Ah Peru! Scenes from a far country
Samar Halarnkar -
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 8:11 PM
As we exit the land of the Incas and all those other Indians, I dredged up some photos from my camera. They were previously missed or all those shaky cybercafes in remote towns didn´t let me upload them. Here they are. Also, four posts have gone up today, so please take a look at the One-Way Ticket home page.
Photo, above: I´ve rarely seen more carefree children than in Peru. Many, as young as three, walk around unsupervised, dwadling on their way home. This lot was older and were prancing along through a town square.
Photo, above: A Hamara Bajaj moment. Somewhere on a dusty lane in the high Andes we met William, all alone in this Bajaj autorickshaw. Whose auto was it? Mine, said William. Do you drive it, we asked? Yes, he said, and then paused, realising this may be pushing it. No, he confessed, I am watching it for my father, who´s inside that house ...
Photo, above: Delighted wife with delighted Quechua woman. The llama couldn´t care less. The wife doesn´t like her picture going up. But I´m a free man and this is my blog too, right?
Photo, above: A high-altitude lake we passed on our way from Lima to Cusco. Breathing was hard after a steep ascent of four vertical km within five hours, but such scenes took our breath away in any case.
Photo, above: Those poignant reminders of the dangers on Peru´s roads. Many more die on our roads, but the Peruvians create little memorials for victims of road accidents at the spots where they died. That makes it particularly poignant. This one really made me wonder: Who was Pilar? How did she die? Who did she leave behind?
Photo, above: the wife takes a break on the edge of the Inca Trail above Machu Picchu. Scary. I persuaded her to sit here, her feet dangling over the unguarded rocky path, the next stop a few thousands of feet below (look closely). I wouldn´t do it.
(Photo, above: These policemen and their muzzled guard dogs were outside a church in Lima. We´re not sure why. But when the wife asked them for a photo -- un foto por favor? -- they readily agreed)
(Photo, above: "Gandhi", whom we met improbably in Lima´s Chinatown -- wild world eh? -- was posing for a photo with me when a passerby decided to join the scene)
(Photo, above: Unlikey reminder of home, a closed petrol station called New Delhi on the road to Lake Titikaka)