Time to go back home

So, here we are, ten days later and it's time to go back home. Out time here was absolutely fabulous, full of all sorts of feelings like, cozy revivals, exhaustion, frustration, unexpected business meetings in Lima, loads of learning, beautiful weather, wonderful colonial hotels... all that topped with much fun, satisfaction and of course, excellent Pisco Sours.

I thoroughly enjoyed going back to the hotel Alice and I stayed 15 years ago, seeing some of the restaurants we went to, clicking a couple of pictures right at the same spot we did then. Cusco has grown significantly. The city now has close to 1 million people which is a third of what the whole country of Panama has.... funny how we get used to some things, no? HK, my last place of residence, has its 7.5 million people and I was comfortable then. Now, living in a much smaller Country I quickly got used to less people zanzing around me and now here in Cusco it was a bit of a "wow" seeing so many people zanzing up and down. May be because I have seen it much smaller 15 years ago and because streets are still original, therefore narrow, the 1 million people look like 5 million!

The lack of air, or should I say lack of bigger lungs, was seriously felt by both of us. Drinking water would have been a big help, but the fact that we were always on the move shooting, with trillion equipments on our back and quite a few layers of cloth due to winter temperatures, I decided that searching for bathrooms around town and ruins was not going to happen. Thus low intake of water. For Joel it was even worse, because he had to go to an unexpected meeting in Lima and had to go back in the middle of the week, leaving Machu Picchu behind. Lima is on the sea level, so this back and forth of sea level and high altitude didn't help him at all... ha ha ha that is the price we both oldies,pay, for not being fit.

The whole 10 days were filled with learning after learning of photo taking. Camera settings were checked and changed almost from photo to photo. In spite of early hours shooting, therefore in theory smooth light, shooting picture was hard as high altitude + sun (in this part of the world it hasn’t many obstacles, like buildings) equals to a scenery fully loaded, full of light that majestically light your day. Experiencing it was marvelous and magical, but shooting it was terribly difficult. We even had to send an email to a photographer friend in HK and ask for some advice. Thank you CN.

This part of the world is visited by tourists from absolutely all over. One thing I thought it was interesting was that although all languages are spoken here in all their different accents, tourists spoke to other tourists in Spanish. This comments goes specially to Americans. Is the USA really becoming a bilingual Country?

Defining what and how this awe-inspiring set of 10 days meant to me would be a bit long and philosophical, so I won’t bore you. Revivals, learning, tightening a new friendship, mis-happenings, experiencing the places and all the rest of it was AWESOME! Many thanks with loads of gratitude goes to Paul TCB, our Cusceño friend who put it al together in a very “Kodak Spot” sort of way. He knew where and at what time to be in the right places,

And for last, if you have been in this part of the world or will be sometime in the future, let me know your feelings towards the funny sensation that the tip of the plane wings’ is a bit TOO close to the Andes as you land in Cusco, ok?