Incas don’t take big red dollars

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:53:28 -0500

By the time most of you read this, I will hopefully be on my way back to the states. I hope you will forgive the lack of entries the past week. Any sort of communication with the outside world in the Peruvian jungle is next to impossible (as you will be able to see).
The last week has been one of the most mentally and physically exhausting weeks of my life. Living at 13,000 feet has it’s compromises. The past few day’s have been nothing short of amazing, but nothing comes without a price. Therefore, I bring you the frustrating yet comical story of my trip to Machu Picchu, Peru; one of the new wonders of the world.

Arriving in Aguas Calientas (the nerest town to Machu Picchu) is something like living the Jurassic Park movies for yourself. The towering andes mountains and the lack of anything modern (cars for example) is quite a change of pace from just about anywhere else in the world.
We arrived saturday around noon, and immediately began to look for a place to stay. My goal was to put the stuff in a hotel, and jet straight up to Machu Picchu. After the longest hour of my life, we had our stuff stashed in a $4 per night hostel (just clothes, no electronics or equipment).
We grabbed some lunch and headed to the cultural center to get the tickets. With student verification, the tickets should have been around US$20/day. The lady sitting in the ticket window was counting money when we walked up. Elio asked for the tickets and we got out our WKU student verification papers. She refused to look up, and told us to go away. I really had no idea what was going on, but I could tell that Elio was worried. Long story short, she refused to sell us student tickets and wanted $90 for them. Elio just walked away without arguing, but I was far from finished. I gave that lady at the ticket window a mouthful that I think my mother would be ashamed of (or maybe proud of, I’m not really sure). She refused to sell us tickets for the price, so I told her that we weren't leaving until we spoke to her manager. Five minutes later, he was on the phone and told Elio that photographers had to pay $900 to enter Machu Picchu with professional equipment.
Needless to say, Elio hung up the phone and we just paid for the tickets knowing that she was pocketing the extra money. I tried not to let the extra $60 ruin my trip, and up the mountain we went.
We spent most of the day getting a whistle blown at us for being in places that we were apparently not supposed to be in. Throughout Machu Picchu, there are several areas that are marked off with white rope, obviously restricted. There are also a lot of places that the average human can’t quite go (not that the Incas were average). Elio and I set off down some of the steepest stairs I have ever seen to get a good picture. No one else was down where we we were trying to go, but we assumed it was because of the steep terrain. After 20 minutes of pictures, we had just started to get out some equipment to light a picture of a Lama overlooking the ruins. We began to hear what we thought was a bird in the distance, but it turned out to be just about every guard in the place blowing a whistle at us to get out of where we were.
Elio was pretty worried that we were going to get kicked out, so we darted to the nearest woods/jungle and dove in. When we came out on the other side, we had completely changed our appearance and cloths so that none of the guards could find us.
I didn’t feel bad about it because if the Lama’s can walk on that grass and not hurt it, I don’t think my 150 pounds are going to do too much damage (no to mention the fact that is wasn’t marked off as restricted).
When we left the park Saturday, we had decided that the next day (and our last there) we would hike Huayna Picchu (the large mountain that you will see in almost every picture of Machu Picchu). Huayna Picchu was a separate but similar civilization that the Incas built a good 1,000 feet above the already towering Machu Picchu. The views from the top are some of the most amazing that I have ever seen in my life.
In order to hike Huayna Picchu, you must be one of the first 200 people to enter the park. The first bus doesn’t leave until 5am, and by that time there are already well over 400 people waiting to enter the park. After talking to the guides and locals, we were told that the only way to get up to Huayna Picchu, was to leave in the middle of the night from town (at least 5 miles and a 2,000 foot elevation difference away). We began to think, and asked the guides, well can you get a taxi at that time of day? Of course not, there are no taxi’s in Aguas Calientas. We walked.
Like the other 200 people you will see in the pictures to come, we left town at 3am and began our walk up to Machu Picchu. The elevation is daunting, and looking at a picture of the distance we walked makes it look impossible. The shear darkness of the Jungle at 3am is one of the scariest things I have ever seen. You hear noises and leaves rustling and you don’t know if it’s just the wind or a puma about to jump on you.
Luckily, I was armed with a mini mag light, which lead the way up the hundreds of stairs to the top. We arrived, relieved at the fact that we were about 100 in line. When the gates opened, we quickly made our way to the entrance of Huayna Picchu. When it was my turn to go through, they checked my bag and pulled me aside. They quickly told me that my cameras were “professional quality” and that I was not allowed to be in Machu Picchu. I was completely blown away and didn’t really know what to say. I questioned the guard, and eventually coughed up another mouthful similar to the last experience I described. The thing that made me more mad than anything was the fact that everyone else in line had very similar cameras and were not getting harassed.
I’ll spare the rest of the details, but I was made to lock up my cameras and allowed to take one with a wide angle lens. I was told that journalists with professional cameras were not trusted in Machu Picchu and that if I wanted to enter with my cameras, I would have to pay $900 and wait for a few days for verification. I just laughed at him and went up the mountain.
Hopefully through the pictures, you can tell that the Inca’s were crazy. They hauled several ton rocks up the steepest terrain that I have ever seen. People wonder why they are extinct, my guess is they fell off all the cliff’s they created.

I love this country

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:26:51 -0500

No means no. Thats what we got from our perspective story when we arrived in the small mountain town an hour from our apartment. Some people are camera shy, and this guy wrote the book on it.
An Italian man that lives up in the mountains runs a school where he teaches local children how to produce furniture, so that they can sell it to the U.S. and Europe and make a living. Sounds like a great story no? He would not even give us an audio interview, and as soon as he opened the door and saw the cameras, he slammed it and yelled from the other side.
As we headed back down the mountain, we shot some pictures from the back of the truck. Most of the day was spent chasing the traditional mountain people, known as campesinos across wheat fields hoping for a portrait.
At the end of the day, we returned to our favorite place for sunset, where the light is always breathtaking and we never leave disappointed. Just as the sun was about to go down, a 70 year old local horse trainer showed up and was more than willing to cooperate for a portrait. We shot his portrait into the sun for less than 5 minutes before the sun went down. 3 of those minutes were getting our light stands out and setting the exposure, so what you see is the three frames that I shot before it was too late.

First class entertainment in a third world country

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:23:48 -0500

What a day. It began around 10am when we got into the car to head to a small mountain town outside Cajamarca. Our destination, an annual bull fight an hour away. The road was mostly nonexistent, although there were periods of paved road. At one point, I saw four people riding on one motorcycle. The drive was truly spectacular, and the scenery was amazing. Perhaps I was just happy because I didn’t have to eat ginnie pig today, but thats a different story.
Once we arrived, the town was like nothing I had ever seen. The bull fighting stadium was clearly the main attraction, and there were people as far as you could see. Just parking the car was an adventure. The town was stuck in the middle ages from the looks of things. People looked like they had never seen an american, and my two meters of height put me as the main attraction before the bull fights started.
We sat down in a restaurant to drink some inca cola, and then headed towards the arena to buy tickets. We knew we wanted to be level with the action, so we set out to explain that we were journalists from the U.S. and that we were doing a story on one of the bull fighters (known as toreros, or matadores). We didn’t get much of a response, but finally we convinced a police officer to let us in and down we went.
Unfortunately, we were plagued by almost night like darkness the entire time the bull fights were going on. There were periods of sunlight, but without it, the fights were almost impossible to shoot.
Hope you enjoy the pictures by listening to the audio below while you look.

Two hours of great pictures

Sat, 9 Aug 2008 22:54:37 -0500

Today our plans changed when we realized that we had a baptism to attend at 11am. We didn’t leave the after-party until 4pm. At that point, I thought the day had pretty much gone by without us shooting any pictures. Little did I know, the day was just getting started.
We got out equipment and headed out to the farm to shoot some sunset pictures. Elio’s brother is a Colonel in the Peruvian Army. He is currently training a three year old peruvian paso fino horse, and we felt it necessary to shoot a great picture as the sun went down for the day.
After the horse portrait, we sped to the downtown square to begin our story on the child street musician.
I put the story on the musician first to go along with the audio at the top of the page.

Lesson #2: Get up early

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 22:24:31 -0500

I often find myself wishing I got up earlier and went to bed sooner every night. Although I didn’t get much sleep last night, we woke early this morning at 5am to begin our stories.
Our first task of the day was 72 year old catholic priest Miguel Garnette. We attended 6am mass and afterwards went to the market to shoot some pictures in the early morning light. Be sure to scroll down and hit play on the audio interview and listen while you see the stories pictures below.