Machu Picchu Indeed!

Well, Pete here again. I must put in my two cents worth about the trip to Machu Picchu... It was good to get on a train again, and the couple from Toronto were very cool. Pharmacists. Anyhow, I tried out a fairly new peice of card material which involves having a person shuffle a deck, and then taking about 5-7 minutes to memorize the order, position, and value of every card in it. NO TRICK... it´s an old vaudeville technique that Simonides would be proud of! They liked it, and we became friends... The next day we got up at about 4:30 in order to be in line for the first bus to the ruins. We made the second. There is quite a lineup for this experience as only the first 400 visitors or so get the chance to climb up the mountain, Waynu Picchu. Anyhow, I got the tickets for this, and Ev and I perused the foggy, exquisite ruins for several hours, stopping for a snack on an old rock overlooking a precipitous and spectacular canyon, before I embarked by myself on the arduous trek up and around this mountain. The Llamas in the ruins were of particular interest to Ev, and itr was clear that some prize specimens had been selected for the honor of grazing aesthetically about in the Lost City. Then I got to climb the mountain. It was very tough. Quicker than a jaunt around Gross Morne, but steeper, and with many many many more uphill stairs... I mean, one MUST admire the dedication that it takes to build a complete 3 hour circuit of stone steps around a steep, jutting rock like this, and to cap it with lookouts and terraces... wonderful. Our Ozzie friend, Steven, remarked that the Bandwidth of these Incans must have been very narrow, and focused to a degree that our own modern-postmodern world in all of it´s lateralizations simply cannot even comprehend... most remarkable, and stirring... I continued my tradition of juggling in odd places, so now I have juggled (amongst other places) at Waynu Picchu, at the home of Philo T Farnsworth (inventor of the Farnsworth Fusor; which became the Television), Signal Hill, Cape Spear, Grosse Morne (of Course), and the Neolithic mounds of the Bruin-a-Boyne Valley in Ireland. Oh, and also for the Statue of the Virgin Mary in the plaza of Notre-Dame cathedral, who features in a fabulous peice of folklore known as Le Jongleur De Notre Dame, wherein a juggler´s efforts bring her to life. Anyhow, back to Machu Picchu. I also left a peice of corral on top of the mountain (sure to confuse future geologists) that we picked up from the beaches of the Northern Peninsula by LÁnse Aux Meadows, thus rather oddly connecting the world of Leif Erickson´s Vinland, with the Incan civilization... Anyhow...The cost of this particular jaunt to Machu Picchu was quite a bit, about $70 each... the Peruvian commision in charge of it knows very well the draw that this place has, and so we decided to invest the gift that Puppa D gave us into this, as well as into the train and accomodations that got us, and sustained us there. So big thank you for this gift of spectacular meaning and memory, and we will be sure to share photos once we either get home, or crack the techno-code for uploading directly from here.

Oh, and I just read David Abram´s The Spell of the Sensuous, and must say that it is one of the most truly brilliant and valuable books I have ever encountered... It sits alongside Dame Yate´s Art of Memory, as true keys to how we think and who we be... So, enough rambling from me... love to you all!

-Peter