the website of Mark S Bailen. . . writer, illustrator, and lousy photographer
The face of a condor is visible in the rocks above these Ollantaytambo ruins. The condor was an important symbol for the Incas, representing the third and highest plane of existence. Unfortunately, we did not see a condor during our travels. We stuck mainly to tourist areas. Not that we would have had much luck. The Andean condor is a threatened species and according to our guide at Machu Picchu, they recently fled the area. He hadn’t seen one for ten years.
This is my one shot of the ruins of Machu Picchu. I took it from my phone, after reaching the Sun Gate in a nearby notch in the mountains. We had already been at the ruins for seven hours, hiking up to the saddle, up to Wayna Picchu, and then cruising around the ruins. I was delerious, chewing coca leaves, cold-sweating, seeing imaginary condors, and giving up hope of stopping Leaf from scaling the crumbling walls that led to treacherous drops. My son really dug these ruins. Here is a small blurb on why.
Leaf was great on the hikes and snorkelling. It was also fascinating to watch him in Peru as he sorted out colonialism and conquistadors. We did Machu Picchu before hitting Cuzco, which bolstered Leaf’s opinions of the Incas. He loved the astrological elements (perhaps using the Hobbit as his touchstone, for he was familiar with the concepts of light hitting certain spots during certain calendar days), and geez, those damn Incans were masters at this, setting up sun gates on mountains miles away, and having the sunbeams reflect through windows in a small temples, deep in the ruins. And of course there was also the masonry, workmanship as great as the dwarves of middle earth. So this was followed by a visit to the horrible gaudy cathedral in Cuzco and then the city’s not-so-shabby Inca museum, which together told the tale of Inca majesty, followed by invasion, theft, sickness, destruction, and totalitarian ruin. I could see the wheels turn in his Leaf’s head as he watched the Peruvians in the square. “Are these people Incas?” “So now all these Incas speak Spanish?” “The Spanish wouldn’t let them make art anymore?” and in the cathedral, “So this is what happened to the Inca gold?” Etc. Etc.
OK, Not a great photo. . . but three AZ meccas in one shot!
Galapagos – Isabela Island – Los Tuneles.
We spent a week in the Galapagos Islands Our amiable guide, Fabian, took us around the island Isabela and allowed me to ping him for his thoughts about local politics, consumer culture, and all these gawky, pasty Darwnites who made pilgrimages to his island. Here was a man who grew up on the Galapagos, a reluctant tour-guide with an obvious love for critters and nature (and beer), growing up in a land that came attached with an unconditional mandate to restrict man’s behaviour and here he is making ends meet the only way possible, by leading tourists to intensely beautiful vistas where he explained the issues of invasive species, pollution, and over-fishing, and yet every day returning to his very typical Ecuadorian lifestyle, a town filled with low expectations, familia, siestas, fiestas, football and church… and thus I myself wondered how does he reconcile this? “Yo, Fabian, what do you think of evolution?” And here Fabian gave a slight smile and looked away and somehow in one statement managed to explain evolution better than any textbook. “I think Darwin was a very smart man,” he said. “And I do believe those ideas.” He paused, reached down and grabbed some plants and dirt. “I think it’s true.” He looked at the sky. “Everything is changing.” And for some reason, that blew my mind. And it also made me feel very positive about the Galapagos. Maybe people like Fabian, with their simplified expectations and their “a priori” awareness of evolution and eco stewardship will be the ones who finally fend off consumer culture?
The infamous blue-footed boobies. According to National Geographic:
During mating rituals, male birds show off their feet to prospective mates with a high-stepping strut. The bluer the feet, the more attractive the mate.
This landscape was so bright at Los Tuneles, I never figured out how to set the exposure to make the sky a proper shade of blue. But I’m not too upset. The sky was the least interesting thing about the place.
We went snorkeling with some of these sea turtles. They were as big as me, very kind and patient, and didn’t seem to mind us flailing about in their waters.
The nice thing about photographing Giant Tortoises, is they don’t move too fast.
The finches are strange little birds. Plump and stodgy. They are the pigeons of the Galapagos, hopping around tables, eating dropped food.
Maybe I can be one of those photographers who take pictures of old discarded boats. And I can make lovely prints of them and frame them with driftwood and hang them all over the house. And then I can fill my shelves with starfish, coral, and conch shells. And then I can punch portholes in my bedroom and install a periscope in the kitchen. And I’m gonna need rope. Lots of rope…