Machu Picchu GigaPan

Gigapans are wide-angle (in some cases 360-degree) collages of ultra-high resolution, high depth of field photographs.   A gigapan allows one to scan left and right, and sometimes up and down, in the stitched-together image and to zoom in on details to great depth (sometimes a mile or more away) and can be specially impressive when viewed at full-screen.

GigaPan.org hosts a number of these images, including this one of Machu Picchu:

It is well-worth checking out.    I, for instance, was rather tickled to be able to zoom in on and examine the ruins atop Waynapiqchu peak, as well as the Inti Punku -the Sun Gate- through which the Inca Trail enters the city, neither of which had I ever been able to observe with any detail, neither in person nor in any previous photograph or film.

When you get done with that one, you may decide you wish to check out Machu Picchu from atop Waynapiqchu.

1937 film: "Glimpses of Peru"

 I just came across this item on Youtube, while filling a need for a small Peru fix until my next trip.  It is a 1937 "Traveltalks" short film by James A. Fitzpatrick, Glimpses of Peru.

The film opens with these lines, as the camera pans across downtown's Plaza San Martín:

"Lima is the surprise city of South America, for most visitors who gaze upon it for the first time do not expect to find a modern and up-to-date metropolis... . We are impressed by its beautiful buildings and plazas, modern hotels, the very finest cinematheques, and all the ... innovations found in the cosmopolitan cities of the world."

I think those words still ring true today.

Video: "Ghosts of Machu Picchu"

The US's Public Broadcasting System (PBS) TV network has started placing their programs online for free viewing.   Among them, and listed as one of the "most emailed", is Ghosts of Machu Picchu.

The video details new evidence as to the origins and uses of the famous Inca city, and recent archaeological finds at the site.  It can be viewed at http://video.pbs.org/video/1392958573

La Candelaria

My brother's being in Puno right now for the festival of the Candelaria has gotten me thinking back to 1988, when Liz and I had the fortune of being able to attend the festival. (These photos are from then.)

The yearly festival celebrates the Virgin of Candelaria, or Mama Candelaria, the patroness of the city of Puno, which is located on the shores of Lake Titicaca, in southern Peru, at an altitude of 12,420 feet above sea-level.

A supay

Characteristic of the festival and a recurrent motif in the folklore traditions of the Altiplano -the high plateau which spans the southern Peruvian and northern Bolivian Andes- are the supays or devils.   These extravagantly-costumed dancers -which are also a main feature of Carnival in Oruro, Bolivia- are said to have originally represented the visions seen by the Altiplano's miners under the effects of coca, hunger, and poisoning from the mercury used to extract the silver from the ore of Potosí.  Today teams of supays dance in the streets, in a diablada (devil dance).   The diabladas are joined by other types of costumed dance crews dressed as shepherds, bears, black men, Spanish overseers, angels, and the sicuris, who dance and play drums and pipes.

A "bear"

A "Spaniard"

The festival itself involves the crews dancing through the streets to the sounds of drums and zampoñas (pan pipes), and culminates, if I recall correctly after 22 years, with the arrival of the litter bearing the effigy of the Virgin at the church at Parque Pino in downtown Puno. 

A diablada

Virgen de la Candelaria

Even it is the third largest folkloric festival in South America, after Carnivals of Rio and Oruro, it is not much known about in northern latitudes, and remains a hidden gem amongst so many that Peru has to offer.

Certainly Liz and I knew next to nothing about it until we decided to go to Puno, while we were living in Peru for six months, during a break from our studies, and we simply picked the date because there would be "something" going on in town then.   It was, needless to say, an something neither of us has forgotten.

A supay

It is quite an experience, with the whole town thrumming with the vibrations from the drums, while fireworks go off at unexpected moments. The inescapable noise draws you in and makes you a part of the event, whether you want to be or not, while the nightmare figures whirling everywhere one looks add a surrealistic, dreamlike quality to it all, which is heightened by the drumbeats and, for visitors, by the lower oxygen level at that altitude.

 One particularly odd moment was when, while walking the streets one afternoon, I saw an elephant shoot across an intersection.   It was such an unexpectedly weird thing to see anywhere, let alone high up in the Andes, that I stopped in my tracks.  No one else seemed to have noticed, so I was seriously starting to doubt my senses and wonder if perhaps I were not hallucinating from oxygen deprivation even though I felt fine.  It wasn't until the rest of the elephants caught up a minute or two later, advertising the fact that a circus had just gotten into town for the festival, that I was able to regain my composure!

Turrón de Doña Pepa

October, in Lima, is devoted to the Señor de los Milagros - the Lord of Miracles.     The Señor de los Milagros is a painting of Jesus on the cross painted by Angolan slaves on a wall that was later the only one to survive the devastating quake of 1655.   The image was later credited with doing away with a caretaker's tumor, and with having resisted efforts by the Church hierarchy to have it painted over -several hired painters were physically unable to carry out their orders.

Since then, has been viewed as being imbued with the Holy Spirit and in 1715 the depiction of Christ was declared the patron and protector of Lima and christened the "The Lord of Miracles."   In October1867, and every October since, a reproduction of the painting -which itself now resides in the Las Nazarenas church- was taken out in a several day-long processional through downtown Lima.   In honor of the Señor de los Milagros people and institutions drape themselves in purple cloth, giving October the nickname of the "Purple Month."

October has traditionally also been given over to the confection and consumption of special sweets and foods prepared specially for that time of year.   The most traditional and perennial favorite among these is turrón de Doña Pepa.    There are numerous versions of turrones throughout the Americas and Europe, some are nougaty others chocolate-based.    Lima's Turrón de Doña Pepa is composed of several layers of lightly anis flavored shortbread sticks held together with syrup made from raw sugar and spices, and garnished with candies.   Older, more traditional varieties also include candied fruits in the toppings.   No one knows with certainty who Doña Pepa was or why her name is associated with the pastry.

It used to be that one had to wait until October to sample Turrón de Doña Pepa, but in the 1980s it started to be available all year round.    The place where we knew to get it was at a shop called Aurelia in Lince.   Whenever we travelled to Lima, our grandmother would send us back to the States with a kilo or so of Aurelia turrón.    In the 1990s, sadly, Aurelia closed after the partnership split up, but today turrón can be found in all of Lima's major grocery stores, though it is usually substandard.   A better option is to seek out one of the shops set up by the major and reputable manufacturers of the stuff, like San Jose.   If you do, be sure to sample a variety, from the oldest types, with candied figs, to the newer ones flavored with orange rind and other fruits.

Just thinking about it makes me wish I were there.

Added to Side Links: "Conquest of the Incas"

I have added links to the video on YouTube of Michael Woods' documentary on the conquest of Peru from the series "Conquistadors."

Though the emphasis early on is on the ostensible subject of the program, Francisco Pizarro and his band, the account shifts toward the Inca's resistance to the Spanish, and the accounts cited become those native chroniclers, including Waman Puma.

I find this documentary moving every time I view it, and Peru's physical and historical landscape are presented in all their depth and breathtaking beauty. It is one of my favorite documentaries on Peru.