Introduction
This album contains photos from a trip to Peru in December 2010. The primary purpose of this trip was to visit Machu Picchu, but saw a few other places too.
My memory is that this trip was planned rather hurriedly. Left on this trip just a few days after returning from a longer Antarctica trip. I do not recommend taking two trips to foreign countries so close to one another. I have a vague memory the hurried plan for the trip came about because a previous set of plans fell thru. A travel agent we had booked with went out of business, causing the previous flight and hotel reservations to be lost.
We returned home (to Aiken) from this trip on Christmas Day (having arrived in Miami very late on Christmas Eve night) -- another bit of scheduling I do not recommend. There is more about the Christmas Day travel later in this Introduction.
Went on this trip with Paul and Joanna Soper. The Sopers live in Arizona. My memory is that we met the Sopers at the Miami airport. They had flown to that airport from Arizona. We had flown there from Augusta Georgia (thru Atlanta). Traveled with them from Miami to Peru, then in Peru, then back to Miami. From Miami they traveled to Arizona and we returned to Aiken.
The flight to Peru featured an unusual location to change planes: Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Turns out it is very rate for people to change from one international flight to another one at that airport – and they are not set up for it. Had to actually enter the Dominican Republic (going thru immigration) then immediately go back out (thru immigration) to board the flight to Peru. Somehow, we managed to avoid the “tourist tax” for our about-one-hour “visit” to the Dominican Republic.
The change between planes on the return trip was planned a bit more effectively, in San Juan, Costa Rica, where they are more accustomed to this kind of thing (and are prepared for it). Having said that, on a recent trip when I entered the US in Atlanta, as best I could see, foreign travelers (if any) who change to a different international flight in Atlanta seem to have to do something similar (formally – and legally -- enter the US, then go right back out again -- an example might be someone traveling from, say, Amsterdam to Mexico City, with a flight change in Atlanta). It’s possible there are no international flights of this type with a change in Atlanta. However, if there are, I did not see any signs in the Atlanta airport indicating there was any way for passengers changing flights to bypass US immigration controls.
The days in Peru were as follows (as best I can remember and work out from the photos – all of these dates are in 2010).
December 17 – Travel to Lima (thru Atlanta, Miami, and Dominican Republic)
December 18 – In Lima, Peru
December 19 – Travel to Cuzco (and tour Cuzco)
December 20 – Travel (by Train) to Aguas Calientes (the town downhill from Machu Picchu)
December 21 – In Machu Picchu
December 22 -- Leave Aguas Calientes (by train) and tour Sacred Valley
December 23 – In Cuzco
December 24 – Fly out of Cuzco, to Lima, then return to US (arriving very late). Spend night in Miami
December 25 – Travel from Miami back to Aiken SC
As indicated above, the major goal of this trip was to see Machu Picchu. I haven’t counted the photos, but I’m pretty sure at least ½ of the ones included in this gallery (a one-album gallery) are from that one day at Machu Picchu. [There is only one album in the gallery directly accessible to visitors. The landing page slide show and this Information page are (partially) hidden albums in the gallery.]
I took two cameras on this trip (both of them digital), a Canon A495 and an older Canon S1 IS. It appears I used only the Canon A495. The S1 has a larger zoom setting, but a smaller number of pixels. Apparently, the scenery on this trip was such that I wanted to “take it all in” (mostly using, in effect, a wide-angle zoom lens setting) rather than to closely examine distant objects (with a higher zoom setting). There are a few instances when, after returning home, I did “zoom in” on a few items by using the cropping capability of a photo editor software program. In at least a few cases two versions of the same photo (cropped and uncropped) are used in this gallery, attempting to give some idea of how amazingly large the Machu Picchu ruins are.
As described in the Introduction to the November-December 2010 Antarctica photos, the built-in date function on the Canon A495 camera was incorrectly set. All of the dates that appear in the photos are one day too early. Thus, for example, the photos marked December 17, 2010, were really taken on December 18, 2010 (and, since only the A495 was actually used while on this trip, that applies to all of the photos). The incorrect date is on the image, in the “EXIF” information, which appears in the Details in galleries prepared with Shozam, and in the Properties for any of these photos downloaded or saved by visitors to this site.
As is normal for me, I left the clock inside the camera set on Eastern (US) time. However, for this trip that time setting did not matter. Peru (on the west coast of South America) is in the same time zone as the east coast of the US (although I’m sure that time zone has a different name in South America).
The photos are in roughly chronological order. I shifted a few photos around to group together related topics. I apparently went thru these photos a few weeks after the end of the trip (early 2012), picking out the better photos (and using software to crop and otherwise “improve” (hopefully) a few of the images (although, preparing these images to put up on the web in late February 2013, I do not recall this earlier work). With a few exceptions, the images included here are the ones I picked out in early 2012.
The return trip had a couple adventures. Had an early flight out of Cuzco, then about a 4-hour layover in Lima. The flight out of Cuzco was to be on a plane that flew in from Lima earlier that morning. There was fog in Cuszo, which prevented the incoming flight from Lima from arriving. Thus we actually spent most of the four hours (that had been allotted for the Lima layover) on the ground in Cuzco. At the time, we did not know if we were going to get out of Cuzco early enough to make the connection at Lima. However, it turned out we did. (Cuzco is sometimes also spelled Cusco. Both are approximate phonetic spellings of the original name in the pre-Columbian language.)
The next morning (December 25th) had reservations on a Delta Air Lines flight from Miami to Atlanta. Just before leaving the hotel for the Miami airport, got an e-mail from Delta saying that because of heavy snow predicted to strike Atlanta later that day, they had cancelled almost all flights into and out of Atlanta. Reservation was re-booked for the morning of December 27th.
Abandoned the flight (and pre-paid, nonrefundable ticket), rented a car at the Miami airport, and drove back to the Augusta Airport (where the car was parked). Arrived in Augusta after about an 11-hour drive. Did not encounter any precipitation during the drive until perhaps the last hour, approaching Augusta, where there was light rain. Later got a travel insurance settlement that pretty much offset the cost of the rental car.
I suspect Delta expected a low number of travelers on December 25th (and perhaps also December 26th) so they didn’t hesitate to cancel flights well in advance of the predicted heavy snow. In aggregate, those were probably money-losing (or, at best, break-even) flights anyhow. I’m not sure if Delta pays premium wages to people who work on holidays, probably not, since their “regular” work week covers seven days.
Machu Picchu is the “lost city” that was “discovered” around 1911 by Hiram Bingham. There is a lot of stuff (plaques, etc) around there about him (since he, literally, put the place “on the map”). However, there is also a lot of stuff debunking him, to some degree. There is evidence the city was not nearly as “lost” as he may have led people to believe. The people living in the area knew where it was, and, indeed, they led him to it when he inquired about it. One family had apparently been farming part of the area, and perhaps lived in a house whose foundation was built of one of the older buildings.
On the other hand, I would be willing to believe none of the people in the area realized how large the area of ruins were until his later expedition cleared away the jungle overgrowth (IF there was much overgrowth, see below). Also, the people in the area would almost certainly not have any way to (1) recognize what “good shape” the ruins were in (compared to ruins in other countries) or (2) realize how rare it is to find ruins in “good shape” any place in the world.
When I say the ruins were in “good shape” I’m referring to the situation that, even though walls may have fallen in many cases, little, if any, of the fallen material had been carried off for use in building later structures. This is, in large part, due to the remoteness of Machu Picchu. There were no settlements close enough to it to take the stones to, in any economical sense (by the relatively few people who knew where “the lost city” was).
My general impression is that the “lost city” was hidden by thick jungle overgrowth – and I’ve seen terms like “jungle” and “overgrowth” mentioned in a few articles about the place. However, I’ve also seen several photographs dated “1911” that show (1) any such overgrowth already pretty much cleared out (2) many of the terrace walls in pretty good condition. If heavy overgrowth had really been present, I’m surprised it could be cleared in only a few months. Also, I would think root growth from trees (growing for around 350 years or more) would not cause damage to retaining walls – damage that would take many months to repair. It could be the jungle overgrowth was less extensive that I visualize (indeed, the rocky soil – it is basically rock in many locations – might tend to limit the amount and extent of any such overgrowth, also the plants that grow in that climate and at that altitude might have root systems that would cause relatively little damage to the terrace retaining walls).
Bingham was associated with Yale University. Many of the small artifacts that had been found during excavations at Machu Picchu in the (roughly) 1912-1916-era had been taken to the US and placed in the Peabody Museum at Yale. While in Peru, heard (from one of the guides) that Yale and the government of Peru had reached an agreement that (1) materials (some, most, all?) would be returned to Peru and (2) Peru (the government?) was building a museum in Cuzsco to hold them. I got the impression while in Peru that the transfer was a few years away (after the new museum in Cuzco was finished). I said I heard this from one of the guides – and that’s true. However, I think it had also been mentioned briefly in news stories in the US shortly before we left for the trip (might have been a news story while I was in Antarctica). It was probably bigger news in Peru than in the US.
In 2011, visited the New Haven (Connecticut) area. While making plans on the trip, had looked at the Peabody Museum web site. The web site contained some documents about the negotiations with Peru about these artifacts. The descriptions of the museum exhibits on the web site did not explicitly mention Machu Picchu materials (with one slight exception, described below). I called the museum from here in Aiken. They told me the Machu Picchu stuff was no longer on exhibit. Thus, did not visit the Yale-Peabody while in the New Haven area. Assuming I have the story roughly correct here, I was surprised things moved so rapidly that the objects would be returned (or, at least, taken off exhibit) in less than a year. I anticipated things would move relatively slowly in the museum business.
The one “slight exception” mentioned above is that (while the text of the descriptions of the Peabody exhibits on their web site did not mention Machu Picchu), one map (floor diagram) did suggest there were some Machu Picchu exhibits in a lobby or hallway area. I assumed this was obsolete information – that the material had indeed been taken off exhibit and that it just took longer to update the “map” than it did to update the descriptive text on their web site.
My memory is that this trip was planned rather hurriedly. Left on this trip just a few days after returning from a longer Antarctica trip. I do not recommend taking two trips to foreign countries so close to one another. I have a vague memory the hurried plan for the trip came about because a previous set of plans fell thru. A travel agent we had booked with went out of business, causing the previous flight and hotel reservations to be lost.
We returned home (to Aiken) from this trip on Christmas Day (having arrived in Miami very late on Christmas Eve night) -- another bit of scheduling I do not recommend. There is more about the Christmas Day travel later in this Introduction.
Went on this trip with Paul and Joanna Soper. The Sopers live in Arizona. My memory is that we met the Sopers at the Miami airport. They had flown to that airport from Arizona. We had flown there from Augusta Georgia (thru Atlanta). Traveled with them from Miami to Peru, then in Peru, then back to Miami. From Miami they traveled to Arizona and we returned to Aiken.
The flight to Peru featured an unusual location to change planes: Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Turns out it is very rate for people to change from one international flight to another one at that airport – and they are not set up for it. Had to actually enter the Dominican Republic (going thru immigration) then immediately go back out (thru immigration) to board the flight to Peru. Somehow, we managed to avoid the “tourist tax” for our about-one-hour “visit” to the Dominican Republic.
The change between planes on the return trip was planned a bit more effectively, in San Juan, Costa Rica, where they are more accustomed to this kind of thing (and are prepared for it). Having said that, on a recent trip when I entered the US in Atlanta, as best I could see, foreign travelers (if any) who change to a different international flight in Atlanta seem to have to do something similar (formally – and legally -- enter the US, then go right back out again -- an example might be someone traveling from, say, Amsterdam to Mexico City, with a flight change in Atlanta). It’s possible there are no international flights of this type with a change in Atlanta. However, if there are, I did not see any signs in the Atlanta airport indicating there was any way for passengers changing flights to bypass US immigration controls.
The days in Peru were as follows (as best I can remember and work out from the photos – all of these dates are in 2010).
December 17 – Travel to Lima (thru Atlanta, Miami, and Dominican Republic)
December 18 – In Lima, Peru
December 19 – Travel to Cuzco (and tour Cuzco)
December 20 – Travel (by Train) to Aguas Calientes (the town downhill from Machu Picchu)
December 21 – In Machu Picchu
December 22 -- Leave Aguas Calientes (by train) and tour Sacred Valley
December 23 – In Cuzco
December 24 – Fly out of Cuzco, to Lima, then return to US (arriving very late). Spend night in Miami
December 25 – Travel from Miami back to Aiken SC
As indicated above, the major goal of this trip was to see Machu Picchu. I haven’t counted the photos, but I’m pretty sure at least ½ of the ones included in this gallery (a one-album gallery) are from that one day at Machu Picchu. [There is only one album in the gallery directly accessible to visitors. The landing page slide show and this Information page are (partially) hidden albums in the gallery.]
I took two cameras on this trip (both of them digital), a Canon A495 and an older Canon S1 IS. It appears I used only the Canon A495. The S1 has a larger zoom setting, but a smaller number of pixels. Apparently, the scenery on this trip was such that I wanted to “take it all in” (mostly using, in effect, a wide-angle zoom lens setting) rather than to closely examine distant objects (with a higher zoom setting). There are a few instances when, after returning home, I did “zoom in” on a few items by using the cropping capability of a photo editor software program. In at least a few cases two versions of the same photo (cropped and uncropped) are used in this gallery, attempting to give some idea of how amazingly large the Machu Picchu ruins are.
As described in the Introduction to the November-December 2010 Antarctica photos, the built-in date function on the Canon A495 camera was incorrectly set. All of the dates that appear in the photos are one day too early. Thus, for example, the photos marked December 17, 2010, were really taken on December 18, 2010 (and, since only the A495 was actually used while on this trip, that applies to all of the photos). The incorrect date is on the image, in the “EXIF” information, which appears in the Details in galleries prepared with Shozam, and in the Properties for any of these photos downloaded or saved by visitors to this site.
As is normal for me, I left the clock inside the camera set on Eastern (US) time. However, for this trip that time setting did not matter. Peru (on the west coast of South America) is in the same time zone as the east coast of the US (although I’m sure that time zone has a different name in South America).
The photos are in roughly chronological order. I shifted a few photos around to group together related topics. I apparently went thru these photos a few weeks after the end of the trip (early 2012), picking out the better photos (and using software to crop and otherwise “improve” (hopefully) a few of the images (although, preparing these images to put up on the web in late February 2013, I do not recall this earlier work). With a few exceptions, the images included here are the ones I picked out in early 2012.
The return trip had a couple adventures. Had an early flight out of Cuzco, then about a 4-hour layover in Lima. The flight out of Cuzco was to be on a plane that flew in from Lima earlier that morning. There was fog in Cuszo, which prevented the incoming flight from Lima from arriving. Thus we actually spent most of the four hours (that had been allotted for the Lima layover) on the ground in Cuzco. At the time, we did not know if we were going to get out of Cuzco early enough to make the connection at Lima. However, it turned out we did. (Cuzco is sometimes also spelled Cusco. Both are approximate phonetic spellings of the original name in the pre-Columbian language.)
The next morning (December 25th) had reservations on a Delta Air Lines flight from Miami to Atlanta. Just before leaving the hotel for the Miami airport, got an e-mail from Delta saying that because of heavy snow predicted to strike Atlanta later that day, they had cancelled almost all flights into and out of Atlanta. Reservation was re-booked for the morning of December 27th.
Abandoned the flight (and pre-paid, nonrefundable ticket), rented a car at the Miami airport, and drove back to the Augusta Airport (where the car was parked). Arrived in Augusta after about an 11-hour drive. Did not encounter any precipitation during the drive until perhaps the last hour, approaching Augusta, where there was light rain. Later got a travel insurance settlement that pretty much offset the cost of the rental car.
I suspect Delta expected a low number of travelers on December 25th (and perhaps also December 26th) so they didn’t hesitate to cancel flights well in advance of the predicted heavy snow. In aggregate, those were probably money-losing (or, at best, break-even) flights anyhow. I’m not sure if Delta pays premium wages to people who work on holidays, probably not, since their “regular” work week covers seven days.
Machu Picchu is the “lost city” that was “discovered” around 1911 by Hiram Bingham. There is a lot of stuff (plaques, etc) around there about him (since he, literally, put the place “on the map”). However, there is also a lot of stuff debunking him, to some degree. There is evidence the city was not nearly as “lost” as he may have led people to believe. The people living in the area knew where it was, and, indeed, they led him to it when he inquired about it. One family had apparently been farming part of the area, and perhaps lived in a house whose foundation was built of one of the older buildings.
On the other hand, I would be willing to believe none of the people in the area realized how large the area of ruins were until his later expedition cleared away the jungle overgrowth (IF there was much overgrowth, see below). Also, the people in the area would almost certainly not have any way to (1) recognize what “good shape” the ruins were in (compared to ruins in other countries) or (2) realize how rare it is to find ruins in “good shape” any place in the world.
When I say the ruins were in “good shape” I’m referring to the situation that, even though walls may have fallen in many cases, little, if any, of the fallen material had been carried off for use in building later structures. This is, in large part, due to the remoteness of Machu Picchu. There were no settlements close enough to it to take the stones to, in any economical sense (by the relatively few people who knew where “the lost city” was).
My general impression is that the “lost city” was hidden by thick jungle overgrowth – and I’ve seen terms like “jungle” and “overgrowth” mentioned in a few articles about the place. However, I’ve also seen several photographs dated “1911” that show (1) any such overgrowth already pretty much cleared out (2) many of the terrace walls in pretty good condition. If heavy overgrowth had really been present, I’m surprised it could be cleared in only a few months. Also, I would think root growth from trees (growing for around 350 years or more) would not cause damage to retaining walls – damage that would take many months to repair. It could be the jungle overgrowth was less extensive that I visualize (indeed, the rocky soil – it is basically rock in many locations – might tend to limit the amount and extent of any such overgrowth, also the plants that grow in that climate and at that altitude might have root systems that would cause relatively little damage to the terrace retaining walls).
Bingham was associated with Yale University. Many of the small artifacts that had been found during excavations at Machu Picchu in the (roughly) 1912-1916-era had been taken to the US and placed in the Peabody Museum at Yale. While in Peru, heard (from one of the guides) that Yale and the government of Peru had reached an agreement that (1) materials (some, most, all?) would be returned to Peru and (2) Peru (the government?) was building a museum in Cuzsco to hold them. I got the impression while in Peru that the transfer was a few years away (after the new museum in Cuzco was finished). I said I heard this from one of the guides – and that’s true. However, I think it had also been mentioned briefly in news stories in the US shortly before we left for the trip (might have been a news story while I was in Antarctica). It was probably bigger news in Peru than in the US.
In 2011, visited the New Haven (Connecticut) area. While making plans on the trip, had looked at the Peabody Museum web site. The web site contained some documents about the negotiations with Peru about these artifacts. The descriptions of the museum exhibits on the web site did not explicitly mention Machu Picchu materials (with one slight exception, described below). I called the museum from here in Aiken. They told me the Machu Picchu stuff was no longer on exhibit. Thus, did not visit the Yale-Peabody while in the New Haven area. Assuming I have the story roughly correct here, I was surprised things moved so rapidly that the objects would be returned (or, at least, taken off exhibit) in less than a year. I anticipated things would move relatively slowly in the museum business.
The one “slight exception” mentioned above is that (while the text of the descriptions of the Peabody exhibits on their web site did not mention Machu Picchu), one map (floor diagram) did suggest there were some Machu Picchu exhibits in a lobby or hallway area. I assumed this was obsolete information – that the material had indeed been taken off exhibit and that it just took longer to update the “map” than it did to update the descriptive text on their web site.
