Ok, I quit for tonight. The best fortress, as far as I am concerned, outside of Machu is still to come.

More views from same site
REMEMBER I AM WORKING BACKWARD SO YOU GO TO THE POST AFTER THIS ONE BECAUSE ITS REALLY THE POST BEFORE THIS ONE - UNDERSTAND?

Notice the edge Joeline.
Other views of this site

This place is called Pisaq.
There was a very sacred building on the top to worship the sun. Priests lived here, plus guards, evidently people came from all over to worship here. The terraces serve a variety of purposes - growing, prevention of errosion, defense, etc. Idiot guide wasn't sure how they were defensive though. Evidently good guides are hard to get. Tourism is so huge that they do not have sufficient good guides to take all the groups. Two of the three days I had guides who were idiots. I swear I knew more about the places than they did.
Anyway you climb forever to get to this place
846 is the terraces
850 is about half way up
860 is about 3/4.
No rails on the trails. better watch your step, long way down
865 is looking down on the residential section for the guards

following place is called Tambomachay

This is a sacred site where they worshiped the water god. what is impressive is that that spring has been running for over 1000 years. they built the walls around it to complement it, and did not spoil the beauty of the place with the building

a little of the Peruvian countryside outside of Cuzco
we stopped for a break, everyone else shopped, but I sat down by these kids and helped them feed the llamas grass. we had a ball, kids were at first afraid to come near me, by the time I left they knew my name and i knew theirs and we were "friends"

Just outside Cuzco is a fortress that was built to defend the city. It is called SAQSAYWAMAN It supposedly had 10,000 Incan warriors there.
For the last 80 or so years the people of Cuzco have been removing the stones to built houses, etc. and before that the Spanish destroyed as much as they could. so only a small portion of the fortress is left. but look what is left and try to imagine how big this megalith was.
some of those stones are over 20 feet high, weight 130 tons or more.

Next day I flew to Cuzco, Peru. Center of the Inca empire. Their most important religious buildings are here.
Picture is of city square.
Others are inside the "temples".
Remember these were built over a thousand years ago without wheels, drills, saws, etc.
I won't get into how they cut and polished the stones, but look how precise the lines are and how tightly the stones fit together. They used No mortar or cement. You can not get a knive edge inbetween the stones. Amazing workmanship.

I took over 300 pics in two days, I'm only going to show 2-3 from each site.

No way I can start at the end and work backward. So I am starting at the beginning and working forward. I understand that these will appear at the end of this blog segment, sorry.
I flew from Cochabamba to LaPaz. Had to spend a night there. LaPaz airport is at about 12,000 feet. You leave the airport and drive to the city, the city sits down in a bowl. You weave back and forth like you are on Lombarad Street in SF. but for miles. City is over 2 mil. Mts. in the background are at around 18,000 feet. One view is outside my hotel window. I loved wandering the streets in the afternoon and at night. Literally thousands of people on the streets all the time.
Asked for the best rest. in town and was directed to Vienna. Amazing atmosphere and food. Had a grilled Salmon that was the best I have ever had. Guy played piano, didn't know Exodus, sorry Joeline.

Here is Tomey James Wieburg, T.J., Tomey Boy, or my favorite Tomey Too (after one of my favorite horses Mosty Too).
Actually, he is the 5th Tomey in our family. I think that is pretty awesome.
He loves to be cuddled but definitely wants his hands out.
He is only min.s old in the O.R. picture and only 42 hours old in the other.
Sure have lots of good stuff to teach him, without his parents knowing!

Go Meet Tomey James Wieburg

Ok, just uploaded a ton of pics at www.watersfamilytexas.blogspot.com

Go see how beautiful my nephew is.

JODY

These are posters of a girl who graduated from my school last year. Do you think
we graduate quality students? Different posters of her all over town. I met her and her parents a few nights ago at a restaurant. They heard I was the new Director and came over and introduced themselves.

The first is a picture of what I had for lunch today.
Of course I could have had one of the other two.
Or, chosen from dozens of others.
Little place two block from the apt.
Think Jordan and Wyatt will like it?
I know Joeline will!

You can see a lot from this one picture.
First, the indigenous Bolivian in the foreground. We are looking at hundreds of years in that face. The Incas probably looked just like that.

Fantastic bread everywhere - cruise bread for those who know what I mean.

I was there at 6:30 in the morning so most of the "stalls" are not open for business yet. Guy on the left is opening his. The stalls stretch as far as you can see, and more. And, you walk down about 20 yards and there is a cross passageway, stretching left and right as far as you can see, and ten yards down either way there is another cross passageway heading the same way as this one. You could get lost in here forever.

I had been complaining about not doing anything, so we all decided to go on a little hike. My Counselor said that he had taken groups up to Mt. Tunari ten different times. Ten of us decided to go, so we hired a guide and took off.
To put it bluntly, it was horrible. Hardest physical thing I have ever done in my life. Half way up my heart was beating out of my chest. It started skipping beats. Seriously, at 17,000 feet there is very little oxygen and I felt it.

Anyway, after we reached the top I jumped the counselor about how he had brought ten different groups up here. He said, "I didn't say they made it." Come to find out for ten years he has taken groups up there and this is only the second group to reach the top.

We are going up the mountain in the center of this picture.


MAKE SURE YOU DOUBLE CLICK ON THE PICTURES - ESPECIALLY THOSE TAKEN FROM A LONG WAY OFF. YOU DEFINATELY SEE A LOT MORE!!

view out of the bus window
little road, big truck
view from bus on the way up
ages, 22,25,42,27 (guide) 24
Wild llamas ahead