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Awesome by Accident

In Memory of Gene Rodgers – Read Gene’s Obituary Video Gallery

Peru

Cusco Old and New Cusco Mixed Peru Pictures Machu Picchu Sacsahuamán Lake Titicaca

A truck is parked in front of a hotel in Peru with Gene and Don standing outside

Cusco

A group of people walking down a sidewalk in front of a brick building — This is Herman, explaining the historical significance of this alley.

Herman sitting on a park bench during the day smiling — Herman is a retired, Peruvian history teacher. When Herman heard we had altitude sickness, he offered to cure us. He gathered up some herbs and brought them to our hotel. He had us lay down on our beds. Then he rubbed the herbs on our bodies in some places I don’t care to mention.

Close up of carved ancient Peruvian stone — This eleven-sided stone is famous in Cusco. It is perhaps 2 feet high, and 4 feet long. See alley picture, above. This wall was built about 800 years ago. No mortar was used. This wall has withstood many earthquakes. The stones fit so tightly together that is impossible to fit a small knife blade between them. Amazing!

Gene poses with a handmade Peruvian wall hanging while a woman is holding the wall hanging. — This woman was selling wall hangings made from llamas wool.

Gene enjoying music in a restaurant — This gentleman was playing pan pipes at one of many Cusco bar/restaurants.

Old and New Cusco

A large ancient stone building — The Spanish tore down many Inca structures. The lower, rounded portion above was built by the Incas. The Spanish built a church on top of the Inca structure. An earthquake destroyed part of the church but didn’t damage the Inca structure.

A view from inside of a stone building — View from inside Inca building, looking at Spanish church courtyard.

An ancient stone hallway — In Inca hallway, looking at Spanish church.

an Incan stone wall — It is amazing that the Incas built these walls about 800 years ago. They were built without the use of any kind of mortar.

gene and tour guides stand next to an ancient Incan stone wall — The guide explained that the Spanish left some of the Inca structures alone and built a new church on top of the existing structure. Everything to the left of me was built by the Incas. Everything to my right was built by the Spanish about 400 years later.

Mixed Peru Pictures

Gene and tour guide, Rosa smiling at a restaurant table — This is our tour guide, Rosa. She and her husband Lucio took us to a restaurant called La Chamba. In front of me is a glass of beer made from fermented corn. It’s called chicha. I also have a plate of chocla con caso, which is corn and cheese. The corn kernels were huge. The cheese was a little salty – the perfect compliment to the corn. Rosa had a cell phone, yet it was rare to find phones in a home.

beautiful landscape view of Peru with snow caped mountains in the distance — Some mountains in Peru and Bolivia are so high, they have glaciers.

Peruvian farmers and goats on a steep hill in Peru — We never saw any tractors on this farmland. I wonder why.

Two Peruvian children in tradition dress standing outside with steep mountains seen in the distance. — This must be a Kodak moment.

Llamas roam around a street in Peru — Eduardo is pushing me through the market. Those aren’t giant poodles in the foreground. Those are llamas. Though related to the camel, they can only carry light to moderate loads.

A group of people standing in front of a crowd at an outdoor Peruvian market — The Pisac market was very colorful. Potatoes are a staple in the Peruvian diet. The Peruvians also invented freeze dried potatoes. They smashed potatoes, then let the water evaporate from the potato. This way, they were able to store potatoes over long periods of time. Potatoes were introduced to Europe from South America.

Grain and other goods at an outdoor market in Peru

A group of people at a an outdoor market selling delicious fresh fruits and vegetables in Peru

Puma and Puma cubs stone sculpture — Pumas were very important to the Inca culture.

Gene and a friend on a train — Our train to Puno was delayed 10 hours. While waiting, we met Anya and Doug from Germany but then living in Buenas Aires, Argentina. To the left of me, under Don’s hat, is my extra cushion – don’t leave home without it.

A view looking out the window from inside of the train car in Peru — Jeff leaned out the train window to get this shot. The colors and fragrances were unbelievable.

Giant terraces in Peru. — These are the giant terraces at Ollantaytambo. The colorful specks, in the center of this picture, are people. See the picture below for some perspective.

Giant terraces in Peru, a closer view showing people standing near the terrace — These terraces are indeed GIANT.

Mountains in Peru, whisps of clouds graze the tops of the tall mountains in the distance. — These mountains, though beautiful, made travel difficult. It is hard to imagine how the Incas quarried stones and carried them to building sites more than 600 years ago.

It is difficult to find a perfectly vertical wall in Inca buildings. They believed it was important to be off the vertical by 11 degrees.

Incan stone ruins with large tall mountains in the distance. — The stonework was amazing.

Machu Picchu

Map of Peru with Machu Picchu highlighted

Two guides help Gene navigate the steep mountains of Machu Picchu — I hired these 2 young guys, Alex 19 and Jaime 17, to haul me up and down the Andes.

A view of a mountain in Machu Picchu — A Peruvian farmer showed an American, Hiram Bingham, Machu Picchu in 1911.

Arial view of Machu Picchu — Machu Picchu can be reached by a three hour rail journey from Cuzco, into the Urubamba Valley. From the train station at the bottom of the valley a fleet of buses takes tourists about 2,000 feet up the winding Hiram Bingham highway to the Inca ruins.

Clouds graze the tops of tall steep mountains in Machu Picchu. — The views from Machu Picchu are extraordinary.

Gene and guides navigate steps on a mountain in Machu Picchu — At the base of the ruins, we found we still had a long way to go.

Gene and tour guides receive a ride from a helpful local. — Fortunately, the driver of this truck noticed we needed help. He offered us a ride. That’s Jeff on the left, mugging a tourist.

Sacsahuamán

Gene and his guides are standing in front of a massic ancient stone wall. — That’s Jeff on my left, Lucio on my right. Lucio, a Peruvian Drug enforcement agent, is husband of Rosa, our tour guide. Sacsahuamán is one of the most famous Incan ruins.

Gene poses in front of an ancient Incan stone doorway — Here I am, just giving perspective to this photo.

Gene's tour guide Jeff poses in front of large stone blocks — That’s Jeff, holding up the wall all by himself.

corner detail of a massive ancient Incan stone wall — Incredible masonry work, isn’t it?

Incan stone wall

Incan stone wall near green grass with a bright sky shown above

Arial view of ancient Incan walls with Gene seen being pushed by his guide, Lucio — That’s Lucio pushing me around.

Massive Incan ancient walls across a landscape — Compare this picture with ones above to imagine the size of this Inca structure.

Massive quarry in Peru — Opposite to Sacsayhuaman is Rodadero, a giant rock hill with numerous stairwells and benches carved into the rock.

Lake Titicaca

A group of people sitting around on grass — Here’s Don and Jeff posing with Uro Indian women and children. Lake Titicaca is revered by the Indians who live on its shores, and the Islas del Sol and Islas de la Luna, two islands in the lake, are the legendary sites of the Inca’s creation myths. The main town in the area is Copacabana, which has a sparkling white Moorish-style Cathedral and is host to the Fiesta de la Virgen de Candelaria. The Uros are world-renowned for its totora reed boats. They built their island with reeds, they eat the reeds, they use them to build their huts, they use the reeds for just about everything.

Reed boat in Peru — The Uros made magnificent boats.

Canoes in a dock

View of rowers in a lake in Peru — A couple of Uros women are rowing by their island.

Gene smiles while wearing a traditional Peruvian hat — We took a boat from Peru, across Lake Titicaca (the world’s highest navigatible lake), to Bolivia. Here, I am sitting in the back of a small boat.

Boats seen at a dock area — As usual, there were plenty of steps.

A group of people on a boat — This boat was plain but functional.