EL CONDOR PASA

The Inca fortress of Sacsayhuaman overlooks the city of Cusco, Peru at an altitude of over of eleven thousand feet (3,400 m) above sea level.

The area consists of massive stone walls; each stone fitted together with absolute perfection. 

When the Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, arrived in Cusco in 1534, they were met with little resistance.

Cusco was retaken two years later when the rebel Manco Inca Yupanqui and his forces took the fortress of Sacsayhuaman and used it as a base to attack the Spanish. However, after weeks under siege the Spanish broke through the Inca defenses, scaled the walls and overwhelmed and slaughtered the natives.

The precision of the construction combined with inward leaning walls is thought to have helped the ruins survive devastating earthquakes.

Unfortunately, only foundations of the fort remain today.  The three towers and most of the walls were demolished block by block by the Spanish for building materials for their new city.  Today only the stones that were too large to be easily moved remain at the site.

DH and I visited this ancient stronghold with a group on a tour through southern Peru.

While we were there a gentleman arrived bearing a huge Andean condor.

He set the large bird on a stone wall and was quickly surrounded

 by camera clicking tourists.  (Myself included.)

Everyone scattered when the condor spread its colossal wings and took to the air.

After circling the area he settled down, was gathered up and carried off.

Away, I'd rather sail away

Like a swan that's here and gone.

A man gets tied up to the ground

He gives the world its saddest sound

It’s saddest sound.

THE RAIN, THE PARK AND OTHER THINGS

There’s a satirical expression, “The operation was successful but the patient died,” which is funny until it almost happens.  A while ago I went in for some minor surgery.  All went well and I came home the next day.  Then, due to a reaction to something or a combination of somethings, I found myself being hauled to the emergency room by DH and Beavis.  Things got kind of blurry after that.  Then I woke up in intensive care with:  an i.v. shunt in both hands, a blood pressure cuff on one arm, a catheter line taped to my thigh, a heart/blood oxygen monitor clamp on one finger and an oxygen line in my nose.  Beeping monitors went off every time I moved and every couple of hours a vampire came in and stole blood from my arm.  I felt like Gulliver waking up in Lilliput with a little hell thrown in.  When I finally got my hands free I discovered ekg stickers all over me.  'Did I have an ekg?" I asked.  "No," smiled my doctor. "We just like to put stickers all over people when they're out of it."

I stabilized over the next day and my surgeon told DH I could probably go home in the evening.  DH basically said he didn’t want me any more and they could just keep me.  By the next morning I was so crabby the hospital sent me home anyway.

 I’m feeling quite well now, and I’ve tried to behave myself during the last week or so.  But I finally got such a bad case of cabin fever…

…I escaped and went for a little walk this morning even though it was raining.

 To keep myself slowed down to a stroll I took my camera.

It’s just a short walk across the tracks to the park.

 The place was empty of people…

 …except for some hard-core runners and a few others out for a little fresh air.

 No sweaty university students on the basketball court.

 Nobody to feed picnic scraps to the squirrels.

 The drizzle and overcast skies muffled shadows and intensified colors.

The trees reveled in the rain.

 Everything in the park was bathed.

 A starling poked his bright yellow beak into the grass to stir up a little breakfast.

 

A breeze fluffed the feathers of a crow in the street.

 

Then, to make sure I didn’t stay out too long, 

my camera said its battery was dead.  So I had to go home.

TRAPPED IN THE WEB

Mona gets a smartphone.

I would be afraid to use this.

Super cool at their job.

Super cool at her job.

When you take a nap with your baby

make sure he can't get into trouble if he wakes up first.

I don't trust joggers and I don't run.

If you see me running there is something awful chasing me.

Up your standards.