Children’s street

 

A line of light. : )

It was strange, that old street in Lampa city seemed one owned by children. Like a secret.

Symmetry of two

 

 

In the ancient Peru when a building was finished in its construction it has dual figures in the top, and other two figures (as twins) buried in the underground. They represent a kind of thanks and a wish of good luck and fortune. If they are not in pairs then they are not supposed to work.

When Spaniards came in that hurtful event the bulls they bring showed such power that the animals used before were replaced by them. These bulls are called “Bulls of Pucará”, pronounced Pooh-kah-rah. So it is the culture evolving and adapting. Change is important in life.

Dragon skin

…in the rocky hills, Can you see it?

This is in middle of the road that connect Juliaca (my city) to the near Lampa, the pink city, in the Andean Plateau at more than 3800 meters above the sea level in a place if weren’t for Andes would be a tropical jungle :P. The true name of my city is Xullaca; I think in the case of Lampa that’s true name.

Clouds flying over the city

 

The sky is so close… I feel like I could touch it with my hands…

El cielo se siente tan cercano… como si pudiera tocarlo con mis manos…

Lake in Golden land

Golden land is a magical place that just exists a few seconds each day.

Pampa Cañahuas (Or when Qhapaq meets Melissainthemiddle)

golden lines

Previously in Melissa in the middle

The secret bounty hunter has traveled around the globe in search of dangerous fugitives with her faithful motorbike, a silver cross and her travel blog as a façade to hide the real reason of her travels. Hired to hunt the most dangerous South American guy she is prepared to return home believing him death, until she discovers in the DNA of an eyelash that her enemy is not only alive but he’s actually her blogger friend Qhapaq, launching his ultimate plot in his secret headquarters in the core of volcano Misti 4000 meters (13 123 ft.) above the sea. Is the former spy going to catch to Qhapaq? Is friendship going to be more important than the millionaire reward?

Previously in Qhapaq

Francis is the Machiavellian genius behind counterfeit companies as Poma, Zony, Mitsusushi, Coca Loka, et al. Losing the memory after an explosion he started again as a blogger in Qhapaq, unknowing his past until now when the smell of the gunpowder in the morning triggered his memories! Inspired by the movie Superman I he is going to sink the Peruvian coast into the sea after buying cheap lands that will be the new coast giving him a lot of happy cash :P In the core of the volcano a cold heart waits without knowing that a lady is crossing the desert to bring him to the justice. Will he succeed?

(All this happened three months ago)

PAMPA CAÑAHUAS

Walking in shadows

Majesty

My blogger friend Melissa visited Arequipa and I was happy to met her. We tried to don’t turn the visit into a typical touristic trip, you know: “let’s take a scheduled car and from there let’s take the same photograph as showed in the postcard,” instead we walked places we both didn’t know. She chose Salinas y Aguada Blanca National Park, so we took a cheap bus with the intention to walk. I’m so sorry to say that although an enjoyable trip I didn’t search well and I exposed her to intense cold in a high altitude :-(  One always wins from the experience but I’d like to don’t have exposed her to such a harsh environment.

elemental shapes in the highlands

Pampa Cañahuas is near Arequipa city at 4000 meters above the sea (more than 13 000 ft), more or less the altitude of the city I was born so my physiology is adapted to it, instead I suffer to walk in the coast. Melissa do it quite well, she just would need more clothes I think. In the beginning we walked under the shadows of lonely clouds and blue skies.

in middle of an infinite

The mountain in the photograph above is called Chachani, it is a volcano and the name in Aymara language means “gallant”.

Family ties

We saw vicuñas. They are wild camelids; our ancestors domesticated alpacas and llamas but vicuñas have to remain wild in order to get their fine wool (one of the finest along our chinchilla, also a wild animal) It’s in the symbol of our national coat of arms and in the beginning of XX century it was forbidden to take without authorization to foreign countries.

The warming sun

Clouds migrating the blue

In the highlands under the shadows it’s cold, so it was a welcome change when we walked under the sun. I proposed to walk until a hill, and we walked but it was so far away! even worse it ended being two tall hills.

White alpacas in a black line

There are flocks of alpacas with eternal shepherds in the distance. Alpacas are domesticated and are the equivalent of sheeps.

White line of alpacas

The alpacas were so far away! if you couldn’t see it then above is the closest I could get with my zoom. Walking to there wasn’t an option as the shepherd dogs and the long distance were a barrier.

Starships in the countryside

fallen king in a green checkboard

black eyes

Do you see the hill in the photograph bellow? well, it took us almost three hours to get to the top :/

Vicuñas lost in the ichu

In the top of the world

a chair for one

We reached the top near five o’clock. Near the equator days don’t last so much so night was just one hour ahead. In the worry I’m afraid to haven’t paid to the Earth, I paid it days after in my house but I felt guilty. It’s simply to give her the first try of pure water or liquor in a way to say “thanks.” We saw the volcanos and returned using a little road to avoid accidents walking blind. As her safety was priority (being myself responsible for the wrong decisions) we walked to the highway and I didn’t take more photographs.

traveling to a safer world

The photograph above to me was quite evocative, I thought in the happy ending of Blade Runner, the one used with fragments of other movies and the voice on off of Deckard.

monumento

Little bird standing in the shadows (it’s the little silhouette in the center above the shadow of the rock)

unlimited world for three stones

a cloud following her

trophy

End

And that was all. We saw a view few people see. I know it because there weren’t neither garbage nor drawings in the rocks as usually our national vandals/tourists love to drop. Annnnd this is the view ;-)

Esplanade of the Council of Mountains

(The funny thing is we hoped to see a lake XD)

Sit down, I’ve many stories to tell…

Book review

I ended to read “Did You Read That Review?: A Compilation of Amazon’s Funniest Reviews”, you can found it here. Navigating the internet I read comments by internet trolls, the usual stuff, so one guy wrote that instead of deleting them moderators should just grouping them as Amazon did and sell them as a book. I couldn’t believe that could exists because I love to read comments and reviews, and if they are smart much more; one of my favorites Borges’ tales and fictional essays are those that are reviews of fictional books, as “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” So I purchased the Kindle copy as just 1.49 bucks and I ended enjoying it a lot XD. Also I had read a lot of history and serious books so to balance (in my culture balance and symmetries are important) I needed something light. There are quite funny reviews as deep analysis of movies with Shaquille O’Neal, music by Hulk Hogan; reviews of watches and pens that cost thousands and thousands of dollars and articles like bananas slicers (haha, banana is one of the words in English I found so funny!!! How can you say it without laughing!?) And so on. I’ll do as usual my serious review, this time it will be a “review of reviews” XD

A spyware called Google

Speaking about Amazon, today I deleted every app in my tablet downloaded with the Google Play market and replaced by the same downloading it from the Amazon Appstore for Android. Every month it’s just harder to use Android because Google wants me to join Google Plus, and I don’t want anything if it’s forced to me. Before I used to comment actively reviewing my apps or commenting in Youtube, but that ended when they forced to have a Google plus account, I’m not against google but against force you to don’t have options and just do what they want you to do. Today I wanted to play some game but I couldn’t because there was an advice with a stuff similar to “this game needs google play games” and after that “you can have more advantages having a google plus account” and after several messages interrupting me that was the moment when the volcano of my head erupted in a lava of irritation so I just deleted them. Now to me Google is simply a spyware hard to get rid off my devices. If you have the same issues as me I suggest you to use Amazon, they don’t have the same number of apps for your android but at least you aren’t going to feel the heavy pressure of the hands of Google around your throat in search of get your data to share it in a world were some people lives to hurt you using that data.

First spring day

In the last story today starts the spring. It was a quite hot day! My time to eat ice-creams ended so know starts my season for hot teas and chocolates.

Curva del diablo

 

“Curva del diablo” means “Devil’s curve in the road” (precisely the red sign with white letters in the center of the photograph)and is a place, near Puno city in the highway that connects it with Juliaca city, called thus because there were (are?) so many vehicular accidents; hence adults prefer to don’t take responsibility and instead blame a hypothetical being that if exists I guess has better things to do than helps tired/drunk/negligent drivers to rest in the bottom of the road.

Fortunately these years there are fewer of those accidents; so I guess people these years is giving thanks to the devil for that fortune xD

Lampa: The vermillion city of the blue windows

 

story of a murder

Lampa is an old city near my own city, in Lampa’s Province, in the heart of Puno’s region in Peru, at 3930 meters of altitude (12 893 ft.), it’s quite old but Spaniards re-founded it in 1678. This is called “The Pink City” or “The City of the Seven Wonders”… pink city for the color of the walls but to me they are more vermillion so I titled that way this article; it’s a small city so I don’t know which are those seven wonders, lol.

These photographs were took in 2007 with my first camera I was still one year away to end the university and I had the Hewlett Packard camera that my older brother gave me. So if you don’t tolerate noise I caution you to don’t continue if you care about your eyes XD

THE CITY

door to magician home

walking beyond the city surely we’ll find a heaven

caressing  your vermillion skin

to squeeze my nose

let’s go

waiting…

man with monocle

walls before the long night

It looks empty but that’s because the population works in Juliaca and sleep there, so today it’s more a bedroom city. When Spaniards founded it the population was white, but after the Tupac Amaru’s revolution whites left the city and went to the coast.

SANTIAGO APÓSTOL TEMPLE

let’s build a church made of colors

The church is a colonial building dedicated to Saint James, sadly the complete name is “Saint James the Indian Killer”, and Spanish descendants consider us as “Indians” Of course I couldn’t adore, reverence or respect a figure meant to kill us o.O!! But the building is nice.

a closed door

In fact I saw the facade analyzed by an Italian architect in a classic text at university, the arch unifying the diverse elements under it.

gentle light upon the old stones

fields of happy green

a last bit of light

unlimited spaces surrounding the building

There is a mystery, although I think it’s more a secret, about why the tower is so far from the main body of the temple. I guess for some structural reason, but that’s just a thought.

intimate garden

My road of infinite geometry

ART AND NATURE

European echoes

The city hall has a copy, supposedly the only one on the world, of the Pietà of Michelangelo. That day everything was closed so I photographed from the window. I’ve seen it before when I was a kid, I liked it so much.

falling into infinite lines beyond the light

I found this green beauty inside the city hall. I like the idea of infinite.

sleeping Venus

This is a Venus found near Lampa, it seems we occupied it from several thousands of years ago. Our society, the native side at least, is a patriarchal-matriarchal one.

Fight!

c’mon! you want to climb me :D

These trees are a native species that in Aymara we call “Qiñwa”, in Spanish it’s called “queñual” and in English you would call it Polylepis. I climbed them once, they’ve such a texture! :-)

END

And well, this was part of that afternoon. We, my parents and brothers, took a bus to come back to Juliaca city.

a sky so close to us

I just have two seconds to arrive!

 

Tomorrow will be my last post, I promise you. Or at least my last post about the World Cup, LOL ;-)