memorias

ollantaytambo, originally uploaded by sammarin.

I wish I had more time on this computer to write about how things are going. I´ll just say that it feels amazing to me to see places that were constructed by the Andean people so long ago, to climb the same steps and look at the same sky. I feel connected to the past in a way that I´m not sure I ever have felt before.

And also connected to other places, as well as times... people visit this sacred valley from China, Brasil, Germany... everywhere - and they are discovering for the first time, as I am, something amazing. I´m awed by the sense of newness - the sense that we tourists have never seen such a thing as this before - mixed with the oldness of these places. Old and new are mixed again when you see folks on the street calling ¨memorias... memorias¨ - in order to sell the memory cards for cameras that they´ve got, alongside the hand-stitched tapestries...

There´s so much more I want to share once I get to Arequipa about this initial time in the Sacred Valley. Cusco, Ollantaytambo, Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu - I feel truly fortunate to be here and walk these paths and breathe this high high mountain air!