Home-hosted lunch in Urubamba community

One of the many highlights of the trip was to be able to have lunch in the home of a Sacred Valley family.  They graciously cooked a wonderful home-made meal for us.  The standard fare in many homes was guinea pig (!) --  I tried it and, yes, it tastes like dark-meat chicken.  We also had the most wonderful home-made soup, roasted stuffed peppers, and many other treats, and topped off by a wonderful dessert.  

Guinea pig ready to serve.  

Stuff peppers, lightly battered & fried.  Yummy!

Delicious vegetable soup.   

Bright sunny room for our lunch.  Love the yellow walls.

Beautiful vegetables.  

Ollantaytambo Ruins, Sacred Valley, Peru

One of our first activities in the Sacred Valley was to explore the Ollantaytambo Ruins.  Per the OATs guide info, this is one of the few places where the Spanish lost a battle during the conquest of Peru.   We did the climb up the terraces guarding the ancient hilltop temple area.  I was fascinated with the walls, built entirely by hand by the Incas and lifted up into place.    If you are interested, check out this link  to Wikipedia site for more information regarding their architecture & construction methods.

Here's a view from half-way up the path.    We kept hiking and I became more & more fascinated with the structure of the walls.

The last photo is of our group, heading back down to the Sacred Valley.

Weavers in Chinchero, Cusco, Peru

We were able to visit a weaving coop in a small town in the Sacred Valley (Chinchero).  The weaving co-op was called "Winayawa".   It is run by a gentleman who houses and feeds the weavers  and allows groups like ours to come in and see the techniques they use.  The weavers stay approximately 2-3 weeks, then return to their homes while another group comes in.  Each of the girls sells their work.

Our leader, Juan Lazo, introduces the organizer of this group.

Natural dyes used with the yarns.  

Juan with organizer of the co-op.  

Weaver demonstrating the use of the  drop spindle.  

Backstrap weaving, you can see the pattern starting to take shape.  

Another view of the backstrap loom.  

Finally ... posts coming up from the Galapagos & Machu Picchu trip

I just returned from a wonderful trip with OATs (Overseas Adventure Travel folks).   They delivered as promised:  lots of discoveries & adventures.  We had two guides:  Juan Lazo (Peru) and Paulina Aguirre (Galapagos).  Both guides were extremely knowledgeable about their areas & made sure we saw the sights!  

My first post is a photo of a land iguana, one of many seen on the Galapagos Islands.   These iguanas are all over, just sunning & posing for photos  ;)   See that smile?   Just for me!  LOL

I'm still unpacking, doing laundry, yard work (anyone want succulents -- they seemed to thrive happily without my TLC ) and all the stuff one needs to attend to after a 16-day absence.  I will try & post at least one photo a day, maybe more, until everyone yells "Stop" 

It was a dream-come-true trip for me,  to be able to visit both these areas.  I was not a bit disappointed, they are both amazing & beautiful in their own ways.  More to come ...  

It's a B&W white night tonight

I thought these two photos shot at La Placita in Tucson might look good in B&W.  The colorful photos posted last night were taken there.  These two actually came out of the camera almost B&W's, and with a little help during post-processing I was happy with the results.

Self Portrait

Colorful Tucson

Hanging out for a few days with friends in Tucson.  We met this morning and photographed an area called La Placita (office buildings).  I remembered it from a photo workshop many years ago & it's fun coming back.  I loved the great colors used on the all walls throughout the area.  Wouldn't this be a fun place to work?

Street Art in Phoenix

A quick post tonight, I was lucky enough to have my pal, Lori Johnson, be my guide to some gorgeous graffiti/street art in Phoenix.  She's been photographing the area for several years, knows the artists names & history.  By the end of the morning I was able to even start recognizing the artists' styles.  Names will come later, I need to do a bit more research.  Here's a photo of my favorite one (so far) and a detail of it.  Just loved all the COLOR we saw.  

Thanks Lori!

Close up view, look at the amazing detail (reflections in the glasses are a favorite!)


 

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