Doors and Windows - Peru.

StarPeru flight into Cusco.

Qoricancha. In Cusco.
Incan walls with Spanish cathedral built on top.

Qoricancha.

Qoricancha.

Sacsayhuaman ruins. Above Cusco.

Sacsayhuaman ruins.

Pictureless Peru update.

So here we are in Cusco, a quaint little (not so little anymore I suppose) town after hiked five days to Machu Picchu. Here is the update:

Camera broke on the third day of hiking, just in time to have captured the amazing views of Apu Salkantay, the mountain we were beneath at 4,600 meters, and to not capture anything of Machu Picchu with our camera.

Shit evidently does happen.

Machu Picchu while brilliant and amazing is sinking under the weight of tourists like ourselves. There were too many people me thinks to fully enjoy it as people should. I also came down with a bum knee which made it more difficult to appreciate, but we did go up to Wayna Picchu which was spectacular.

I am now walking around Cusco with a cane looking like a mix between Charlie Chaplin and some old man. The knee is taped and I am sucking down ibruprofen regularly. But it seems to be getting better.

No one has gotten really sick. Amazing.

Our hiking group, while still a tourist group, was pretty much fantastic. Four Argentinians, two Spaniards from Basque country, a Canadian, Mari, brother Tshilo, friend Julito, and me. Near permanent laughter and fun ensued. More will probably ensue tonight.

Alpaca is tasty.

That´s all for now. What pictures we have will soon follow.

First ascent.

Climbing wall - Part 5.

Sunday was nearly as hot as Saturday. Made even hotter by the fact that we now have all the panels on the bouldering wall, and all we have left is to finish screwing the pieces in fully, fill three small gaps with plywood, and attach some holds. It is far sturdier than I could have hoped for and the Metolius grit paint that I paid too much for turned out to be a worth while expenditure as it adds a level of texture that makes this so much more than a wooden wall.

Let's go climbing.

Prepping to hoist the highest of all panels.

Grrr.

Safe and secure.

Let the race to the finish begin...

. . . . .

Megan and David putting the finishing touches on a panel.

At some point in the day, we announced that David deserved the title of "one who saved the weekend!" Megan and I would have had some trouble getting those panels up all by our lonesome selves. And one or both of us just might have died in the process. So thanks David!

Megan contemplates the distance to the top after we placed the final panel and the light that would envelop her when she reaches the top right corner...

The view from the ground.

Climbing wall - Part 4.

A lot happened today - way more than can be told here. These are the important highlights:

- We started at 8am.
- There were donuts.
- We ended at 8pm.
- We realized we worked long and hard for 12 hours straight with little rest.
- There were veggie burritos.
- There was a high temperature of 107 degrees in Tucson today.
- That's pretty damn hot.
- The climbing wall is all framed up and ready for the plywood.
- The plywood is all cut, primed, and painted, and ready for the wall.
- Tomorrow it is going to be hotter than today in all likelihood.

Yeah, nothing like toe-nailing screws in. Over and over and over.

And over.

Honestly, this is trick photography. Chris is strong, but not like this picture would lead you to believe.

Jonathan with his famous behind the back drill move.

My friend David showed up at our door last night and we somehow conned him into working long hours in the sun all day today. He says he looks like Popeye here. "I'yam what I'yam!"

A bit of a siesta...

Proud David keep on rolling.

Jonathan dreams of a climbing wall.

Final supports for the wall.

Chris got artsy at some point. Or the sun got to him.

Still artsy. Nice moon.

Yeah, shortly after this the pizza came and we were done for the day.
Oh so done.

Climbing wall - Part 3.

No better way to spend a Friday night than piecing together the supports for a backyard climbing wall. The only thing that might be better was the 10 o'clock showing of the mid-season finale of (warning! geek alert) Battlestar Galactica. Oh yeah. So in honor of the supreme comfort we all feel with our over abundance of love for this scifi drama that rules far too many of our conversations for anyone to think that we are even remotely normal, here are some eery-scifi-esqe-climbing-wall-at-night-pics that help to detail the progress we made last night.

Climbing Wall - Part 2.1.

This post is specifically for my dad and my friend Arthur who I am sure have a keen interest in the angles that were needed in order to make this a sturdy, and worthy structure. I now know my way around a framing square more than I ever thought I would, but if you want an explanation for how all of this came about, I will need more time than just this blog to explain it all...

Climbing Wall - Part 2.

Well this weekend was all about the climbing wall. Chris, Megan, and I made some serious progress, and learned (or simply remembered) a few things about geometry in the process. I think the pictures speak for themselves. Somehow we managed to get them all in a line, which was no small task. I can't wait to climb on this!

Chicken fun fact you weren't necessarily thinking about.

It turns out that chickens take issue with road runners. At least my chickens do. So this morning while I was watering my soon-to-be-not-so-green-but- very-tasty-tomatoes all five of the chickens were making some kind of ruckus, and when I looked up there was a road runner not 10 feet from me. It was probably going after the very healthy community of lizards that scuttle around the premises in the early morning sun, as roadrunners are rather carnivorous. Anyways road runners easily make it onto my top ten most favorite list of birds, and it was pretty fantabuloso to see one so close and mostly calm. Chickens naturally are also on my top ten list, even if they do get all finicky and skittish around their more agile and fearless distant cousin. The hens finally quieted down after the road runner had shuffled off with some sort of tasty lizard breakfast burrito.

Once a year.

The other morning I woke to this cactus exploding with flowers. It is some kind of night blooming sirus but I have no idea which. What I do know is that once a year this cactus blooms with immense style and grace ...

Climbing Wall - Part 1.

Ever since I bought this house nearly two years ago, we (friends, brother, me, etc) have talked about putting a bouldering wall out back and well, it wasn't until our ever thoughtful and visionary president decided to boost the economy through his stimulus plan that I decided it was the right time to stimulate ourselves through the construction of a home climbing wall. So, finally we began, after long hours of planning, imagining, and mostly talking about how amazing it will be. If all goes according to plan, it will be 16 feet wide by 12 feet tall with two 8 foot sections at different overhanging angles, painted gray with the appropriate levels of texture to make it look slightly less woody, with all sorts of manufactured holds as decoration like the two foot long teal rail, all sorts of crimpy painful holds, the the brain like tan bulge, and the homemade walnut beauty that my cousin Eric crafted with a block of wood and a grinder in his driveway.

Step one: donuts, coffee and banter.

Step two: getting the six-inch lizard out of our post hole.

Step three: cementing 16 foot 4x4 posts in a straight line perfectly vertical and the exact distance we will eventually need for two differently angled 8 foot sections.

Step four: more banter.

Step five: admiration.