About me

Let’s see, I am in South America (but tomorrow I’d be in another continent, who knows) And I like to share something of my travels or thoughts. I am not a perfect man, actually I don’t try to be a perfect man, just someone who tries to have a funny time ;-), uh, that last sounds a bit creepy, lol.

Regards from far away, boy or girl.

38 thoughts on “About me”

    1. ‘^_^, thanks for the visit and nice to meet you too!
      I’m happy that you had found something nice in my photographs, it’s a nice compliment because I’m an admirer for some months of your adorable art : )
      Kind regards from Peru, hadorable.

      Reply

    1. Read you is revive the time when doesn’t matter what have you done, or what do you have, it’s just a man and a woman (or more) naked living something that could be eternal.

      Thanks for your visit, Ann. It was unexpected, as if a rose would give a gift to a gardener.

      Best wishes from a reader that dreams with your words.

      Francis.

      Reply

    1. Thanks to you Reinhold (we have almost the same name except the “h”) for your marvelous photographs. Just a few of them but everyone show that the mind before them has a deep sensibility and clarity. I feel honored for your visit kind sir.
      Best regards,
      Francis.

      Reply

  7. Hi Francis, I have nominated you for The Creative Blogger Award! I bet you are quivering in excitement… or perhaps you might be hitting your head against a wall repeating the phrase “Not another award, not another award!” You don’t have to accept this award, but I would love for you to pop over to my blog and come celebrate! There will be imaginary champagne, disco balls and a drumming cat! What more could one want? Hehe.

    Reply

    1. Thanks kind lady for your gesture. Actually it’s the first award :v (or is it the second?) so thank you. I’ll go to celebrate (the cat make me feel curious XD) although I cannot claim it. because this is not a blog but instead a kind of personal diary.
      I have two awards, one is reading your stories in your intense style and the other is being noticed by you (you’ve a quite huge audience!) ;-)

      Reply

      2. Amanda is an angel and the only person in internet whose posts are tours de force, I can’t simply stop to reading her XD!
        Thanks Alex.

    1. Thank you very much! I am glad to visit you, Jane. I appreciate so much the kind and gentle time I feel when I see your landscapes and the quotes and commentaries done by you. I hope to have not been giving you many notifications with the likes @_@ (done taking my time to read and appreciate) Happy holydays, Jane. Thanks for so much beauty and for the visit. A smile for you from the Peruvian spring.

      Reply

      1. How thoughtful of you, Frances. Never too many “likes”😄. It’s a lovely way to feel the appreciation along with your comments. Thank you very much!

  13. Hi!

    I saw your review on amazon on a book that that was about the Incas, but used poor research. Your comment was very comprehensive and enlightening. I’m looking for a book on Inca civilization and religion and folklore that uses accurate research. Can you reccomend anything?

    Thank you so much! And your photography is lovely!

    Reply

    1. Hi, Sara n_n/
      Thanks for your kind words and sorry for the late answer. I had to travel for end of the year and was uncommunicated. I am glad my review helped you. I am a native from the Andean plateau, from the Aymara side that is close to the Inca culture that is Quechua, the photos in my blog more than photography is a way to have a memory of what I saw and perhaps is banishing.

      Inca civilization is a bit hard to understand because Catholic missionaries in their quest to convert us blended our myths with theirs (I understand such religious syncretism happened in Europe too) I say it without judgment, certainly it was a tactic that in practice was successful but difficults the investigations of the authentic Inca culture.

      I recommend you to try modern authors. The main sources for us are Maria Rostworowski (a Polish princess that arrived to Peru decades ago) and José Antonio del Busto. Rostworowski wrote, among many valuable books, about Pachacutec and a very good history of Tawantinsuyu (the name of the Inca Empire) wich contains much of what you would like to read based in strict research of colonial documentation; fortunately I found in paperback an English translation called “History of the Inca Realm” http://a.co/d/emD0I4c if you only want one book this is the one I would suggest you to have, As it is only based in documentation it can be a bit dry as it has not much of myths or folklore but is very informative. José Antonio del Busto has a very lovable book about the oddysey by sea of Túpac Yupanqui towards Antartic and Oceania. I have not found it in English. The expedition Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl from Peru to Oceania with a ship built with our traditional system seems to give validity to that theory.

      From the ancient authors I recommend you to avoid them. They tried to idealize the Empire, from our native writers (as Inca Garcilazo de la Vega) to create an utopia to inspire guilt in Europeans; to the history by Spaniards that try to make it resemble to the stories of Rome or Athenas. The only exception I have found so far is Juan de Betanzos in his “Narrative of the Incas” that you can find here http://a.co/d/c2l6Tlh He was in Peru in the first years of the arrive of Spaniards and studied Quechua and he seem to have a neutral point of view as he not only interviewed his wife (an Inca noblewoman) but very different persons, sadly he censors a bit himself for the fear of being accused by Catholic church to spread idolatry and technically he is not a good writer, his text is a bit disjointed. The book in the first XVIII very short chapters is about how Cuzco (Qosqo is the original name) raised from kingdom to empire with the amazing story of Pachacutec. With him starts the religion and folklore. An apparent downside is that he don’t understand our etiquette. We give much importance to a principle of correspondence called ayni. If I visit a friend of my culture I would give them a present to correspond his kindness to invite me to his home, this applies for all our relationships. Juan de Betanzos didn’t was aware of it or didn’t know how to explain it so he describes what is obvious; if Juan de Betanzos had wrote about Western culture, i.e. “they greated each other with a firm handshake” he instead had written “they touched the palm of each other and moved the hand up and down some five or six times at the height of the waist” but knowing he talks about ayni that book has more sense. You will understand why the Inca make parties for the nobility, because he is corresponding in proportion to the works he is asking from the nobility. One real downside is that it seems in some parts the sourches mocked Juan de Betanzos with exxaggerations or descriptions (for example telling him that Viracocha was like a missionary and probably the number of sacrifices) This is nothing new as is famous that Egyptians mocked Herodotus too. From ancient authors to me it is the more valuable.

      In folklore it seems a piece of literature survives. It could be colonial though. It is called “Apu Ollantay, a Drama of the time of the Incas” is about a general that gets in love with an Inca princess and, as such love was forbidden, will unleash a whirlwind of passions in the empire. You can find it for free here http://a.co/d/axeiuvz.

      Lastly among the sources modern authors use, although I have not read them yet, I have found a few ones in English:
      * By Tom Zuidema. “Inca Civilization in Cuzco” http://a.co/d/0yAVeiZ and “The ceque system of Cuzco: the social organization of the capital of the Inca”
      * By Gary Upton, “The History of a Myth: Pacariqtambo and the Origin of the Inkas” http://a.co/d/fxEBfEi
      * The Huarochiri manuscript. It is about beliefs in the Inca empire but not from the coast. There was religious tolerance so beliefs were different from place to place.. For example in Aymara we have not word or concept for God http://a.co/d/bmNlLPn
      * Brien Foerster has no publication in formal archeology but he shows places nobody else publishes and ask questions others don’t do it. You can see many Peruvian places in his YouTube channel.

      And, well, I am afraid this reply is longer than the Pan-American highway. Wishing you a nice 2019, Sara. And hoping you find something useful, kind regards from Peru : )

      Reply

      1. Hi! This was so helpful!! Thank you so much for this information and for those book reccomendarions! I added them to my list of books to get, and I already downloaded the ebook. I’m glad you recommend modern authors—I can see how older authors would have twisted things around to fit their religion or out of fear of oppression.

        I have one more question. On the review you mentioned that true Incas didn’t really see Inti as a god or a being. Can you explain how they saw Inti and the other “gods” like Viracocha? Are they seen more like energy? Or guides? If you want, feel free to email me at sarambaysinger@gmail.com. Thank you so much for all your help! :)

      2. I am glad they are helpful, Sara. Also I saw after commenting that you are from Ecuador. There are books by Maria Rostowrowski for kindle in Spanish by the way : )

        Oh, well about gods… I could be wrong, we Aymaras and Quechuas are like cousins so we are very similar but at the same time there are subtle differences so I could be mistaken in this point. We both share the same mythology. In these beliefs is the nature that produces as a father. It can be a lagoon (cocha) or a special hill (apu) My city has an apu called Huaynarroque since thousands of years ago. This special apu begot the first persons of our city and as so is our duty to care for it in our parties as if it were a father/mather (the apu Huaynarroque has two peaks so there is a masculine and femenine side that make a unity, the other apus in the empire are similar or if there is only one peak there is a lagoon to make the needed duality) in old legends extraordinary persons would come back to the apu as rocks or so. The pachamama would be a mother for all of us. And so on… so there was not an idea of creation but a kind of progeny. In the Northern coast of Peru actually there were gods but legends suggest that they were visited by peoples from the sea. Coming back to the Incas when they were a small kingdom they told they were from the Apu Tampu Toco (there are many ways to write this Apu) so in the beggining they had the same believes as us. Then they grew from kingdom to empire and the Incas added more myths from other cultures as the Roman Empire did as well. The Apu that originated my city (Xullaca, in Spanish Juliaca) is a small one, of local importance. There are Apus and Cochas of regional value and others of imperial value (among them I visited the Coropuna, a mountain with a lagoon) so the Incas moved their origins from their local Apu to Apus of imperial dimension… in this case the Cocha Titicaca and the Inti sun. They meant to be sons and daughters from them (not creations from them) so as we in our city care for our Apu they cared for those apus that were celebrated already in all the empire. About Viracocha I couldn’t say his story. Certainly he seems a god in the Western sense of the word, but then again it is referenced in his shape as a missionary with bible… so perhaps an abstract being was shaped to make it resemble as a god. But is strange, Perhaps is the complement of the pachamama that is femenine. Or perhaps is indeed a deity brought from the cultures they reached.
        I love to talk about what I know (and be honest about what I don’t know) actually this blog was made to not forget so you are welcome. Actually here is easier to me to see messages, in the mail they get lost with work communications ans subscriptions. Best regards. ^_^

      3. Gracias por tu ayuda! This was so helpful! I am taking notes of what you are saying, and *if* this book I’m writing ever gets published I will be sure to give you credit. You have been most helpful. It’s so refreshing to have a knowledgeable person to talk to instead of just reading books. :)

      4. You’re welcome ^-^ This post could be helpful https://guaromekano.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/juliaca-qashwa-the-big-warparty/ . We have parties for our apu, we celebrate the Pachamama but curiously not for Viracocha. In the school we were said he was abstract but well, one day I will find the truth too. Good luck with your project, Sara. I am just a comment of distance if you need something. (and btw still there are descendants of the royal families of the Incas, one of the last translated the Quixote to Quechua language :o) n_n/

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