Peru, part 1
Someone at the home office in Seattle was smart enough to have a small plane ready for me in Puno, which is the town on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, to take me to Arequipa, but I convinced him to make a detour. First we circled the lake a few times--well, not really, we didn't go into Bolivian airspace, but you know what I mean--so I could get some shots, then we headed for the coast so I could shoot the Nasca lines, then finally when we were almost there we flew over Colca Canyon. If the Peruvian Air Force asks you about unscheduled flight plans, we were having lunch together that day, right? (hummed to Cheryl B. Engelhardt's "Empty Alibi.")
In the town of Arequipa, Peru I stayed in a hotel called La Casa de Mi Abuela, which translates to "my grandmother's house." It was a cool place to crash, with bungalows and gardens and such, but I just had to mention it for the name. There was also a restaurant called Zig Zag--yes, in English--that served stone-grilled ostrich burgers. Make up your own joke. (I was going to add something about there being sand on the burger, just so I could mention yet another musician's [Halie Loren] song, but I don't think that's the part of the ostrich they used in the burger, at least I hope not).
In the Colca Canyon, I had another chance to go white watering, but this time found it much easier to say no, and that was before they told me they were rated VI (I hope the higher the number, the more difficult, otherwise I passed up the equivalent of a ride on a bathtub). I climbed a volcano instead. (Ha, sounds so easy when you write it. . .) From up there, better than from the plane, it was easy to see why this canyon is twice as deep as the Grand one in Arizona.
If you've ever seen a condor, California style, you know how huge those puppies are. The ones down here are even huger, if that's a real word (according to spell check it is). Wingspans 10 feet long--that's longer than some basketball players. So big they can't just flap and start flying, but need a running start off a cliff; imagine doing that for the first time. They circle around below you and then, suddenly it seems, they're above you. Ever been in one of those aquarium tunnels, where you see sharks swimming over the tunnel, above you? That's how it seemed, only more so, because you weren't protected by glass and one of the young birds might mistake you for lunch. (Steve, you know what I talkin' 'bout, right, playa'?) Got some cool pictures, at least I hope I did.
Was that UCLA-Memphis game not the ugliest ever? And that's saying a lot, considering the past two. At least I won't have to worry about finding cable TV for a few days. . .
