Adventures in Peru: Machu Picchu
This entry's going to be mostly pictures because really, what more can I say? You expect that Machu Picchu will blow your mind, and it doesn't disappoint.
This wasn't a big drop, but it was just high enough that Kate was nervous and begged Elliot not to goof around, and of course he didn't listen.
When we sat down to eat lunch I noticed there were gobs of greasy black stuff all over my face, and I had no idea where it had come from. I asked Kate why she hadn't told me sooner that there was dirt on my face, and she said, 'Why would I help you when I can laugh at you?' (And she did.)
We didn't arrive early enough to climb Huayna Picchu, the mountain perched right over the city that you see in all the photographs (sounds like you have to arrive before dawn, because they only let 400 people up per day), so we did Machu Picchu (the mountain the city is named after; 'Machu Picchu' means 'old mountain') instead--it's a lot higher, and took about three and a half hours round trip. I was short of breath and lagging behind the whole way up, but MAN, was the view ever worth it. You can just tell how exhilarated we all felt:
(We were long-arming it because Jill wasn't with us.) In this second shot we were going for a view of the city in the background, but you can only see the tip of Huayna Picchu.
If you're planning a trip to Machu Picchu you should consider hiking Machu Picchu instead of Huayna Picchu, because we didn't see nearly as many people as we would have had we been able to climb the latter, and I can't imagine the view from Huayna Picchu can compare.
After a long and happy day we returned to Aguas Calientes for fruit smoothies, then took the evening train back to Ollantaytambo, followed by an overnight bus to Puno.
Next post: Lake Titicaca.
Cocktails & Calico
(Not in that order, of course.)
I am making a quilt for my dear friend Kelly B. to celebrate a milestone event, so over Labor Day weekend we went shopping for fabrics and had dinner and cocktails afterward.
We looked at a bunch of designs, and the zig-zag was her favorite--which pleased me, because after making a zig-zag quilt for Ailbhe and Christian's baby I really wanted to make a larger one. This zig-zag quilt is really inspiring, and I'm going to do the colorful strips on the backing too. Kelly's also won't have those horizontal white panels between zig-zags like the baby quilt does. She picked out bright greens, fuschias, teals and purples, which is going to be a really stunning combination I think.This is going to sound totally geeky, but I love doing simple math in creative projects--it's really satisfying somehow. Like so: each finished square is 4" (4 7/8" with seam allowance); so for a quilt measuring 88" x 104", there'll be twenty-two columns and twenty-six rows. Twenty-six rows means thirteen zig-zags, so there'll be three zig-zags of three colors and four of the fourth. I need to cut 66 fuschia, 66 green, 66 teal, 88 purple, and 286 white squares...etc., etc.
I may post progress photos over the next several months, but only tiny teaser photos so she'll still be somewhat surprised when the thing is finished!
Adventures in Peru: the Sacred Valley
The Sacred Valley.
On the 23rd we started off with a nice long walk through the ruins at Pisac. A footpath leads you along the hills above the Sacred Valley, past sweeping agricultural steppes and the ruins of houses, temples, and defensive structures.
We were out all morning, but it wasn't very strenuous because the footpath through the ruins is fairly flat, and then there's a rather steep and windy decline back into the town of Pisac (which left me with slightly wobbly knees, but not winded).
We stopped to clamber up to this watchtower, while Kate took photos from the top of a staircase opposite.
...and to give you a better sense of perspective (Jill's down below).
After Pisac, we made a brief stop at the salt mines at Maras. As Kate says, this has got to be the strangest tourist attraction ever. We sampled the water (yup, salty), took some photos, bought some toasted lima beans to snack on, and went on our merry way.
Then to Ollantaytambo, another important archaeological site. Amazingly massive stonework here too--Edison pointed out the quarry, which is three or so miles away if I remember correctly. You know how some nutty people claim aliens built the pyramids? Doesn't seem so nutty when you check out the size of these stones and how intricately they were fit together. The Incan engineers were good, but how could they have been that good?
Anyway, there was this central stepped space, vaguely resembling an amphitheatre, where the elevated classes would have assembled (highest class on the highest tier, etc.) to hear the king make his speeches; we went up the staircases and walked through the ruins situated higher up.
Next post: MACHU PICCHU!
Schloss Wernigerode
Folks seem to enjoy behind-the-scenes book stuff (like my Mary Modern chicken scratchings from 2004...and chicken scratchings, part 2), so I thought I'd post this video I took in September 2008 as part of my Germany research. You will recognize this place from chapter 25...
Owls!
You know when you really like something, and then it turns out everybody else on the planet likes it too, and so its overwhelming popularity makes you like it less? That's how I felt about Kate Davies' Owls.
(My friend Emily's version, knit in Mirasol Sulka. I took this photo when she visited me in New Jersey last October.)So I was gonna knit it, and then I wasn't. And then I was again, as soon as I saw this yarn at the Merck Forest stall at the Dorset farmers' market back in June:
It called to me, and said, 'I am to be an Owls jumper.' So I bought seven hanks and that was that. (Seven was two too many, but I didn't want to run out.) I adore this yarn--it's sturdy and smooshy and gloriously wooly, and a terrific value at $8.75 for 250 yards (even if there's a knot here and there; it's handspun). It's not the most flattering color on me, but I do like the gray Owls best.
Pattern: Owls by Kate DaviesYarn: Merck Forest 100% wool GreenspunNeedles: #9s (#8s for the ribbing)Raveled: here, with notes.
The pattern calls for chunky weight, but the good thing about five million people knitting it is the wealth of pattern notes you can learn from, and lots of people have knit this in worsted weight. (StinaK's notes were especially helpful.) After the short rows on the back of the neck I had to add two more sets of short rows to the shoulders. (I think those short rows on the back were eliminated in the latest version of the pattern because a lot of knitters didn't think it was necessary, but I was knitting from an earlier version and just decided to go with it.) Anyway, it was nice to pause in my knitting and think, 'isn't it marvelous that I have no qualms about winging it? And it's working! Hooray!'
(Of course, I had to take it off the needles and try it on every so often.)
You see why everyone is knitting this jumper?1. There are owls.2. It is the most flattering thing EVER.Did you know a group of owls is called a parliament?
And the buttons are from my grandparents' candy tin. (I really have to get back to the whole make-do-and-mend thing.)
Little Witch
I was going to save this for the 31st, but it's Kate's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Snookie!
Halloween, 1984. Kate is two weeks old. (Who knows why the long face...maybe I was thinking I'd have to split my candy with her.)
Adventures in Peru: Cusco
There are always local ladies available for a photo op. I guess Kate took this one at a distance so she wouldn't have to pay up.
Once we all met up in Lima it was time for the touristy bit, so we flew to Cusco and met our new guide, Edison, at the airport. We were booked into the loveliest guesthouse: there was a gorgeous courtyard full of flowers (not to mention the swing) and a terrific view of the city from the balcony outside our rooms. We stayed in the old section of the city, all windy cobblestoned streets and quaint churches and whatnot--even the touristy streets weren't as annoying as we were expecting. I wish we could have stayed in Cusco longer than one night.
We had coca tea (alleviates symptoms of altitude sickness) at the guesthouse before going on a little walk through town to the Church of Santo Domingo, which was built on the Incan Temple of the Sun ('Coricancha'). Incan stonework juxtaposed with all the usual Catholic art and pomp.
One of my very favorite pictures from this trip.
The afternoon was a whirlwind of four Inca sites--Sacsayhuaman (a fortress with zig-zagging walls made of mind-blowingly huge stones), Q'enko (a religious site where animals were sacrificed to predict the harvest), Pukapukara (mostly a residential complex, if I remember correctly), and Tambomachay (another religious site featuring fountains from cold springs--I didn't appreciate this one as much because it was the end of the day and the site was really crowded).A couple of shots at Sacsayhuaman (I giggled for ages at this, and then I realized that EVERYONE laughs at it, and felt stupid):
Spencer looking epic. (Not posed.)
On the hill between Sacsayhuaman and Q'enko was a park with a big ol' statue of Jesus, where lots of people were out flying kites. (It was a Sunday afternoon. How do I remember this? I was sad because I couldn't visit the yarn store Mary Jane had suggested!)
Q'enko. There's a slab in this cave where bodies would have been laid out.
Pukapukara. Glorious panoramic view from the top.
I forgot to mention a funny story from way back at Sechin. Kate had gotten one of those nifty platypus water bags that go in a backpack and have a long straw with a thingy you gently bite down on to release the water, and when she laid it on the floor outside the restroom at the museum a hairless dog came up and licked it. She could have tried to disinfect it, but decided to ask Elliot to bring her a new mouthpiece. We told Spencer what happened ('The hairless dog was sucking my nip!'), and he goes, 'I got my rabies shot, girl! I'm bulletproof!' (Which is something you should not say unless you are trying to jinx yourself.)Next post: Pisac, the Salt Mines, and Ollantaytambo.
Page 134
Here's one of the videos I mentioned yesterday. Towards the end of the party I thanked everyone for coming and made a toast to my grandparents, and Paul asked if I could do a short reading. I said it had to be rated G (because my grandparents and two three-year-olds were in attendance), which is a bit tricky because the book is, y'know, kind of bawdy in a lot of places, and Kelly suggested a passage from the holiday covention chapter. I was fumbling around trying to find the right part when John said 'Read a random page! Page 134!' So that's what I did, and Kate (wonderful little sis that she is) filmed me on Elliot's iPhone. I'm reading WAY too fast--really have to work on that.This passage takes place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Eve (who is 149 but has made herself a girl again) and her much-MUCH-younger boyfriend, Justin, are being followed (and messed with) by Eve's (also elderly) sister Morven and her friend Elsie. The video starts mid-passage, so here's the beginning:
We pause for a spell in the Greek Sculpture Court, the benches around the marble monuments crowded with harried young parents and old folks watching the world go by. A man in a tweed jacket sketches a family grave stele, and passersby gaze over his shoulder with murmurs of admiration.Justin gasps. "It's those little old ladies again!" I glance round and he says, "Over there. No, don't look. You'll encourage them."I can't help laughing out loud. Morven's gaze snaps to me in an instant, and she grins like the Cheshire cat.Meanwhile Elsie is gazing up at a statue of Apollo. "What's this, then?" she says loudly, jabbing a gnarled finger at a strategically placed fig leaf...
A Bowl of Sweet Cream
(Nick called me on Friday to make plans, I asked him how he was, and he said 'My life is just a bowl of sweet cream right now.')
Couldn't resist.
What a marvelous weekend!
With Kate and SJ at the start of the night. Yes, she's actually wearing a shirt that says 'I may not be all that picky, but I draw the line at the clap.'[Edit, 2013: the CafePress shop is no longer open. Maybe someday I'll bring the t-shirts back! In the meantime, all links have been removed.]
The Harmony Homestead gang enjoying their boozy lollipops.
The Clap, take 2.
I think Elliot felt a little weird, but he was a sport and wore it all night. Being Lord of the Slippy isn't as dodgy as it sounds, honest!...Okay, maybe it is. But it's still a compliment.I'll post more pics and video later this week (jam session with strumbox! reading of a page at random!) In the meantime, Neilochka's party recap is cracking me up.p.s.--There isn't any mark-up on these t-shirts; I made them up for fun, and admittedly for a bit of free advertising.
The Passage Assassin
Diarmuid took me on a day trip through Connemara for my birthday in November 2006. Not bad for a disposable camera. And yes, this is a lake, not the sea, but you get the idea. While my editor and I were working through Petty Magic revisions, a few times she said, 'we have to cut this. I have a knack for cutting authors' favorite passages; call me the passage assassin.' She said this apologetically, as if it wasn't her job to ferret out the precious bits that don't really belong.All writers know this sometimes: we're so proud of having written that line or paragraph that we resist removing it even though it's not really working in the story. In the case of this passage, it fit thematically but slowed the narrative momentum. You don't have to read Petty Magic first; it's quite self-contained.
Mick the drummer tells the last story, which is about what happens to Connemara fishermen when they die. There is a pub on an island in the middle of the Atlantic, he says, where everyone comes and goes by curragh. To get to the pub you walk up a small grassy hill in the moonlight, and on the way up you'll pass an overturned curragh under a tarpaulin and resting on cinderblocks, and people say that was the very boat that brought St. Brendan the Navigator to the New World. The pub, which is not unlike the pub we're in now--though of course Murty Coyne's isn't situated on its own island--always has enough seats at the bar, and the turf-fire's always burning bright, and the whole place thrums with the lively conversations of old friends reunited. The night seems endless, but then again so's the flow of Guinness, and the only other thing that passes between you and the bartender is a handshake. You can stay as long as you like, says Mick, though you do get a certain feeling when it's time to be heading off. When it's time, you say all your last goodbyes, walk down the hill, and untie your curragh, sailing away from the sunrise just as St. Brendan once did.
I really liked this part, but she was right to cut it.
Harmony Homestead Dispatch #10
I had such an awesome time in Vermont this summer that I just had to go back for a couple weeks in September. (The original plan was to move up there, but now I've re-caught the travel bug, so it's on the back burner for now.)The summer was definitely over and all my dear WWOOFers had gone, so the mood on the farm wasn't festive like it had been, but it was wonderful to be back with Gail and Paul and of course I made new friends--especially Hank, who could always be relied upon for interesting philosophical conversation and who brought me pie when I was having a bad day. Harmony Homestead attracts such kind and thoughtful people because that's just the sort of people Paul and Gail are.
I spent more time with the animals on this visit, and it felt GREAT to be harvesting and eating all the stuff I'd planted from seed back in June and July--polebeans, bush beans, carrots, romaine and magenta lettuce, onions, beets, kohlrabi, acorn squash...
The pumpkin patch is taking over.
This is kohlrabi, though you'd be forgiven for thinking it only grows on Mars.
...and I got to press apples for cider! Gail and Paul are coming down for my launch party this weekend and they're bringing a gallon we made last week. HOORAY!
Thank You
Last night felt like Christmas Eve--I kept waking up in the wee hours wondering if it was morning yet. THE BOOK IS OUT!I like long effusive acknowledg- ments pages. Reading somebody else's makes me think I would like that author if I ever met them, and I end up writing long effusive acknowledgments pages because there are a lot of people who helped me get where I am (i.e., published) and not to thank them on paper is to be a stuck-up jerk. (Wow, that came off really judgmental, didn't it? But tell me you don't think the same thing when the only ones the author thanks are the editor, agent, Yaddo and MacDowell.)The thing is, though, you always end up leaving somebody out by mistake. This time I'd asked my editor to send me a list of behind-the-sceners (copyeditor, particularly enthusiastic sales reps, et al.)--which is what we'd done last time, when Sally was my editor--but then Sarah (editor #2) left for Simon & Schuster, and I forgot to follow up on that list. So I'm going to share some names of people who don't appear on my acknowledgments page (the ones I know of, anyway) but deserve huge thanks for their hard work and support.
- Christine Kopprasch, my new editor, who has been great about picking up dropped balls.
- Annsley Rosner, Anna Mintz, Kira Walton, Sarah Breivogel, and all the other savvy publicity and marketing gurus at Crown.
- Dan Rembert for being the best cover designer EVER.
- Elliot Seibert, mi hermanito, for designing my original website and tweaking some graphics so I could make up nifty t-shirts (I haven't told you much about them yet because I still need to get some modeled shots! coming soon).
- David Galli for designing my brand-new blog. Didn't he do a fabulous job?
- Marian Schembari for kicking my took into gear with the social media shtuff.
- Maggie and Sarah for being the very best readers and friends I could possibly ask for. (By the way, my first Q&A is up now at Sarah's blog!)
And if you had a hand in putting my book together and I've neglected to thank you, I hope you'll accept my apology. Thank you, thank you, thank you.To everyone else: I hope you have as much fun reading Petty Magic as much as I did writing it!
Happy Pub Day Eve
Petty Magic comes out tomorrow, and of course I've been thinking about all the fun Mary Modern stuff from summer '07 and how much I have to look forward to again.
Kate & Elliot after the reading at Rocky Sullivan's.
My favorite picture taken at the launch party. My grandfather was being goofy, so that's what we're laughing at.
And after the party we (Ailbhe, Cóilín, Michael and me) had way too much fun at Marie's Crisis. Like there's any such thing...
Adventures in Peru: back to Lima
'I never made it to Peru. I went to heaven instead.'(--Elliot and Spencer's granddad, who was about to leave for South America but met their grandmother and decided not to go. How adorable is that?)
(The Convento de San Francisco--well worth a visit for the bone arrangements in the crypts. Beautiful tilework too, but that won't make you shiver.)So after four awesome days in the jungle we (very reluctantly, in my case) took the boat back to Iquitos for the night, then flew back to Lima in the morning and did some sightseeing before meeting up with Spencer for dinner. (Elliot arrived in the middle of the night.)
Like I said, we were a bit 'huaca-ed out', but Huaca Pucllana was easy to get to and we thought it would be neat to see one in the middle of the city. And of course it was.
I liked Lima well enough as far as capitals go, but whenever we found ourselves back in the city it was always with thoughts of where we were off to next (or, on our last day, all the fun stuff we had just seen and done).
This handprint is well over a thousand years old. (The Lima culture, which built the huaca, dates from 200-700 A.D.)And now for a glimpse of the infamous Peruvian hairless dog:
Fawkes & Ibis, Lima style--a stall at the night market at Kennedy Park (yeah, I think that's it) where I picked up a couple of antique postcards. Very proud of myself for offering fifteen soles (in Spanish) after he asked for twenty.And a couple photos taken outside the cathedral:
Jill, Elliot and Kate after our visit to the San Franciscan Monastery.
Next post: Cuzco!
Great Book #94: The Time Machine
Sometimes a book sits unread on your shelf and for the longest time you don't feel any desire to pick it up. Then finally something compels you to, you read it and literally love it to pieces (you should see my copy now), and then you could kick yourself for taking so long.That's how I feel about H.G. Wells--which might surprise you if you've read Mary Modern, because I can see how you'd think he's been an influence, but no, not until now. I knew he was a visionary--Paré tells me he even predicted the internet--but I never expected he could write such marvelous prose:
All the old constellations had gone from the sky, however: that slow movement which is imperceptible in a hundred human lifetimes, had long since rearranged them in unfamiliar groupings. But the Milky Way, it seemed to me, was still the same tattered streamer of star dust as of yore. Southward (as I judged it) was a very bright red star that was new to me: it was even more splendid than our own green Sirius. And amid all these scintillating points of light one bright planet shone kindly and steadily like the face of an old friend.
This tattered old copy of The Time Machine also includes three short stories: "The Empire of the Ants," "The Man Who Could Work Miracles," and "The Country of the Blind" (Gutenberg link to story collection here)--the last of which is now one of my favorite short stories of all time. It is absolutely brilliant. Read it NOW.
Adventures in Peru: the Amazon, part 3
Every meal we had a different kind of freshly squeezed juice. Here we had cocona (peach tomato). Did I mention how amazing the food is at Otorongo Lodge?
Oscar and Jill with the resident toucan, who is quite fond of nipping at people's heels.
Anyway, Oscar told us this local legend about the pink river dolphins: the Dolphin King sometimes steals a woman and takes her down to live with him in his underwater palace, or some such. As the sun was setting Kate, Jill, and Oscar went for a swim in the river, and we had a nice big laugh at the thought of Jill getting spirited away by a big pink dolphin.
(Unintentionally artsy-fartsy. Kate took this one, and a lot of other photos I'm posting. She and Spencer have really nice cameras--Spencer's especially--which made me realize just how stinky mine is. I know what I'm asking Santa for this year.)On our third evening we walked to the nearest village. The people there live very simply--most of them basically live in shacks--but they seem really happy. Everyone was out and about, chatting and playing bingo and soccer and volleyball. They only have electricity for a few hours in the evening, so at six o'clock when the TV in the grocery store switched on, some people came over to stand in the doorway and watch. Most people stuck with their games though.
On our last morning we went looking for gray river dolphins, and saw a few more pink ones too. This family of fishermen had such a huge catch that we motored over so Randy could help them haul it in, and Oscar showed us a catfish and vampire fish that had gotten mixed in with the others.
Next post: back to Lima!
The Big Sixty
Today is my grandparents' sixtieth wedding anniversary. We threw them a surprise party on Labor Day weekend at their favorite restaurant, and my dad made a nice little speech about how they'd met while working at a dairy, and the unlikeliness of the daughter of Irish immigrants and the son of Italian immigrants getting together.
But my grandfather had decided very early on that she was the one for him, and kept asking her out until she relented. They dated for three years, and towards the end of that time my grandmother's father was dying in the hospital. My grandfather used to shave him. Maybe she knew before that she wanted to marry him, but that kindness really sealed it for her.
I can't imagine being with somebody for sixty years, but I hope someday I'll be lucky enough to find out.
Adventures in Peru: the Amazon, part 2
Me and Kate on a 'Bob Marley tree.'
Fuzzy sloth bottom! Kate took this photo with her fancy new camera--this sloth was really high up in the trees.
Next post: more adorable Peruvian kiddies, and Jill's tryst with the Dolphin King.
Ugly Duckling Contest!
Over the summer I found this photograph of yours truly hiding creased, dust-bunnied, and frameless in a cabinet full of random junk at my grandfather's house.
Friends, there is no delicate way to say this: I was fug. My grandmother loved me better than anybody, and even she didn't want this one on the wall.I have been taking this picture out every so often to laugh at it, and it gave me an idea for another contest: send me the worst baby/kiddie/school photo you have of yourself, and the awkwardest child of the lot wins a Petty Magic t-shirt (winner's choice of slogan, style, and size, naturally) along with a copy of Mary Modern. You can enter by either emailing me the photo (mealeyATgmaildotcom) or posting a link in the comments. The only stipulation is that you have to let me post your picture--your own picture only, please; there'll be no making fun of anyone unless they're laughing too--because we're all going to vote on this. Entries will be accepted for the next week or two.P.S. Happy Birthday, Ma. Bwahahahahaha.
Adventures in Peru: the Amazon, part 1
I enjoyed every minute we spent in Peru, but our time in the Amazon was particularly special. Kate, Jill and I took the overnight bus from Trujillo back to Lima, then flew to Iquitos, which is where you take the boat into the jungle. (You pass through a market on your way to the dock, and our guide pointed out a stall selling weevil shishkebabs. Needless to say, I had no wish to linger.)We were trying to decide between two tour operators the night before we left, one kinda slick and touristy but with whom we knew more what to expect, and in the end we went (and were really happy) with the alternative, Otorongo Expeditions. The jungle lodge is really quaint and peaceful and comfortable, the owners and staff are fantastic (especially Oscar, our guide), every meal was vegetarian-friendly and thoroughly delicious, and we saw amazing wildlife on every excursion. We can't recommend Otorongo highly enough.
Taking the (usually horse-powered) sugar cane press for a spin at the rum factory on our way to the lodge. Afterwards we got a taste test, and as you can see Kate didn't like it as much as I did:
Below: the walkway between the dining and guest rooms at the lodge; the resident macaws; dragon's blood, good for all sorts of skin ailments; breadfruit.
Swaying in the hammock room at the lodge listening to all those layers of sound coming from the forest around us--the calls of birds, insects, frogs, and monkeys--oh, it was one of the most tranquil experiences of my life!
Reading The Time Machine in my favorite place.Next post: wildlife photos!