Snowballz

Last week I did some headshots for Corporate Knights at their office in Toronto. We got to go up to the roof of their building and while it was very cold and extremely windy I think we got some good shots. Of course that didn't stop a snowball fight from breaking out.

The Zen Diamond Company.

Zen Diamond, the largest manufacturer of diamond jewelry in Europe and the No. 1 exporter of precious stones in Turkey, has plans to enhance efficiency and boost productivity during the global economic slowdown, a top company executive has said.

James: Because nothing says materialism like Zen!! And nothing could be further from the teachings of Zen than using the advertising tag line, "Diamonds are Forever" as we all know that nothing is forever. In the end Zen is just a word and I'm not going to let anger and other unskillful feelings arise because of a word.

Still you'd never see the Jesus Diamond company or Christ Wine. Maybe they could put a copy of the Diamond Sutra in with each diamond product. That might even things up with the consumerism/materialism message of the diamonds.

~Peace to all beings~

Another of My Favorite Poems, "If" by Rudyard Kipling.

It's a lazy day after Christmas so I thought I'd post another of my favorite poems that I've been re-reading again lately. It is "If" by Rudyard Kipling:

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Using Science to Explain Biblical Stories. Part One: Sodom and Gommorah.

**NOTE: This is not an attempt to insult anyone so if you are insulted by this post then I apologize. I am starting a series here on how Biblical stories can often be explained by a modern understanding of science. I am doing it not out of a desire to destroy anyone's faith but from a personal interest explaining the stories I've heard during my 22 years as a Christian. I am a skeptic by heart and enjoy explaining the seemingly inexplicable.***

---

Sodom and Gomorrah were two ancient cities mentioned in the Bible most likely near the Dead Sea. The story in the Bible says that the town was destroyed by "God" because of the their "wickedness" by fire and brimstone (sulfur rock). So what does science have to say about this story?

As we know much of the Middle East sits above oil and natural gas fields as well as atop pockets of sulfur rock or brimstone. There are fault lines in the area where most scholars believe Sodom and Gomorrah existed as well as within much of the "Holy Land." Ancients didn't know much science and therefore natural disasters would be seen as "God's" doing and explained by man's "sinning."

So all it takes is a decent sized asteroid to hit the area, which would ignite the oil and natural gas fields nearby and underneath the city. As well as the igniting and throwing sulfur rocks into the air, which would then reign down upon the nearby cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Thus giving off the effect of flaming rocks pouring down upon the cities and burning them to the ground.

Another explanation could stem from the many fault lines that exist in Israel, Jordan and throughout the Middle East. An earthquake could have cracked the Earth, which exposed natural gas pockets, pools of oil and veins of sulfur rock. All it would take is one spark from the many cooking fires to explode the pockets of gas, ignite the sulfur rock, which would reign back down upon the city burning it to the ground.

There are simple, (Occam's razor) scientific explanations for this event either way and so people who were not privy to science would seek to explain such a natural disaster with what they believed--"God." "God" was an understandable way to explain events, which were at the time mysterious in origin and thus very frightening.

~Peace to all beings~

Santa Claus

The poem "The Night Before Christmas" was first published in The Troy Centinal, a New York newspaper, in 1823. It was written by Clement Clark Moore and was celebrated in his time as the father of Santa Claus. In an 1859 reprint of the poem the famed cartoonist Thomas Nast drew this, the first likeness of Santa. In 1934 the illustrator Haddon Sumblom painted the modern version that we all know for a Coca Cola ad campaign.
Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus as we know him was Haogious Nikolaos of Bari. He was a Christian Bishop of Lydia, now modern Turkey. Scholars can’t even agree if he ever lived, but people have celebrated the goodness of St. Nicholas since the late 300s.
This is a drawing from a coloring book I did a couple of years ago.

Zen Master Franz Kafka?

You need not do anything.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, just wait.
You need not even wait,
just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.
And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

~Franz Kafka from his poem, "Learn to Be Quiet."

James: It's somewhat hard to imagine the brooding Franz Kafka as a student of mindfulness but here he is teaching it with just as much clarity as many monks!!

Then there is this Zen-like comment from Kafka regarding his relationship with Judaism/spirituality (he was known to show interest in Judaism especially later in life), "What have I in common with Jews? I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe."

His questioning of what he has in common with "himself" and what that "self" even means seems like an almost koan-like statement. The whole of the quote sounds as if it came from a Zen Master trying to teach a novice that the label "Buddhist" is not important but rather the essence and teachings of Buddhism. For example, being present to be content with the basic things in life such as standing (or sitting) in a corner and breathing.

PHOTO: Franz Kafka by Anthony Hare 2003.

~Peace to all beings~

FOX Host Carlson Afraid that Christianity is In Mortal Danger.

So an Atheist sign in the state capital of Illinois was stolen and now the Atheist group behind the sign wants to replace it with a new one saying, "Thou Shalt Not Steal." Yet Gretchen Carlson apparently doesn't get the point of the replacement sign.

It seems apparent to me that those who would be the most upset by the sign would be rabid Christians. Therefore reminding them that they [most likely Christian] broke a commandment of the very religion they are claiming to defend by stealing that sign is on point and brilliant. It's called using your critics words and beliefs against them. It's a great debate tactic and Carlson's only comeback to it is to claim that Atheists have no right to use the ten commandments because Atheists don't believe in them? That's a nice dodge from the point of Christians stealing despite being commanded NOT too.

So in other words Christians can break the commandments when dealing with Atheists because Atheists shouldn't have the same rights to freedom of expression as Christians enjoy. In part too because Atheists are seen by extreme Christians as evil to be defeated by any means necessary and therefore (to these type of Christians) the end justifies the means (i.e. stealing). It's not too unlike radical Muslims who think "God" will bless them in heaven for killing the nonbeliever because belief in "God" is more important than free will and the commandment against killing. Thus we see that many radical Christians don't actually believe following every commandment by the letter as they often say they do.

Michelle Maulkin actually takes the high road for once in basically saying "Just ignore them." But Carlson is completely freaked out to the point of saying that if they treat them as equals then Christianity might disappear??? Come on. Honestly. It might disappear from the public square (as it should according to the Constitution) but Christianity is not going to disappear from a country [America] that is beyond any measure predominately Christian. Besides, where is their faith that "God" won't let Christianity die out in America?

And should it be about control? Shouldn't your belief in Christianity be personal? Isn't it more about your own salvation than about being the dominate belief system to maintain your feeling of superiority as being "number 1?" I'm a Buddhist and we are no where near the dominate religion in America and I don't care. I don't practice Buddhism so that maybe one day Buddhism can dominate America. I practice it because I find meditation to be helpful in my daily, personal life.

I am a weak Atheist/strong Agnostic, I know many other Atheists and for most it's not about abolishing Christianity but rather about equal representation in the public square. Either everyone gets to have a display or no one should as the public square belongs to everyone and public/government buildings/locations are paid for by everyone--not just Christians. It seems really simple and basic to me.

~Peace to all beings~

Musical Interlude: Jason Mraz, "I'm Yours." Buddhism and Music.

I thought I'd post a fun, happy and relaxing song this morning. The artist is Jason Mraz and I really dig his reggae sound. Reggae is one of my favorite musical styles because it is so calming and gets me to dance around a bit and let my body relax to the beat. I also really like the message of this song of living in the now, letting go of our hang-ups and enjoying what he have and not worrying about what we don't have. As well as rejoicing in the power of love.

Music can be very spiritual as I think sound is something that our brain can easily absorb without too much thinking. Songs are great ways to express feelings, ideas and emotions that might be otherwise difficult to express through language. For me, It's about letting go to the present moment of the songs to just enjoy the beauty and power of sound. When I'm having a bad day it's hard too continue feeling glum after listening to say, Bob Marley.

Music is very meditative in that it can relax the body and mind to better enable deep contemplation and peacefulness. It's also a way to release stress and anxiety as music is for me a kind of audio massage and/or way to channel and safely discharge my less skillful thoughts and energy. I have found listening to positive music and/or chanting before meditation to be a great way to calm the brain and prepare it for sitting meditation.

The vibrations from the musical tones of chanting vibrates throughout the body and I have found relaxes the muscles that tense up in our day to day motions/actions. In addition it opens up the lungs so that breathing deeply during meditation is easier. From my experience I have found that listening to music and/or chants before meditation is kind of like stretching before running.

~Peace to all beings~

The Harding Icefields

The coolest jet flight i went on was crossing Greenland on a sunny day. Because my flight out of Poland had been delayed two hours, our pilot got permission to fly an unusually northerly route, taking advantage of a westward current of air that made up for all our lost time during the flight to Seattle. From my window seat i was super excited as the east coast of Greenland glided in to view. Huge mountains rose abruptly out of the ocean, and continued inland with glaciers pouring out between every one of them. As we got farther inland from the coast, the mountains were getting smaller, exactly the opposite of what normally happens. That just didn't make any sense. Then i realized suddenly that the mountains weren't getting smaller at all. Instead, the ice was getting thicker! Eventually it was so thick that only the very tips of the high mountain peaks were sticking out, and then even those were drowned by the ice.

Exit Glacier becomes visible as you get above treeline. You then spend the next couple of hours hiking up along it's side.

Some clouds moved in but i kept an eye on what was going on, until i saw some weird features in the clouds. Strange dark lines here and there. I was being fooled again. They were massive crevasses in patches of exposed ice. Even in knowing, it was hard to believe what i was seeing. There was nothing but a flat plain of snow and ice as far as i could see in any direction. From 40,000 feet high you can see hundreds of miles, and i couldn't see anything at all except white. After a considerable time we arrived on the west coast, which turned out to be more interesting than even the east coast was. It was more complex and as the glaciers poured into the ocean they split up into thousands of massive icebergs. We then traversed some of those other mysterious islands you always see on the globe between Canada and Greenland. They were all extremely interesting; i remember one that looked like it was made up of a matrix of southwest style mesas with large canyons forming a rectangular grid between them.

 

The top of Exit Glacier. The mountaintops across the ice are 4 miles away.

Years later i moved to Alaska, where you can get a little taste of Greenland. Only 55 miles from Anchorage lie the Harding Icefields. A vast sea of ice 20 miles wide and 50 miles long, it is the largest expanse of ice entirely within the United States and is roughly the size of the San Francisco Bay Area. With it's dozens of glaciers the icefields cover an area of 1,100 square miles, with ice that can be more than 1,000 feet thick. 250 miles to the east, straddling the US Canadian border, is something much larger, but that's another story.

Above the range of almost all plant life is a mile long region of badlands which were until very recently underneath the icefields. Now they are being quickly transformed by liquid water as shown, for example, by these steep 10 foot stream banks.

The icefields lie mostly within Kenai Fjords National Park. There is one short road that goes into the park. It ends at Exit Glacier, and from there is a very strenuous trail that that goes up to the icefields. Nine miles round trip, it rises relentlessly, gaining 1,000 feet of elevation every mile.

This rock surface shows both glacial polishing and scarring. It had been polished into a smooth undulating pattern over the eons, with more recent scarring visible moving from the upper left to the lower right as the ice dragged harder rocks across it's surface. 

After a long time stone surfaces are reduced to rubble by the ice, like the one pictured here.

The view at the top, which does a good job of hiding itself until the last 1/2 mile, is jaw dropping, a vast landscape of ice as far as the eye can see. It really does give off the impression that you have walked into Greenland or Antarctica. Here and there the tops of mountains poke up through their tomb of ice. They are commonly called Nunateks, the Eskimo word for "lonely mountain". You can go out to those mountains and climb them, if you have the skills. It is popular with mountaineers to traverse the icefields in spring, which can take up to two weeks depending on weather. 

The main view of the icefields. By the time you see this view you want to go much farther, but it takes a ton of energy just to get to this point. The most distant mountains visible in the center of the picture are 20 miles away!

It's a very rugged place but offers tons of possibility. Too bad it's so hard to get up there. If you really wanted to do some exploring you'd need to be in much better shape than i was and start early in the morning, or camp and explore the next day. While the sun is up you are constantly battered by an eternal, strong cold wind. The ice refrigerates miles of air that drifts across the surface. That air condenses and then slides downward over the glaciers that pour down to the sea, picking up speed as it gets constricted in outlets like Exit Glacier.

A full size crop of the center of the previous picture. The forward edge of the field can be seen in the far lower right corner. From there to the distant nunateks is 20 miles. The icefields continue another 25 to 30 miles beyond that.

A year earlier i had taken this picture with a little snapshot camera while i was flying myself back from Homer. I didn't know exactly what i was looking at at the time. It turns out the group of peaks in the center of this photo are part of those in the above photos that reside in the middle of the length of the icefields. This picture is taken looking east, so the right side of the photo is part of the southerly icefields, not visible from the trail viewpoint.

When i was in the area i saw a group of mountaineers skiing out onto the ice. I watched them for a whie, until they became so small that they completely disappeared into the landscape. Until then i had never seen anyone just disappear from right in front of my eyes. What blew my mind was that they weren't very far off by the time they became too small to see.

Mountian goats graze at ease knowing no human can get uphill fast enough to be a threat. I gathered some of their fur and later gave it to a small child in New York, claiming it was from the infamous Yeti.

Happy Birthday Ludwig

DUM DUM DUM DUMMMMM!!
DUM DUM DUM DUMMMMM.......
Ludwig Von Beethoven born December 16, 1770
Happy birthday Ludwig.
Portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler 1820

Edible Lodgings

Christmas time is such a delicious time to bake tasty treats. Tori and I constructed this gingerbread house with our own bare hands. It was a lot of fun and I'm sure we'll have more treats to share as the week go by. Her family also has a tree cutting tradition where the perfect specimen is killed to decorate their home. It was a very quick expedition this year since it was a balmy -10 degrees celsius. It was a lot of fun though.

Society Without God: A Book Review.

I was recently sent a copy of "Society Without God" by Phil Zuckerman to review. The author lived in Denmark and Sweden for 14 months and discovered through personal interviews with average Danes and Swedes that Scandinavia is quite Atheist/Agnostic.

It has been a falsehood heard in many religious circles (especially within the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions) for years that society can not succeed without a belief in a creator god. However, Zuckerman presents his thesis that despite their lack of belief Scandinavians are some of the most socially well adjusted and successful people on Earth.

Some give the examples of the former USSR, North Korea, Cuba and China to try and argue that nontheist societies breed oppression and are not good examples of healthy societal life. However, Zuckerman deftly responds saying that those were/are governments who force everyone to be Atheist/Agnostic:

In each case, religion wasn't abandoned by the people themselves in a natural process over several generations [James: Like Scandinavia]. Rather, the "abandonment" of religion was decreed by vicious dictators who imposed their faithlessness on an unwilling, decidedly un-free citizenry.

He gives several interesting reasons for why secular societies are so stable and successful one of which is education. He found that a high level of Scandinavians are educated and that the higher level of education one achieves the less one believes in a god. And while being an nontheist, Zuckerman makes sure to say that not everything about monotheism is negative. He does list positives of believing in a god/supernatualism. Overall though he paints a very convincing picture that belief in a creator god is not necessary to a moral and ethical society.

It is fascinating in that his argument is built directly from primary sources by interviewing average citizens. This strength, however, does become a bit of a weakness for this book because the interviews become too many and the answers become repetitive. That would be my one criticism of this book.

As a nontheist Buddhist I found myself agreeing quite often with the sentiments expressed by these Danes and Swedes. I have read many books on Atheist thinking and I find it noteworthy that most don't even mention/cover Buddhism in their critiques of religion. In my mind that is because Buddhism falls inbetween religion and Atheism. It's kind of in its own category that seems to have more in common with philosophy and psychology than with strict religious dogma.

~Peace to all beings~

Little Miss Muffett

Little Miss Muffett
sat on her tuffet
eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider
that sat down beside her
and frightened Miss Muffett away.

watercolor 6" x 8"

Birds are Weird

Before I left for Peru Tori and I visited her ex-place of employment, the African Lion Safari. She worked with the parrots so I was able to take a some photographs of them when the park had closed. Most of the birds are quite intelligent while some are mostly bitey. Either way I think they look pretty awesome.

Looking For Buddha.

Trying to find a Buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space. Space has a name but no form. It's not something you can pick up or put down. And you certainly can't grab it. Beyond this mind you'll never see a Buddha. The Buddha is a product of your mind. Why look for a Buddha beyond this mind?

-- The Zen teachings of Bodhidharma

James: This reminds me of the koan, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." Which for me means many things such as the message/teachings being more important than the teacher. For some It can be easy to get attached to the idea of Buddha and see him as some kind of god to be worshiped but I see that as being a distraction. It attempts to shift the responsibility for our liberation away from ourselves to a caricature of Buddha as a savior rather than an example. Buddha is not a god--my understanding is that Buddha is beyond all labels, forms and titles. For me, worshiping the Buddha is like worshiping a bar of soap because Buddha can not do anything for us except shine the torch to show the way.

Buddha is almost always depicted as meditating, which for me is a symbol of the DIY (do it yourself) philosophy that is so popular today. When Buddha was meditating on the night of his enlightenment he did not worship some mystic deity hoping that he didn't have to do the difficult work and could be saved without effort on his part. I have to do the heavy lifting on my journey just like Buddha so many years ago. Praying to Buddha is in my view pointless. I see it as a waste of time that could be spent meditating, which is the vehicle Buddha used to awaken from the slumber of the eg0-self and liberate himself from samsara. Again, the message (the dharma) is more important than the messenger. Buddha is long gone into mahaparinirvana.

Even if Buddha was around to hear those prayers he couldn't answer them or fulfill the desires they contain because he is not a god. The very idea of prayer is the act of trying to satiate our desires and that is a dead-end path according to Dharma.

~Peace to all beings~

Happy Bodhi Day 2008,

May this candle remind us of the Buddha's enlightenment and the light the Dharma shines to show us the way on our path.

The Last Supper

So this ends our trip around Peru. Mike and I went back to Arequipa to catch our flight and enjoyed a nice dinner of cebiche and cuy. The former is raw fish which is marinated in lime juice and naturally cooked by the neutralization of the acid and base while the later is roasted guinea pig. Cuy is a fairly special dish in Peru and is only consumed on special occasions. We even saw a painting in Lima of the last supper with Jesus enjoying some delicious cuy. I had been a little hesitant to try these dishes our entire trip but both meals were extremely delicious so I'm glad I did.


So I hope your enjoy this photo essay of sorts and please come back for some not as exciting photos of Ontario...during the winter!

Buddhism vs. Buddhism in America.

Apparently there is a hot discussion in the blangha (blog+sangha) as to why according to some, Asian-American Buddhists and white American Buddhists don't interact enough. Well I had a few thoughts on the matter and figured I'd post them for what it's worth.

I think while discrimination does definitely exist on both sides the separation between the two in America stems more from cultural differences than from out right bigotry. I say this because I think that the argument, which says there is an Asian-American Buddhism versus a white American Buddhism in the U.S. is too simplistic and dualistic.

It misses the important point that the term "Asian" includes dozens of very different cultures/countries. This is evident here in America because there are Asian-American Buddhists who separate amongst themselves even.

Korean American Buddhist communities often stick to mostly Korean American Buddhist sanghas, Vietnamese with Vietnamese, etc. Of course that's not always the case and there are examples of well integrated sanghas mostly in highly diverse urban areas of the country. Often white dominated sanghas are such for no other reason than the sanghas location being in an area where whites represent the majority population in general.

Besides, I don't think that we can completely uproot cultural differences within a greater Buddhism nor is it necessarily a bad thing to have different cultures represented within Buddhism. There is much beauty and value when culture meets the Dharma but like with all things it can be a hinderance at times too. So yes, again as I stated above there are instances of discrimination on both sides but the beauty of Buddhism is that we all share the core beliefs. Dharma is Dharma whether it is spoken in English, Thai or Norwegian.

~Peace to all beings~

Puno

Ryan had to catch his flight back home so Mike and I left Cusco en route to Puno (elv.3830m). We caught a late night bus and 6 hours later we were in Puno on Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the entire world. After arriving and getting a quick nap in, Mike and I headed down to the harbour to catch a ride to the Islas Flotantes of the Uros people. These are islands that are actually made from totora reeds and float on the surface of the lake. The Uros use the reeds (which are partly edible) for almost everything in their lives; their homes, boats, and ground are all made from interweaving these reeds to construct what they need. The Uros decided to live on the constructed islands several centuries ago to isolate themselves from the Collas and Incas, and currently eke our their existence from fishing and tourism.



We got a very cheap spanish tour to the islands with our two 12 year old captains. After leaving the harbour we suffered several engine breakdowns, combined with the fact that our boat had loose floorboards and water in the bottom made us a little nervous. I'm not sure if you noticed but the two man team is required, one to steer and one to manually pump the gas into the engine...luckily they got us going again and we were off. We got to an island and sat for a small (completely spanish) presentation by a man who presumably lives there, while I caught very little of what he said it seemed fairly interesting. Of course there were several small souvenir shops on the island to purchase your island goods. There are actually some restaurants on the island though we didn't have time to eat there. Walking on the islands is an experience in itself, it is very soft and if you aren't careful you can actually sink through if you step on a rotten section. The sun was incredibly hot here since it is at such a high elevation but in the shade you would feel quite cold from the cool air.




After a fews hours on Lake Tititcaca we went back to Puno and and I snuck this picture of a peruvian couple on our tour with us. After arriving back to the harbour we took Batman's rickshaw around town and grabbed some dinner before heading back to our hostel. Puno was quite a nice city and a great detour from the rest of Peru.

Inca Trail: Machu Picchu

We were woken up at 400 on the last day to arrive at Machu Picchu early and it was pouring. After a quick breakfast we bundled up all of our things which were slightly lighter since the porters took the gear we rented with them as they went to Aguas Caliente at the base of the Machu Picchu valley. While that was a nice bonus, finding out that my rain jacket was not waterproof was quite the opposite. After hiking through the downpour for 2 hours I was soaked to the bone. We climbed a very step staircase at Intipunku (the sun gate) our last mountain pass and instead of having Machu Picchu revealed to us on the horizon we got to see...fog. Warren and Brian (knowing the connection between cause and effect) started to chant 'FUCK OFF FOG!' which surpringsly worked and then, in all it's splendor Machu Picchu arose from the clouds. It was actually very beautiful even with all the clouds, it gave it a very jungly feel.



After a few photos we made the last leg of the trail down the mountainside to the top of Machu Picchu. There is a regular entrance for folk to come up in buses from Aguas Calientes where we were able to drop our packs off and change into some dry clothes. The weather cooperated for our tour of the ruins and Paulito was an excellent guide. The city is separated into an agriculture section (on the left) for all of the terraces and a few buildings, and then the residential section (on the right) which itself has a sacred district and a popular district for living quarters. You can tell which buildings were important because of the quality of the walls they built. Again they didn't use mortar but constructed the walls by placing the polished stones together like a puzzle, which sometimes includes large stone which they did not move. The terraces are also quite unique, they have layers of stone, sand, and soil to improve the irrigation of the city but more impressively the sand comes from all parts of the Inca empire. Sand from the coast, Nazca desert and amazon were all brought here.



In the religious portion of the city there is a sundial which indicates certain important days of the year, such as the summer and winter solstice as well as the equinoxes. There are several altars for sacrifices including the temple of the condor which has this interesting stone that is shaped like a condor head. And also there were several more interesting architechtural details. Like the other ruins we visisted there was a source of fresh water which flowed through the city to several fountains in central locations. There is also several rocks shaped like animals, one has a perfect llama shadow on the summer solstice (which I obviously couldn't photograph), one is shaped like a guinea pig and another is shaped like a llama head (pictured below).



It is also worth noting that Machu Picchu was never actually discovered by the spanish conquistadors since they always destroyed religious places to build churches. Instead they believe that Machu Picchu was abandoned about 100 years after it was constructed because of a small pox epidemic (which was brought to south america by the europeans). Most believe that it was used a citadel for the Inca emperor Pachacuti. Hiram Bingham is credited with rediscovering the site in 1911 but at the time there were a few families still living in the ruins and using the terraces. There are also reports of several other adventurers discovering the site up to a dozen year before Bingham and taking some artifacts.



At the end of our tour we were able to explore the city for a few hours before needing to catch a bus down to Aguas Calientes. Though we did get to see a Green and White Hummingbird as well as this (as Paulito called it) Inca rabbit.



After some lunch in Aguas Calientes we said goodbye to our guides and caught the train back to Ollantaytambo and then a bus back to Cusco.




This trek was the most difficult undertaking I have had to do physically, but entirely worth it. The guides were great, our group was great, and the sights were incredible.


Trip distance: ~48km
Trip elevation: ~3100 m
Trip depth: ~2200 m