No luggage on the train to Machu Picchu; only small carryons. We
packed what we needed, left our bags at K’uychi Rumi, and boarded
a van (just one, a big one) back to Ollantaytambo for a more
leisurely but still rushed tour.
Monday morning I was unable to solve the NYT crossword. I stared at my laptop screen in disbelief and apprehension, unable to fill in a single square. On a Monday1. Dementia already? Stroke? Should I start taking Lion’s Mane extract? After finding my breath and calming my fears, I resolved to put my hopes on podman.
Podman is a container virtualization tool created and developed by my software team at Red Hat.
The sole reason we wrangled an extra day in Lima was to visit the
Larco Museum:
it had figured prominently in our
pre-trip learning,
and my friend R. visited it last year and reinforced the recommendation.
Was it worth the emotional drain of being in Lima?
The plan: 8:30 train to Ollantaytambo where we’d get picked up,
taken to pick up our luggage, then driven back to Cusco where
we’d have lunch and an afternoon tour of Sacsayhuamán.
No luggage on the train to Machu Picchu; only small carryons. We
packed what we needed, left our bags at K’uychi Rumi, and boarded
a van (just one, a big one) back to Ollantaytambo for a more
leisurely but still rushed tour.
7am departure in the van. Just one van: there were only eight of us
doing today’s hike, nine with our guide, so we all fit in one van.
We drove the hour to the tiny village of Quiswarani where (no
surprise) several vendors spread their blankets of wares. We
stretched our legs, peed, stuffed our cheeks with a giant wad
of coca, and started off.
Departed Lamay for Huacahuasi, in the Lares valley.
Yes, that's a protractor in his right hand
Our first stop
was in Calcas, whose plaza prominently features a bust of… a
geometrician!
Dr. Eusebio Corazao Quintanilla
has no Wikipedia entry, alas, but he is remembered in his hometown and
now in Los Alamos. How many small Andean towns have a mathematician
for a hero? How many towns anywhere? This was a delightful and
memorable surprise.