Travels with our Grandkids IV a – Peru

In 2009, I took Keara’s brother, Nick, on a Disney Expedition to Peru. Our main objective was either to explore Incan archaeology or go white-water rafting on the Urubamba, depending on which one of us you were talking to...

I had actually starting writing my blog at that time so, rather than just repeating the Peru blog posts from May and June 2009, I’ll add some new pictures. This first is an overlay of three paintings from my sketchbook: 

• a structure (part of the water system at Ollantaytambo) with a typical Incan step design, 
• a quipu – an intricate knotted cord accounting system (base 10, apparently) used by the Incas and earlier Andean civilizations, 
• and probably the most famous place in Peru, Machu Picchu. The last part was started on location just below the Guardian’s Hut near the top of the archaeological site – while I waited for my grandson and other energetic members of our group to return from a climb to the Incan Bridge.

The second picture is a photograph of an outdoor dance performance of the legend of Apocatequi, the Incan god of lightning. The dancers were all on two-meter stilts and the lighting was eerie and mesmerizing – and, as you can see, impossible to guess a good camera setting for!