Michael Creasy's Blog

Hiking The Inca Trail: Day Two

michael — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:06:08 GMT

I woke up to a cheery "Hola! Buenos dias amigo!". I poked my head out of my tent to find one of the porters had brought me some hot water to make tea with a basin of hot water to wash with. Washing on the trail is a rather hurried affair. It's cold in the mornings, so covering yourself with water, even warm water isn't that appealing, but a quick was in the privacy of one's tent isn't so bad. The tea was essential to start the day, I grabbed a handful of the dried coca leaves and then poured hot water over them in a mug to create some delicious coca tea. The coca plant is perhaps best known for being the raw ingredient in cocaine and as such is illegal in most parts of the world. In Peru and Bolivia though the plant is used as a flavouring, as tea and to chew. A major benefit is that it alleviates the symptoms of altitude sickness and so travelers and hikers consume plenty of it. Brewing tea with the leaves releases a tiny amount of the cocaine alkaloid which provides a stimulant effect not unlike a strong cup of coffee. Chewing is a different story though. To chew you take a small quantity (if you're a tourist and a large quantity if you're used to it) of the leaves and place it inside one cheek, then you add a little ash (a small stone of which is generally included when buying the leaves) and grind the leaves between your teeth. Once ground you're supposed to keep the pulp in your cheek to allow the various components to have their full impact. In practice though it's a foul tasting substance and keeping it in your mouth for very long is difficult. Keep it in long enough though and your tongue starts to go numb which I took as a sign to spit the bright green remains out. As disgusting as it sounds it really helps with the effects of the altitude and provides a little energy burst to keep you going.

I'd slept surprisingly well, I'd rented a light-weight roll-up Thermarest mattress to use in addition to the provide foam sleeping mat which was rather comfortable. Combined with a incredibly light and very warm sleeping bag to keep out the cold I had no trouble sleeping. A warm sleeping bag is essential as it can easily reach freezing temperatures on the trail in the winter which is the best time to visit because it's much more likely to be dry.

Breakfast was simple but filling with yet more coca tea. As a group we started to discuss the day ahead. The second day is considered the hardest day on the trail. Most of the day is spent climbing to the highest point on the trail - Dead Woman's Pass at 4215m (~14,000ft) above sea level. We'd all heard stories of people saying it was the hardest thing they'd ever done so there some nervousness in the air. Jeremy, our trusty guide, assured us that we'd all make it if we went at our own pace and reminded us that it would be very cold at the top and to make sure we were carrying warm clothes to change in to at the top. Before leaving though it was time to officially meet the support team of porters and chefs that were accompanying us on the trail.

Each person introduced themselves to us, told us their name, age, where they were from and their duties on the trail. Having a big team like this was great and made things much easier for us. For a start they carried most of gear, so we only had to carry some warm clothes, water, snacks and a camera while hiking. I saw many people hiking that were also carrying all their gear and I didn't envy them one bit.

The introductions over it was time to start hiking. It was going to be a long day. We all set off together but it didn't take long to spread out again into smaller groups of two or three. It's amazing how there can be so many people all hiking together, but apart from at the rest stops you rarely see anyone else.

Almost instantly the trail headed uphill. We were at only 10,000ft above sea level and had to get to 14,000ft before we'd start going down hill. The trail is not really that steep but at that altitude it feels a lot worse. Trying to climb at the same pace you would at a lower altitude leads to quick exhaustion. The morning went well enough with most of the trail weaving through cloud forest which provided some welcome shade. On reaching a large clearing we stopped for a break and to allow the group to get together again. Behind us the mountains loomed ominously, we still had a long way to get to the pass.

The next stop was for lunch. From here we could look along the valley and could just see the trail weaving up the side and up to Dead Woman's Pass. The pass is not named because a woman died up there, although it's easy to believe that could happen, but because the formation of the mountains apparently looks like the profile of a dead woman. I couldn't see it myself no matter how much I looked, perhaps if I did a lot more coca I might have done, but I just took Jeremy's word for and kept walking.

If there's one thing that I can recommend that makes the hike easier (other than coca) it's to take regular short breaks. I'd hike for about thirty minutes then take a five minute break, have some water, get my breath back and perhaps chew some coca before setting out again. That combined with bigger breaks at spots designated by the guide every ninety minutes to two hours made everything quite bearable.

When climbing up to the pass every corner looks like it might be the last one, but it always seems like there's more to go. Finally, though you round the last corner and can see the last few steps up to the pass. The relief at having made it is extreme and then if you had any breath left from the ascent the view soon takes that away.

From these photos it's hard to get an idea of just how far we'd climbed, but if you look to the lowest point in the valley, that's where we had lunch.

At the top it was surprisingly warm, even our guide was surprised and commented that it was normally much colder and could easily be below freezing up there. Not wanting to tempt fate and knowing that we still a good distance to go we started going down the other side. From that point on it's all downhill to the camp for the night. Shortly after you start the descent there are a set of toilets that are surprisingly well maintained for their location, so if you feel the need, it's a good place to stop.

The descent is pretty easy going, it's just long with the occasional steep section which requires some care - you really don't want to fall and get hurt here. By the time we reached the camp site it was starting to get dark. The camp site was crowded, every flat surface had a tent on it, but of course our porters had secured a quiet spot away from the main crowd and as usual greeted us with a round of applause. Unlike our previous camping spot the night before there was no private facilities, instead everyone was sharing a limited number of locations which lead to queues forming and unpleasant odor. Everything is cleaned regularly, but that can't really cope with two hundred plus hikers, a reasonable percent of which are likely suffering from the altitude, a change in diet and a touch of food poisoning.

The camp on day two is located in a valley and gets pretty cold when it gets dark, so we were all eager to have dinner and get to bed - there are no late nights on the trail!

Hiking The Inca Trail: Day One

michael — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:48:00 GMT

It's easy to get to Machu Picchu. You just get on a bus from Cuzco, then a train and then a bus up to Machu Picchu. Easy. The more adventurous though spend three and half days hiking up and down mountains along an old trail to get there. Although there are a number of trails the "classic" approach is along the Inca Trail.

With a small army of porters up to two hundred people a day can set out on the trail to make this traveler's pilgrimage to one of the new seven wonders of the world. Machu Picchu was built by the Inca Empire around 1450 and was never discovered by the Spanish. In fact it wasn't even really known about to the outside world until 1911 when an Hiram Bingham "discovered" it. Check out the Wikipedia article for the full history.

Armed with cameras, water and our walking sticks this small band of merry (for now) adventurers set out on the Inca Trail. The first day is considered the easiest of the four days on the trail. The trail is fairly flat with only limited climbs with plenty of places to stop and rest. Our guide did a good job of keeping us together as a group and scheduling good places to stop for breaks. Local people along the trail sell drinks and snacks which we tourist easily gobble down. Most people take the first day fairly quickly and exhaust themselves in the process. That's a good thing though as it means you take it easier for the rest of the trail and realise it's not as hard as you thought it might be.

It's not long before you discover on day one that there's no sign of life anywhere around you. Even though there are five hundred people on the trail you don't really see many of them most of the time. It's only when you reach the camp sites or lunch spots that you get an idea of how many other people are hiking along with you. Once you start walking it's rare to see anyone other than a porter running past you. The porters are amazing it has to be said. Each one carries no more than twenty kilos (plus his own gear) and they run along the trail wearing very basic sandals and no walking stick for support. A few years ago a race was run along the length of the trail; athletes from around the world competed, but it was a local porter in his regular clothes than won the race. In three and a half hours. OK, he wasn't carrying anything, but three and a half hours compared to the three and a half days that regular people take... That's amazing. He wants to do it again as he thinks he can beat his best time - he won't stop for fifteen minutes to have a cup of tea next time.

The morning passes pretty quickly, after a climb up what we thought was a steep hill re reach a lookout point and can see the river we started off following winding through the valley and past some Incan ruins beneath us. From our vantage point we can see how over the years huge boulders have come crashing down off the mountain and smashed through the ruins, coming to rest on the terraces below. We don't stop for long, there's a lot of ground to cover and we haven't had lunch yet.

Carrying on, the trail starts going down hill. That's not good at this stage, because every step down means we have to take a step up again. The altitude isn't too bad at this point but the air is definitely thinner. Having a walking stick makes things much easier, it takes some of the load and makes covering the rough ground simpler. Wooden sticks with a rubber bottom are sold at the start of the trail very cheaply and are a great investment. Metal walking sticks are supposedly banned, but many people use them anyway.

Lunch time arrives and one of the porters is waiting by the edge of the trail for us to guide us to where they've set up camp. Water is waiting for us to wash our hands and cold drinks are quickly handed around. The food on the trail is quite amazing. The chef with very limited resources prepared three tasty and nutritious meals a day. There was always plenty of food so we were never left hungry. Everything was prepared using water collected from a stream and then boiled to make it safe to drink, but all the food was carried in by the porters.

After lunch we carry on along the trail, mostly in silence as the group soon breaks up into smaller groups. Jeremy, our guide, has described a place where we'll stop for a break, but otherwise lets us walk at our own pace and time. The scenery is spectacular all around us and mostly untouched as hikers are required to stick to the trail and not wander off. There's a good reason for that, much of the trail is on steep cliff faces and stepping onto what might look like solid vegetation can send the unfortunate off the edge of a cliff. With vegetation so dense and few people around it could be quite some time before you're found and rescued and the only way out is back or forward along the trail. There are no helicopter rescues here.

Eight miles pass by and the sun begins to set behind the high mountains as we reach the end of day one. It was great to arrive at the campsite and have the porters waiting for us with a round of applause. Every time we reached camp they'd break into applause to welcome us, even though they'd been there probably for hours before hand. Our tents were already set up and waiting for us. We'd been lucky and the porters had secured a great camp site for us, further up the hill than everyone else with a great view into the valley and the rest of the campsites. We even had company, a turkey stalked our tents but eventually hid up a tree out of the way. Who knew turkeys could climb trees? We certainly didn't.

Day one left me pretty tired, but I sat outside to watch the sun go down and the stars come out and contemplated the day ahead. Day two is the hard day. The long hard climb to Dead Woman's Pass - the highest point of the trail at 4215m (~14,000ft) above sea level.

Continued in day two.

Sacred Valley Of the Incas

michael — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:20:25 GMT

Near Cusco is the Sacred Valley of the Incas. This highly fertile area was a major source of food for the Incas and so was treated as sacred. Many people still live here and I got the chance to visit a small village where local people still practice traditional handicrafts.

The local people in this small village mainly survive by farming, but the growth in tourism to the area has provided additional opportunities for them. The woman of the village use the wool from their alpacas to weave traditional items to sell to tourists and then men work as porters on the Inca Trail. In fact some of the men from this village would be in my team of porters when I hiked the Inca Trail a few days later.

Near the town of Pisac are some Inca ruins with this huge area of terraces. The Incans terraced the land to grow crops and make the best use of the land. Our guide led us around the ruins on a short hike to make sure we were up to the task of hiking the Inca Trail the next day. The altitude certainly made it interesting and left us short of breath, but it certainly helped prepare us for what was to come.

The Incan masonry is amazing, each stone was carved by hand to fit perfectly with the stones around it - no mortar was needed to keep these buildings standing - just precision workmanship.

Leaving Pisac I headed to the start of the Inca Trail at Ollantaytambo - another Incan city.

Looking at this mountain it's hard to imagine trying to climb it, but the Incas did and build a number of buildings on it. That alone is pretty impressive, but if you look closely you can see two faces carved into the rock itself. To see the first, imagine a line between the two buildings, about half way along that line is a face looking to the left. The second is smaller and harder to see, it's on the top of the mountain on the left, you can just see a face in profile, with the nose sticking out from the side of the mountain.

Climbing around Ollantaytambo left everyone tired and short of breath thanks to the high altitude, but it was just a warm up to hiking the Inca Trail so after buying a walking stick we all went to bed early, because tomorrow was an early start and a lot of hiking.

Sacred Valley photo gallery

Peru Earthquake

michael — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:17:00 GMT

Peru has been rattled by a few earthquakes this week causing massive amounts of damage with reports now saying that over 500 people have been killed. The earthquakes have been centered in the Ica region and close to the town of Pisco which I visited a little over a month ago. It seems like Pisco has been pretty hard hit with the church in the main square now a pile of rubble, it's amazing to me to think that I sat in that same main square drinking Pisco Sours and now it's in ruins.

Relief efforts are underway but there's been major damage to the roads which is making it difficult to get supplies to those in need. It's also the middle of winter there making it get very cold over night. World Vision are responding by bringing in supplies of warm clothes and medical supplies. I've made a donation to their efforts this morning and if you're able to I encourage you too as well.

Update: New York Times photos of the destruction in Pisco.

Leaving Microsoft

michael — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:22:00 GMT

On Monday I announced that I'll be leaving Microsoft on the 31st of August. I've been working at Microsoft for over six and a half years.

I started off in the Speech team working on the speech recognition components in Office XP and then the text-to-speech components in Windows XP. At the same time I also worked on the Speech SDK (SAPI 5.1). After XP shipped I stayed in the Speech team and worked on Microsoft Speech Server for a couple of years. That was an interesting project, I spent most of my time building little speech applications, deploying them on a test server and then picking up a phone to call the server and interact with the application.

After the Speech team I moved to work on Windows Media Center, mostly on the SDK. Media Center was a fun place to work, not least because I got to watch TV and call it work! I worked on three releases of Media Center over three years, with the final release being part of Windows Vista. I'll still continue to use Media Center with an Xbox 360 as an extender after I leave Microsoft, I still think it's a great product.

The next step was moving to the Zune team. I can't talk about what I've been doing though...

So the question is what am I doing next? Well I've accepted a job in the Bay Area for a very interesting company. I think that's all I'll say for now...

Transition Complete

michael — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:16:00 GMT

I've moved my website hosting from ASPnix to Webhost4Life, most stuff is working ok, but there are a few things still to fix. ASPnix dragged thier feet over giving me the backups of my databases so I've had to move stuff by hand. Unfortunately blog comments got lost upon the way along with all the tagging which I'll slowly recreate. Preserving comments was just too much work for it to be worthwhile unfortunately.

Now I can get back to documenting my Peru and Bolivia travels.

second test of new settings

michael — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:19:00 GMT

Moved to a new host and getting data ported over.

Do not host with ASPnix

michael — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:32:00 GMT

This blog is unfortunately hosted with ASPnix. Once upon a time there was good service, problems were resolved quickly and servers stayed up and running. Now things are different. Things started going bad earlier this year, complaints started filling the forums on ASPnix.com, but support replied things would get better May 1st, when they'd roll out a new website and pricing plans as well as improve support. May 1st came and went with no changes. The support team of one person started deleting all negative posts on their forums, anything that might prevent a new customer from signing up was deleted. Any complaints about things getting deleted also got deleted.

Fast forward to the more recent events. On July 20th it was announced that the new website and plans would be rolled out in a "few days". At the same time the forums were shut down, removing all the customer complaints and the ability for customers to discuss the issues. Of course the website didn't get updated and the forums didn't get restored. Instead a message appeared that the forums were only down temporarily due to a software upgrade and would be back online August 6th along with the new website. Well now it's August 13th and still nothing has changed.

Last week the anti-spam software ASPnix runs stopped working and my mailbox started getting flooded with spam. I emailed support and eventually got a reply that they would "check it seriously". 24 hours later and it's not fixed so I email again and get told that the issue has been forwarded to "system ADMIN" and "he will be fixing the issue on priority basis". 48 hours after the ticket was opened I email again asking what's going on and when is it going to be fixed and get told that I'm the only customer facing the problem (can't tell if that's true now the forums have been deleted), and they are "trying to figure out and fix". After three days I email again asking for a status report and ETA for the fix, support doesn't bother to respond. On the fourth day I email again with the same question and get told "we are working on it and will get it fixed ASAP". Now it's been five days and it's still not fixed. Support is claimed to be 24/7, but if I get a response, it's always from the same person and always during regular business hours. Support also claims to use a Windows Live/MSN Messenger account for support, but the account is never signed in making it impossible to contact them.

Now to find a new host that supports Community Server. I imagine getting a backup of my database from ASPnix is going to be difficult.

Arequipa, Peru

michael — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 18:11:00 GMT

Arequipa was my first stop in Peru that was any significant distance above sea level. I didn't really notice it until I tried climbing several flights of stairs to reach a rooftop restaurant to see this view:

Arequipa is Peru's second most important city and located at the foot of a giant volcano called El Misti. During the Inca times El Misti was worshipped as a god and there's now evidence that human sacrifices were carried out on the volcano. The most striking evidence is the well preserved body of a young Incan girl that was found on the mountain. The body and a number of artifacts were recovered and are now preserved in a museum in Arequipa. The frozen body has been examined and shows signs that she died from a blow to the head. The body is now kept frozen and on display for curious tourists. There's not actually much to see as the body is covered in ice and behind several layers of glass in a dimly lit room making it almost impossible to see.

I spent my afternoon in Arequipa white water rafting on a nearby river. I hadn't been rafting before so I was excited to try it out. The setting was perfect, high mountains all around and a perfectly clear fast flowing ice cold river. I was given a safety briefing and told all the various instructions that would be used to get us down the river before we jumped in the raft and got on our way. It wasn't long before I found myself in the river. Everything happened very quickly, the shock of the ice cold water was perhaps the worst and finding myself under the raft didn't help, somehow as I fell though I managed to keep hold of the rope on the outside of the raft and was able to pull myself from under the raft enough that the rest of my team could pull me back on board. It was actually pretty refreshing!

Navigating down the rapids was a lot of fun, most of which was relief after surviving each section. About half way we took a break and walked down the river bank to get a look at the biggest rapid on the river - a level 4 rapid that was a sharp drop in the river bed into a narrow canyon causing the water to pick up speed. It looked pretty nasty. We stood and watched the first team go over it and they hand no problem which gave us all a lot more courage and we went on our way. We picked up speed as we approached the rapid and it looked like we were going to make it. We went over the edge and landed... It looked like everything was ok, but we'd got the angle wrong and were took close to one of the sides of the canyon. The water pushed the raft up against the wall and tipped us into the water. As I hit the water I remembered what I'd been told during the safety briefing, I floated on my back with my feet in front of me so I could avoid any rocks. I grasped the rope on the side of the raft and the wall on the other side of the canyon was now fast approaching. I pushed off the side of the wall to avoid hitting it and carried on floating with the raft while the crew got back on the raft and helped everyone else back on board and then helped me back on as well. It went really well, nobody was hurt and they easily could have been. We carried on down the river without incident and had a great time doing it. The whole experience was a lot of fun and I'm really glad I did it.

Back in Arequipa I spent the evening exploring the Santa Catalina Monastery. The monastery, built in the 16th and 17th century is enclosed behind a high wall is a small town on to itself with a maze of streets to explore. The monastery is still home to twenty nuns, but is open to the public during the day and one evening a week to the public. In the evening the monastery is very quiet with few tourists and little more than candle light in most places. Unfortunately there's not much to see, most of the rooms are the same, sparsely decorated with the essentials and lit by candle. It's an interesting place to walk around though and the art collection is quite extensive.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see much more of Arequipa after that evening as I picked up a case of food poisoning and spent the next couple of days in bed. It wasn't so bad though, as I meant I'd be well for the next stop - Cuzco and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Viewing the Nazca Lines, Nazca, Peru

michael — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:50:00 GMT

Leaving Pisco it's a long drive to Nazca through the desert landscape. Thankfully there are things to do on the way. We stopped at an oasis in the desert and had lunch at the restaurant which being entertained by a man who described himself as the "Peruvian Tommy Cooper" and then performed an embarrassingly bad selection of magic tricks. The food though was much better and surprisingly cheap.

Outside huge sand dunes were all around us so I took the opportunity to go out in a dune buggy to explore. The seat belts had ripped at some point at had been tied back together again but even so it seemed relatively safe. The buggy left the restaurant at high speed, stopped at a checkpoint to record the number of people on board and then sped up the side of one of the dunes. As we reached the top I realised just how big the desert was - sand dunes in every direction. There was no time to enjoy the view though as the driver sped us over the plateau and then suddenly sharply downhill. The seat belts did their job yet I maintained a firm grip on the metal bar in front of me. We continued up and down dunes with the wind in our hair and a growing sense that we probably wouldn't die. That was until the driver took aim at a seemingly vertical wall of sand and started accelerating straight at it. Faintly in the sand I could see the tracks of previous victims and a sharp turn at the top of the dune, so not only was he going to drive up this wall at high speed, he was going to turn around while doing it and then drive back down it. There was no time to worry though as we were already climbing the wall and for a second it looked like we might just reach the top, but we were slowing down and the driver executed a sharp u-turn and we were hurtling down again.

We stopped at the top of another steep dune and got out to admire the spectacular view. The driver went to the back to the dune buggy and re-appeared holding snowboard-shaped bits of wood with velcro straps on them. He pointed towards the slope and motioned in a downward fashion with his hand. We were going sandboarding. Well almost. We weren't going to be standing on the boards, which was probably just as well as I would have broken at least one ankle I'm sure. Instead we were going to lie on the boards, holding on to the straps and slide down the dune. I had the dubious honour of going first. Lying on the board I couldn't see the slope of the dune beneath me so I had to slowly push myself over the edge in to the unknown. The board picked up speed quickly and I hurtled down the slope. Behind me I could hear the driver shouting "Break! Break!" and I remember thinking that yes, I probably would break something. The dune leveled off though and I came to a stop at the bottom. I jumped up from the board and gave a victorious wave to my nervous looking companions on the top of the dune and one by one the followed me down.

We continued driving around, stopping now and then for more sandboarding. At one point the driver said "Oasis?" and we responded in the affirmative - we did want to go back there rather than staying in the desert. That wasn't what he meant though. As we went around a corner we caught a glimpse of a real oasis in the desert. Below us was a small lake surrounded by lush vegetation. This was the real oasis and not the tourist trap that we'd had lunch at.

All good things much come to an end though and we had to return to the restaurant. The driver stopped at the checkpoint again to confirm he hadn't left anyone behind and I rejoined the rest of traveling companions and we got back on the road to Nazca.

Beyond the rock formation we sped through the desert to get to a viewing tower to see our first glimpse of the Nazca Lines. The geoglyphs were created by the Nazca people sometime between 200BC and 700AD. Popular opinion is that the lines are carved into the ground, but this isn't accurate. The surface of the ground is covered by dark stones and pebbles which when removed contrast with the light coloured earth beneath. The Nazca people moved the stones to reveal the earth beneath them to create the lines and thanks to the constant dry and windless climate of the area the lines have survived.

The viewing tower by the side of the road gives a good first glimpse of the lines, which can't be seen from ground level at all thanks to their size, but from it you can only see a couple of the geoglyphs. The best way to see them is by air, but first I had to go to a cemetery.

Outside the modern town on Nazca is a distinctly un-modern cemetery. Here numerous remains of Nazca people were discovered, most either on the desert floor or close to it.

The first stop was the museum to see some of the best preserved remains that had been discovered. It always a little creepy to look upon human remains in a display cabinet, but it's equally amazing to see how well preserved the bodies were after almost two thousand years thanks to the dry climate. Outside the museum a series of pathways lead to small covered pits that were built recently to help preserve the remains. The landscape is barren and lifeless. One on side in the distance are mountains and on the other side there's a hint of vegetation on the banks of a river.

This pit contains the remains of a child (front) facing the adult in the rear. All the remains were in a fetal position and wrapped in numerous layers of textiles to create this unique shape. The rest of the photos from the cemetery are in the gallery.

Leaving the cemetery we went to the local airport to arrange a flight over the Nazca Lines. The small planes seat just six people including the pilot and leave on a regular basis on a fixed route over the lines. While flying the pilot banks left and right to give everyone a chance to get a good view of the lines. This has the unfortunate side effect of making everyone feel sick, but it's worth it.

The first glyph I saw was also one of the strangest. The Whale. How could a civilisation that lived two thousand years ago in a desert know what a whale looked like? We'll never really know for sure, but it's speculated that this is evidence that the Nazca had contact with other groups living on the coast. Next were the triangles stretching far into the distance.

The Astronaut is different from the other lines - first it's a human figure instead of the animal or geometric shapes and second it's on the side of a hill instead of on flat ground. Some people see this figure as being a sign of alien involvement in the creation of the lines, which is where it's name came from, but I think it's just a person, perhaps a representation of an important leader, a Nazcan Mount Rushmore in a way.

Like the whale glyph, this glyph of a monkey is evidence that the Nazca people had contact with a civilisation that inhabited the jungle areas of Peru. The next glyph is that of a dog, one of the more complex images - note that like the rest of the glyphs this is created by one continuous line.

This picture of the viewing tower next to the glyphs called "The Tree" and "The Hands" really gives a sense of just how big the images are. The rest of the photos taken from the air are in the gallery.

There's a lot of debate over the purpose of the lines, some think they are alien landing strips, some say they point to water sources and others say they were part of religious festivals and used as a calendar. Discounting the alien theory, the others seem plausible. The Nazca people did create a complex underground irrigation system and some of the lines do point towards water sources that are still in use. Some of the lines do point to certain stars on the horizon during the soltices/equinoxes, but if you draw enough lines on the ground some are going to point to stars on the horizon. We'll probably never know what the lines were really used for, but that doesn't make them any less impressive.

Ballestas Islands and Pisco, Peru

michael — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 23:29:00 GMT

After a few hours on the bus from Lima I arrived in Pisco, the home of the grape brandy of the same name and it's most famous cocktail the great Pisco Sour. The one thing you must do in Pisco is drink a Pisco Sour or three, because really this small town has little else to offer. Thankfully though nearby are the Ballestas Islands which are sometimes described as the "Galapagos for the poor". I took a boat out and around the islands to see what there was to see. The islands are not inhabited and it's forbidden to land on them to protect the wildlife and to protect the guano that builds up on the islands from the birds which is harvested once a year to make fertiliser.

The most common bird on the islands are the Peruvian Boobies as seen above.

There's a variety of other birds as well though, including penguins. Closer to the water's edge sea lions can be found, but not in the numbers you see them on the Galapagos Islands.

When sailing to and from the Ballestas Islands this 128 meter tall geoglyph is visible carved in to the hillside. It was created by the pre-Columbian civilisation called Paracas and serves as a reminded that you're not far from Nazca and the famous Nazca Lines. Back on dry land I went to visit a Pisco distillery and learn how the grape brandy is made. It's produced much like wine is produced all over the world, but instead of using barrels to store the wine in, these large stone vessels are used instead:

Once the wine is ready it's distilled and becomes the grape brandy "Pisco". Having learnt about the process I headed to the tasting room to try a few varieties. First the undistilled wine, which was pleasant enough, but not really what I was looking for. Neat Pisco was strong and not really to my liking so I tried a different drink that invovled Pisco and milk which tasted not unlike Bailey's. The best was saved for last though, the refreshing Pisco Sour:

Pisco Sour:

Ingredients:

2 fl oz (8 parts) Pisco
1 fl oz (4 parts) Lime juice
¼ fl oz (1 part) Simple syrup
½ Egg white
1 dash Bitters

Directions: Shake strongly with ice and strain into glass, bitters are used as a garnish on the foamy top.

Lima, City of Kings, Peru.

michael — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:04:00 GMT

Founded in 1535 by the conquistador Francisco Pizzaro, Lima is the capital of Peru.

In the heart of the city the Plaza de Armas (main sqaure) is the cathedral.

The interior of the cathedral is light with a beautiful ceiling. I took a guided tour of the cathedral and was lucky that nobody else had requested an English speaking guide at the same time so I had the guide to myself. The first stop on the tour was to see the tomb of Francisco Pizzaro.

The authorities are now sure that the coffin on display does contain the remains of Pizzaro. Up until recently what was on display was a different body that is now thought to be that of a soldier. Pizzaro's body was discovered after an earthquake damaged a wall in the crypt revealing a metal box with an inscription indicating that it held the head of Francisco Pizzaro; excavations into another part of the same wall in the crypt revealed a decapitated body and after a barrage of tests it was determined that the head and body matched. The body that was previously on displayed was removed and Pizzaro's remains put in it's place. The rest of the cathedral is typical of what one would expect in a Latin American Catholic church - lots of figures of the Virgin Mary, but it's really the extensive art collection that is most interesting. Over the years the church has acquired a great deal of religious art and my guide was happy to explain much of it to me. What I found interesting was the efforts that church had taken to combine elements of the native religions into Catholicism so as to appeal to the native population. The Virgin Mary is often depicted wearing a triangular dress so as to appear like a mountain to correspond to the native belief of mountains as holy places. The sun often appears (sometimes more than once) in the paintings to provide a link to the native Sun god.

Leaving the cathedral it is just a short walk to the Franciscan monastery. Viewing the monastery's religious art collection is interesting, but what people really go to see is the catacombs beneath the building. Here the remains of hundreds of monks are stored in narrow short passageways. A guided tour leads you through the passeways so you can see the neatly organised piles of bones (sorted by type of bone rather than keeping the bones of one body together).

My final stop was at the Museo del Banco Central de Reserva del Perú so I could view the collection of Inca gold stored in the old bank vault.

Back from Peru and Bolivia

michael — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:03:00 GMT

I had an amazing time!

I'm catching up on my email at work and working though my photos, so over the next few days and weeks I'll be posting about my trip.

I hope you all had a good June!

Zune 1.4 and Peru

michael — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:50:00 GMT

Zune 1.4 firmware is coming out today. It'll make shuffle better. I didn't know shuffle was bad, shows how much attention I pay when listening to music.

I'm going to Peru next week to hike the Inca Trail amongst other things so don't expect any updates until July.

Tour the Zune office

michael — Mon, 14 May 2007 22:50:00 GMT

Cesar has posted a few photos of the zune building.