Bill's Diversifying Blog

For the first two weeks of May, I did my tourist duty: Sara and I made the
journey to Macchu Picchu. However, we didn't do the Inka Trail.

The highlands were great... lots of markets with cheap combinado/surtido mixed
fresh fruit juices , sweet breads most days for breakfasts in the markets. The
persuit of food seems something of an occupation (compared to where I am now,
Lithuania).



Juice sections in every market:


Yet more cheesy pictures:


After a drive through the highlands, we saw Wari Wari, the capital of apparently the second most important empire of South America.




Some deep burial... holes...


Ancient aboriginal makeup, it's a parasite of cactus, white, powdery insect, that is a strong red pigment when you crush it... so:


mmm corn for sale on top of the hill... there weren't many customers...


Public transport, small minibuses:


Unfortunately, my camera is kind of on the blink now. It's very tempramental. So I didn't get too many shots of the towns we were visiting. It did involve some tortuous bus-rides though. The second-to-last one, where we were riding on the very back seats was so bumpy we were trying to lie down but were being thrown in the air through some stretches of road. As a night-bus, it was very tiring....

A few towns later, we arrived in Cuzco (or Q'osqo, or something like that in Quechua), the ancient (800 years or something?) capital of the Inka rulers. The archaeological capital of and most ancient city in the Americas (well, the "longest continually occupied", anyway). It is used as a stepping-stone to Macchu Picchu and thus, was
full of gringos.

So it seems that the Spanish basically came and dismantled any monument they
found with good stone in it, to build their cathedrals, which are all over the
highlands. Supposedly, they thought the natives were worshipping demons. When
the Spanish came to Inka rulers and Quechua people, their population was 11
million and, fairly rapidly, that dropped to 4 million. Some combination of
civil war, smallpox and ... Well ... the population today is 90% catholic.

Miraculously (by the power of the Inkas, probably), my camera woke up for
Macchu Picchu. Maybe it's just getting fussy. We did get some disposable
cameras though.


“Quick, before the camera dies!”






Tight stone work with big rocks:








Macchu Picchu Llama Sanctuary (or so we dubbed it) itself is a fairly awesome thing to behold. A few kilometers above sea-level and probably one above the river that runs all around it, it's surrounded by steep mountain drop-offs and jungly rain-forest (though I was told it wasn't the proper rain-forest, it was good enough for me [for the mean-time]).



During our visit there, we actually saw a Llama give birth!
Before (you can just about see the shadow of it hanging out):

After (it didn't move for quite a few minutes):



And the must-have postcard shots:


Walking up and down Macchu Picchu all day is pretty tiring...


The camera again miraculously came back to life for one afternoon in Cuzco! So here's some walls!


And this is supposed to be a ... puma.... riiiight....

Like this:


This shop in the market in Cuzco seemed to sell only corn, of every colour!




The view of Cuzco... from the hostel...


After those bus rides, we were praising the fact that we had a flight back to Lima...



And back in Lima for those last few precious days before leaving for Europe... sigh...


Aji de Gallina:

as made by Sara's Mum:

or maybe her brother, Johan:


So long Perú, hasta la próxima vez!

For the last few months, I had been working on a piece of software for the "festival" Artware 4. It was partially conceptually based on a piece that Arturo did a couple of years before: "Symbiosis". We have a virtual terrain projected on two walls. On the terrain, six "buildings" are initially created. From these buildings, "agents" spawn, moving around. The agents carry a slight mutation of the 'genetic material' of the building they come from. The agents follow simple rules for movement:

• Walk uphill if you're close to, or underwater
• Turn downhill if you're walking uphill too steeply
• Turn away from neighbours if it's "crowded"
• Turn towards neighbours if it's not crowded, slowing down if there are neighbours from different 'buildings', if stopped, build another building with neighbours and die

There is a camera mounted in the ceiling tracking people as they moved around. On the terrain there is an avatar representation of the people being tracked. These avatars provide the buildings protection from destruction, also they attract nearby agents.

Get it? Maybe you have to see moving it to understand it really... maybe.

Anyway, The exhibition opened on my birthday! Which was quite nice. Free wine!
Unfortunately, at the opening ceremony, it wasn't quite working. However, the following morning, given some space to think, instead of the stress of getting it all ready the previous weeks... I got it working.

Sara documenting some people sticking my name to a wall which I had nothing to do with:

This is where it actually belongs:




And some drunken cheesy pictures ... oh dear I really needed a shave...

Three of the guys that worked at Nomade Backpackers, where I seemed to settled for a while in Lima. However, after it was clear that they weren't quite going to give me the discounts I was wanting for being there so long, I had to leave. It was a shame really. They had a nice piano and guitars there and we spent many hours just jamming, with the weekends occasionally turning quite rowdy.

Lima coastline... from a day we went up the coast to get some food and just to explore.

This guy is all over the drain covers around here. I used to think it was someone making it, but I think he's the logo of the people who make the drain covers, or cover them over. Quite cute though.

When I eventually bit the bullet at Nomade and failing to meet Arturo, I went to a place I had seen online on Avenida Venezuela. It was a really interesting district, I spent about 5 or 6 days there, I also renewed my visa there as it was close to the office and met a Ray Meers-alike from Portsmouth going into The Jungle proper. He was very interesting, if a little quiet. But yeah, the food was abundant and cheap and changed throughout the day. And the perpetual market along this road was also evolving continuously and fast. This was in the pre-christmas shopping season, which there wasn't anything as crazy as back home, but maybe this road brought some of it back.



Just before Christmas, I moved into Arturo's place. He lives on the fifth, top floor (aka. the Roof) of a block of apartments (with no lift). I require between 3 and 5 keys to get in, and all the kitchen we have is a microwave and a refrigerator. Still, he is a very interesting guy and has been pushing me to write interesting programs. I have worked on a couple of things with him since I have been there and he has given me lots of interesting reading material, so it has been a great opportunity to spend some time with such a provocative and stimulating intellectual.

I passed Christmas with just Sara and her Mum, it was actually one of the most quiet Christmases I ever had. We just watched some movies and were generally quite lazy. Very nice.

For new year's eve, Sara and I went to her friend Jacqueline's where it was like a war-zone of fireworks. It was all very nice and they cooked a lovely juicy turkey.

So, a couple of days later, Sara comes round to the tower (as Arturo's place has come to be known) and announces that they are (spontaneously) going up north (to the Piura region) for a week or two to stay in her grandmother's place. So, I pack my bags and we are on our way that evening, stopping to get a 1 Sol (16p) chifa from a nice old dude in the bus station. The party was Sara, her Mother, Elenor, her two brothers Fito and Mauri and myself. About a half-day of travel later (it's SOO much faster on the flat-coastal roads) we arrive in a small, old town not too far from the sea where there were quite a few friends and family to visit. There were also quite a few funerals in the town at this time. These were celebrated by large parades with a brass band at the nucleus.

One day there, we went through the desert towards a fishing beach...

...and we saw a group of dolphins!

Also at that beach, we had some food, and a swim. Well, I did after I saw Fito was going in... a couple of times, I felt something move under my feet and the third time, I was bitten (or stung). I thought it felt like a crab, myself. It did actually draw blood. I was told later that nobody bathes in that beach because they get bitten by rays. So that is also a possibility. But I'm here to tell the tale anyway.

- The journey back

- The Laptop saves some evenings of boredom with some games downloaded at the local internet cafes.

- Baby Li (RIP). Found in Fito's trousers one day, who turned into a pet for Sara. However, noone could work out what to feed him, Sara was very reluctant to release him, he was actually eventually brought back to Lima, where he lies in peace now... on the roof.

On the 6th of January Epiphany, there was quite a lot of activity in the town. Lots of nativity scenes were still active and going in Peru (whereas everyone seems to be preparing for easter at this point at home). There was a snowballing procession throughout the day with the magi mounted on horseback and riding through the town, brass bands (of course, any excuse there, it seemed) were playing all day. There was a nativity telling and show in front of the church at the end of the day too. It was quite an event on the whole.

In order to try and get the real beach experience, another day, we walked to The Other Beach (where people don't get bitten by rays) we ended up taking a long walk. Elenor and Mauri went the easy, straight way, and we went on a mission to find where the river meets the sea.

Somewhere along the way, the three of us, Sara, Fito and I, managed to lose the keys to the house. Doh! But we did see some interesting crabs

and made a sandcastle

So after a kind of miserable walk, especially for Fito who walked back over a lot of ground looking for the keys, we got back eventually and I did this

Also, whilst up there, there was a festival of the Manglares (we thought it meant Mangroves, but there was little evidence for mangrove swamps at the location). However, there was another beach with a lot of people and stuff going on.



There was an interesting channel that waves would wash up creating a fun little flow.



Across this inlet, was practically nobody, an abandoned beach. Everyone was on the other side of the inlet. So it made for a nice walk.

Another day, Sara led me out on a mission to find another beach. Half-moon beach. Though we did find it, it was completely full of trash. Quite sad really (and gross). But we did find some nice places to bath along the rocky coastline that seemed to go on forever. The town near there, called Puerto Rico (there were some oil refineries there) was really interesting, I wish we had just spent a little while walking around, but we saw a bus and didn't know when the next one was, so we didn't chance it.

So that was the end of the Piura holiday.

 Back in Lima...

...Well, I was impressed

The T line bus, affectionately known as the Big Red Bus. This is the best bus as it goes straight past Arturo's tower, my old hostel, Sara's place and into town to the cheap computer and cheap sandwich zones.

Me in Arturo's room some time later. Just for the record. That is his laptop, mine was dead at the time.

A heart-shaped donut on valentines day. How sweet!

I also finally climbed up onto the roof, so I took some photos...

So, I'm still working on bits of code on the computer. Also, one of the projects I have been doing for/with Arturo is going to end up in some architecture exhibition here. I'm really quite pleased with it, as it was all written in Lisp, which has turned into a favourite programming language.

I suppose sometime soon I have to start thinking about planning my next move. I think that it will be overland to Bolivia, via Cuzco. But this architecture thing is first. I've learnt quite a lot from it, it has been very satisfying.

I have also been a bit ill again over the last week or two... anyway, tests got done, nothing serious, but my diet is kind of off-kilter. I think it's been programmer laziness, so I need to start taking care of that a bit better.

So, sorry for the long, long absence. I will try to make the next one sooner than 4 months (wow that is a ridiculous gap). Anyway, I'm still here. Sorry if you have problems with clicking on the pictures. I have been told if you double-click on a picture on the page, it will load. I have a replacement in the pipeline, but it's not quite ready yet.... ah you know how it is...