big square??

I spotted this guy and had to have a chat with him. His owner says he is a German Labrador because she brought him from Germany. Uli says that he didn't speak German that well to be a true German Lab...

We went to a biker bar, the Norton, and saw some heads of state....

And a few stickers from around....

The bar has a balcony overlooking the square, and we saw Santa Claus almost get nailed in traffic..he looked a little lost..

After getting up at the ungodly hour of 4:00 am, we began our tour of Manchu Picchu with a 80 km. taxi ride to the train station...

We haven't seen snow since Canada, so this is a bit of some redundancy here..

The road to the town and the valley below was what some might call steep and winding...

Our first glimpse of Incan ruinas...built on terraces of course..

That is the sun trying to wake up...

Is this the train?

Or is this the train?

This was the train. I did not take a picture of the pretty stewardess because I did not want to embarrass Uli...

The train ride took about a hour and a half...and travelled through some very steep country, following the river..

We were now in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, and these terraces were part of the ruinas, going back over 700 years. They are utilized today by the present farmers...

That's a glacier up there...

A side tributary....

Apparently three touristas died last week, river rafting...

Some ruinas built above the river...

We finally arrive in the base of Manchu Pichu, where we would board a bus for the ride up the mountain..

Those Incans were big dudes...

We boarded the bus for the ride (very steep and very windy) to the beginning of the trail to Manchu Pichu...

Did I mention that these mountains were steep?

And then we arrived...

It is too much to take in, and overwhelming in scope..

Uli's company shirt was necessary for the pic..

Main door into the Palace. Notice the header... the door is large because the big chief got carried everywhere...

The structures were built to last. The Incas utilized the principle of the pentagon in their construction methods, in that all of the walls are 8 degrees off vertical...

The Inca engineers built their walls and structures to withstand earthquakes...

Windows are not square, but wider at the bottom: a feature to offset sismos..

The observatory was the main science center. By knowing what time of year it was, through the observations of the sun, they were able to plan their crops and document their growth...

The Incas developed the terraces because of the geography. They were also experimenting with agronomy; archaeologists discovered seeds and pollen from many plants not local to the area. It is theorized that the many different terraces, at different elevations, were keyed to creating micro-climates as the Incas were attempting to broaden their knowledge of agriculture and particularly the different species of plants which grow in South America...

One of the few animals I have seen: a chinchilla hides in the buildings..

Some lizard living in the walls..

The scale of the site is overwhelming, and very difficult to comprehend. It truly deserves the world class recognition that it is receiving, and hopefully the culture of the Incas and what they left us will be fully recognized and appreciated...

The main temple, over 600 years old...

This rock is sculpted in such a way as to point to magnetic north, east, west, and south. This is pretty amazing, considering the Incas did not have GPS...

The joints between the rocks are so well constructed you cannot put a toothpick between them..

The terraces are very steep, and well supplied with an intricate watering system...

Tons and tons of soil was packed up from the valley floor...

A view of the rock which anchors the Sun...

The rock is carved in such a way as to show the cardinal directions, as well as show the shadows of the Solstice and Equinoxes. It was called the "Hitching Post of the Sun"

Did I mention that the terraces are steep, and that the river is far below?

The depiction of Heaven, Earth, and what lies below....

The Condor is a major figure in Inca lore. Sacrifices were made on this depiction of the condor, and the blood of the animal sacrifices was drained back to Mother Earth..

All of the terraces were filled with a mixture of sand, gravel, and soil which was gathered from the valley below and brought to the site by as many as 30,000 labourers who worked on building this wonderful site.

The Incans had a extensive trail network. This is part of the Inca trail, showing a gap where they had originally built a draw bridge...

Initially, I was frustrated by the huge amount of people milling about, all after that shot of Manchu Pichu. Like me, most of them had set a once in a lifetime goal of seeing this magnificent site, and I should not be too hard on my fellow man. It is a really testimony to the Peruvian government, as well as the folks who maintain the sanctuary that so many folks can visit here and begin to grasp the significance of the the so-called Pre-Columbian cultures. While the Incas were well over a million strong, and certainly more organized than the 107 Spaniards...we are all aware of the result of that encounter..nevertheless we can learn from sites such as this, and it is important, I believe,that early history and the values of these early cultures are transmitted to our youngsters of the world.

The observatory. The windows line up the rising sun on the Solstices and Equinoxes...

We returned by train and taxi to Cusco, arriving back in town quite late. On Christmas Eve there was a very large market in Cusco, and many people from the surrounding area came to town to sell their wares, apparently they don't believe in Christmas Shopping in September....

While not as spiritually uplifting as Manchu Pichu, I do have a kind of spiritual experience with a marriage proposal, and I do get hugged and kissed by a blond, so I am feeling pretty good about this Xmas in Peru...

Watch this girl, she is on the make....

Jiggers: it is a dope dog...

He's telling Paulo that Uli is a fellow German, and that he should not bite him

Oh, please Dad, just one nip...

Hey, do you kids have a license for that car???

So I am sitting there, quietly minding my own business, when this girl and her lamb sidle up to me. She had two English words: " Money, and Whiskey". I think she was asking me if I wanted to get married, and the problem was that I didn't know if she wanted me to marry the sheep or her...