Flowers of the Inca Trail in Peru

I took over 800 photos on my trip to Peru. I thought it might be good to break it into specific groups of photos for you to enjoy. I decided to start with flowers. I took lots of pictures of flowers. When we arrived in Peru we toured the Urubamba Valley carved by the Urubamba River seen below. This flowering tree attracted hummingbirds by the dozens.

This yellow aster is used by the natives for its yellow color to add to yarn. It's found in all their garments, blankets, and hats. It is probably one of the more common flowers in the lower elevations.

Lupine is everywhere and is called Andian Lupine or Tarwi. It's considered an important crop for its high content of oil.

This looked like babies breath to me but I wasn't really sure. I saw it everywhere along the Inca trail.

I have no idea what this is. The porters who guided us seemed to know but weren't very interested in it.

This cactus flower was brilliant in color, but I couldn't help focusing on the ruins behind it known as Llaqtapata. These ruins were large and interesting. They are the first big ruins you see on the Inca trail.

I have no idea what this tiny flower is but there were many of them on the trail

Here is a flower I thought was barnardesia. I did find out that we arrived too late to see the many jungle orchids.

Here is an unknown flower to me. If you know what this is, I would sure like to know.

Anyone know what this is?  I sure don't.

Calceoloria or ladies feet was seen at higher elevations. They actually look like little shoes.

Barry McGuire

I met Barry while still a Freshman in College at Northern Arizona University. Let's see, that would've been 1972 I think. He was there for a concert. After the concert, I was invited to Jerry and Joanie's to a party and we met there. When we were in Memphis I invited him to sing at one of our company events in Tennessee. He came with Terry Talbot and they did a great job. Now we've invited him to sing and talk about his life at the company prayer breakfast in Anaheim this July. I'm very excited about the event and looking forward to seeing him again.

Error messages

I sometimes wonder where all these error messages come from and who thought them up. Do Geeks have so much spare time sitting around they can devise a new message for every situation? And then, I frequently get the same one over and over for all sorts of unique problems. Hmmm... Makes you wonder.

South Korea

Nancy will be leaving in a few days to fly to South Korea to visit Tyler. She and her sister Dee decided to fly out and have some fun with Tyler visiting the museums and beautiful spots in Korea. Of course, now I'm reading about flights being diverted to avoid potential missiles being used against flight going into to Seoul. Your prayers are appreciated.

Camp food

One of the great pleasures of camping is eating pancakes and sausage. No matter what you do to them, short of dropping them in the dirt, they taste wonderful. why is that? I think it's different when your camping outside because you're usually more tired and really hungry. Contrast this with the kid who was sent to camp and wrote home; "Please send me some food. All they serve here are meals!"

B&B

Nancy and I stayed at this little B&B in Santa Fe on the way back from Tucson recently. It was charming on the outside, but on the inside, well... she had to put the curtains back up (they fell off), the bed was soft we couldn't sleep and kept rolling together in the middle, the metal on the heater made a big boom during the night every time it shut off, and the TV was the size of a postage stamp. A B&B can sometimes be a place where you give good bucks for poor quarters.

Attorneys

I've been dealing with attorneys lately at work on a rather challenging issue. Only a lawyer could write documents with more than ten thousand words and call them briefs!

But I like our attorney. He's brilliant. He didn't bother graduating from law school. He settled out of class!

Hatch

We recently ate at this lovely place in Hatch, NM. They have really good burgers and fries. The burgers are smothered in green chili and it leaves you, literally "breathless." But this place is the real deal and you don't want to miss out if you ever pass through here, because it certainly will.

NOTE: I hate restaurants where the waiters wear gloves. What's in the food that they're afraid to come into contact with? Notice the waiters on the roof aren't wearing gloves!

A fly in Warsaw

A fly landed on somebody's nose in Warsaw. Then it leaped onto another nose. It was the longest flight in history. The fly went from pole to pole in one jump!

Hey, this may not be a fly but it sure has a nose. I think they call this a snout beetle. Maybe it's from Warsaw. I did ask my father the other day a critical scientific question about all the research going on, related to insects. I asked him if he knew one scientist who can tell us when mosquitoes sleep!

Flying

Living close to Chatfield State Park has its rewards. Frequently we see balloons flying over the house and around the neighborhood. They often land in the neighborhood. They get close enough to the house that I can tell the seating is really pretty cramped in these things. Of course that reminded me of some of my recent flights. I ran into a tough airline on my last flight. They wouldn't seat you after the first ten minutes of the movie.

Remembering Portofino

My trip to Portofino with Tyler was interesting. We took a ferry from Cinque Terre with several stops along the way. We walked up to the top of small hill above the town, visited a small church and visited a museum. I took this photo from the top of the little hill. We enjoyed a nice little lunch here near one of those yachts in the bay and left in time to catch the ferry back to Riomaggiorre. It was a very beautiful little place.

Hovenweep crow

This ruin in Hovenweep sported a crow perched on top. Just as I took the photo, he took off giving me an interesting shot. Maybe it's that noise a camera makes which spooked the bird at the right time.

Not my job award

This reminds me so much of government that I just have to laugh out loud. The only thing they think about is now and getting their job done, not how it fits in the purpose and intent of what it is they're trying to accomplish. Sometimes you have to stop and say, "wait a minute, this isn't right!" Obamacare is a good example of this. We just want health care for everyone, and who cares if it costs trillions and is paid for by small business and you know who! It's a failure in leadership. We tend to elect the best looking candidate, who is glib and charming, not the most competent.

Politicians, need I say more