Went by bus from Lima, Peru to the small isolated village of Huandoval in the Andes. Road sometimes closed due to rain and avalanches!
If you keep on climbing you´ll reach the mountain Huascarán 6 768 meters high!
Can still remember that popular quechua song the driver played over and over and over … trough those cracked loudspeakers!!
On 16 November 1532, The Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro met the Inca emperor Atahualpa at this spot in Cajamarca, northern Peru.
It was a confusing battle where the Spaniards where extremely outnumbered. In the end the invaders anyway managed to capture Atahualpa and later on execute him.
It´s a thrilling piece of history. You can read about it for example in The Discovery and Conquest of Peru by William H. Prescott
It was the beginning of Latin America. These three mestizo boys resting in this Andean valley, ones the battlefield of Cajamarca, are descendants and a result of that violent and cruel meeting between the old and the new world! Click on photo to see higher resolution
![light-travel-021[1]](https://hakanronnblad.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/light-travel-0211.jpg)
Guillermo Guzman Manzaneda at work painting “La Casona” in his studio in Huancayo, Peru 1979. Somewhere I have recordings saved where this internationally recognized artist sings indecent songs in quechua for us (the native language)
Dr Schwalb rechaza acusaciones! Dr Schwalb denies accusations! one of the headlines that particular day in Lima, Peru 1984.
Little boy working hard at the maize field.
Some decades ago I stayed a week in the Andean village of Huandoval in the province of Ancash, Peru.
It’s a small isolated place with no electricity and no telephone. You have to rely on shortwave radio for communication. In periods you can´t reach or leave the area because the road collapses in the rain!
A fantastic horseback ride excursion in the mountains with the shopkeeper of the village is a strong memory from that week!
Click on photo to see full size
Some weeks ago I shared the story about the Cuban Tocororo bird.
The bonus in that adventure was the encounter with the zunzuncito, hummingbird the smallest bird on the planet. Weigh 1,6g, length is 5,7cm, Half of that is tail and a beak.
I have also had the honor to meet the worlds biggest flying bird, The Condor!
It weights about 15 kilo and has a 3-meter wingspan.
It was a breathtaking moment to observe two of these giants dominating the sky!
As we are in superlative territory it´s also worth mentioning the Colca Canyon in the Andes, southern Peru, where this picture was taken. It is the deepest in the world (yes deeper than Grand Canyon).
And no.. I am not an ornithologist.. click on photo to see full size
Indisposed (to put it mildly) I stayed a few days in the Bolivian village Copacabana, (no, not the one in Rio) at the Titicaca lake to recover.
When most of the amoebas had left my body I rented a rowing boat to get some exercise.
Just below 4000 m above sea level Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. Sitting in a boat looking at the surrounding Andean mountain range is a sublime experience, and if on top of that the pirate of the Titicaca lake appears, there is not much more to desire is there?
The enormous lake is crossing the border between Bolivia and Peru. According to the Peruvian popular humour La parte de caca queda en Bolivia the (caca:shit) shitty part is placed in Bolivia.
In a way I can confirm that!
Click on photo to see full size!
Nobel prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa. La fiesta del chivo, Historia de Mayta.
Somewhat influenced by The feast of the goat I travelled around Dominican Republic less than a year ago. Click on tag Dominican Republic!
Writer Mario Vargas Llosa at World Cultural museum. Today, friday 23/september Gothenburg.
Håkan Rönnblad 