Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley, Peru

Street in the old town near hotels/hostals/beds and breakfasts within walking distance of the most fascinating ruins the most high minded of men could imagine.

This place is Uplifting Cousin, and I want you to go. So get off it and online to see just how affordable Peru travel is. Gas is about $1 US per gallon here, so guess what, taxis and buses are cheap. WiFi is decent and almost always free at hostels and hotels although service is sometimes spotty or disrupted in smaller towns. You may have to go across the room or street and try again. Check with your hotel for taxi prices. Hotels and taxis are all connected and on the same page with prices for fares and tours. Generally, a taxi for all day is S/.220  or about USD $72. Taxi from Cusco to Urubamba or Ollantaytambo is S/.170 or about USD $45 to $55. Collectivos are much less. Buses are dirt cheap if you have time. An English speaking cab driver will cost a little extra. Spanish is the #2 language in the world and will be, so learn the basics. A tour guide will also be extra. So read up and know what you are going to see before you get there.

Terraces at Pumatallis.

I handle all travel arrangements myself, and the bill is usually 60% of what guided tours are (5 flights on this trip) hotels (6 on this trip),  I stay longer and see more than the tours do and usually know more than the tour guide does. However time schedules are stressful and delays may cost you whereas tour companies usually absorb this. My vacations are really not relaxing but grueling workaholic fact finding photo expeditions. Three and four in the morning to dark thirty, days are full, there is usually an apple or cheese crackers for lunch. I suck the melted Hershey bars from the wrapper and there is never enough water. I like it like that. I go to see something new and beautiful and come home every day completely exhausted, to crash and look at some of the images I made that day to make sure I am doing my best. I have a photographic memory. It's a wonderful thing to be able to relive these special days far into the future.

The language barrier is really no problem, just negotiate where you want to go, which takes few words, smile, pat the driver on the back, say I buy lunch, OK?  And its on cousin. This simple offering suggests that you take care of the people around you, and instills confidence in strangers you need to help you. Keep your word, and be good to them, this allows for their judgment to give you the benefit of the doubt, and they will take you to that special place no one else gets to see. They will work hard for you.

Ruins atop Pumatallis, terraces at Ollantaytambo overlook Sacred Valley.

Know from exactly which point in the ruin you need to be at sunrise to get the image you fancy. Study the forums, (Trip Advisor)  and others who will answer all your questions before you get to Peru with them. Peru is not the place to be unknowing. Ponder google images for every possible image of a particular sight and know that there will be a dandy you wont know about until you get back home.

Watch the videos on YouTube.  Buy a couple books on the Sacred Valley and Cusco on line. There are so many to choose from. No I don't get paid for this. When you get back you will understand fully. I just don't want you to miss U. flight 854 IAH Depart Houston 4:50pm  nonstop approx. 6.5 hrs Arrive Lima 10:54.

Brugmansia (Angels Trumpet) grows wild here.

The Peruvian Sole is a very stable currency at about .33 to the USD. So don't worry about trading cash. Bring unblemished Soles and a few US dollars from a US or foreign bank. Don't trade in Peru as counterfeit is common. Funds for services are commonly secured by credit card # at time of booking, but when its time to pay up in Peru, businesses and individuals usually want cash. US dollars are largely welcome but the Sole is boss here and good as gold. Peru is a cash society. People here do business in cash. They will scrutinize both sides of every bill you give them as they have all been burnt. Don't hand them money any faster than they can look it over. This is not polite. Peruvians are a very polite and patient people. They want late model clean and crisp currency without excessive wear.

We stayed at Ollay 3 days. Its owners were two young people, with a little boy getting started in the hotel/taxi/tour business. The hotel manager was an eager to help people person from Belgium, he spoke fluent English, French, Spanish for sure and people from Belgium often speak German, the language of their eastern neighbors and probably family, but I did not hear it spoken. But this is not typical.

 Tourism is big in Peru and its people are excellent in the hotel restaurant trade. Did I say the food is outstanding, fresh, beautifully prepared. The alpaca, Llama meat isn't wild tasting but much like beef. Roasted chicken is is where I started while I did a lot of tasting of so many vegetables I had never seen before. Peruvian food is far more healthy than American food and a late lunch is the big meal of the day at which time everything stops brother, everything. Check with you doctor to see if you can eat the unpeeled uncooked fruits and vegetables.  The small, yellow, bruised up, pointed, bananas are better than any banana I've ever tasted here in the U.S.

Hotels can arrange any kind of tour, get you a car taxi, motorbike taxi in 5 minutes, know where everything is in town and The Sacred Valley, and for some reason have the most soft spoken, patient and polite receptionists, real Ladies and Gentleman. I am practicing this. It would be a good place to send American children to school to learn some respect from the Peruvian children.

Ronaldo, our driver took us down every beautiful road in the Sacred Valley. I had no idea the countryside in the high country near Maras was so beautiful, especially the rolling hills within sight of glaciers in the high Andes, and patchwork different colored farm fields and sprawling golden wheat fields that touch the clouds. Holy Smoke man, I would have gone much, much farther to see that alone.

Typical street in old town, ancient ruins upper left.

Ronaldo took us to Morray, Maras, Chinchero, Pisac, Sacsayhuaman, and other gems near Cusco and then to our hotel in Cusco.

Our hostal in Ollay had just outside the window a rocky, mountain fed stream, a towering mountain, and a cornfield with a farmer tending his cows and burrows in the old manner. These people treated us really good. They were more than reasonable, and we felt safe with them. The little boy likes Hershey bars and M&Ms, Could you bring some extra? 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollantaytambo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Valley

Growing Sweet Corn

The pan is 9 inches wide.

 This is the 1st season I planted Mirai 350bc sweet corn. I read about it in online reviews. All I heard was praise. So I bought a thousand untreated seed from Vermont Bean.

When the seed arrived it looked desiccated beyond what corn seed should look like.  So I figured I might have gotten bad seed.

Late winter here in zone 8b was warm enough for the grass to be green in my garden, and far too wet to prepare rows which we must use in South Louisiana to keep the seed from sitting in water in our flat terrain.

If planting 2 different types corn, you must have them at least 1000' apart to realize a crop true to name, to prevent cross pollination.

Clouds parted for a couple days and I tilled the garden with a heavy tiller. Weather would not permit any drying time, so I made rows and planted the crummy looking seed in almost mud, and churned up grass. When I got through all I could say good was the rows were straight. I wouldn't give 2 bits for the whole dog gone thing. Sometimes it's the best one can do.

Plant a seed young man.

It rained three weeks during which time every single seed came up in the mud, like rice. The mole crickets moved in and cut a few. I managed to hoe around it at about 12 inches tall, and hill a little. I sprayed seedlings for cut worms. It rained.

I sprayed the new silk for worms and worms gave me no trouble. It did very well growing in mud. It made a pretty good number of ears. It is by far the tenderest corn I have ever eaten, and the sweetest. Ears are a little small (6 to 7 inches, the pan is 9 inches wide) but extremely uniform and easier to handle, and chomp on when eating fresh boiled. I think this is good, despite the fact I wanted big ears. Huh! I have changed my mind again. 

 There are many good types of sweet corn to plant, but I will probably plant this again next season, as I am very happy with its performing so well under adverse conditions. This fact is uncommon. Good Luck.

Terraces Above Urubamba River, Sacred Valley Peru

You must enlarge to appreciate.

Ancient farm terraces lie idle 3000 foot above the Urubamba River. Swords of first light reveal, a garden in the sky.

This is one of the most difficult places in the world to get to if you figure the number of flights, cabs, trains, buses, tickets, bribes, but it was every bit a blessing. I had about 4 seconds to make this image as the sun came over this sharp moan-tane so quickly. Five seconds would not reveal the swords any longer. I took one at about 2.5 seconds and one at 4 seconds and it was gone. This is the one at 2.5 seconds. The other is slightly lighter. Both are in good focus and definition. This is the 5 seconds of magic I've been telling you about cousin, and it will carry you over.


This will be the first of many images I made throughout the Magnificent Country of Peru, and The Andes Mountain Range, where from I learned the correct pronunciation of the word     " Moan-tane " by a spiritual Peruvian. I believe He's right.

From Lima south to Arequipa across the High Desert/Vicuna -Lama- Alpaca Reserve wilderness ( 8,000' to 16,800' ) and the breathless volcano region, to and along the Colca Canyon from Chivay. The many Inca and Pre Inca Megalithic stone masonry/ruins of the Sacred Valley and Cusco. Points of interests, Churches, Cathedrals, Convents, Monasterys, Holy Places, pottery, jewelry, art of all sorts, Peruvian Market, farms, indigenous peoples and culture.

My favorite medium has always been film, color negative or slide. This is the absolute reason I have shown you so few of the images I have made in so many wonderful places. Because I have a hundred good negatives for every image I've shown you, but they have never been scanned and converted to digital which must happen to get them online into google images. Yes I did use my $99 printer scanner to do those fuzzy ones. I've been so busy working for so long, but I quit all that. I'm going to buy a good scanner soon and haul out the shoe boxes of negatives.

On this last trip the rewind mechanism broke on my favorite film camera on the first day in Lima on the third roll of 120 slides. Good news is every frame I took after that point is available now. I did it all in digital on a new camera I had just bought in case. I shot 10 times what I would on film. Sure I got a heap of junk, but I am finding out there probably is 4000 images on the disks, and some are kik ass. I made more good images on this trip than I would have with film,  but the best are usually film. 

If I can figure out how to get the digital definition on line as it is on camera and monitor. Terraces above Urubamba image definition is far better than the windows 10 version you see. Will republish better later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Valley