Travels
The Abbey of St Antimo
…Take a look at a photoessay I posted on my other site, thechanging palette, for Day 28 of the thirty day Zero to Hero journey to better blogging. It’s about our visit to the Abbey of St Antimo in Tuscany and enjoy the beautiful Gregorian chant at the end as you look at the photos…
Travel theme: Illuminated
…Three shots, one location, one camera…
…L.A. Live, where the night comes alive…
Travel theme: Possibility
…The possibility that your luggage doesn’t appear through that carousel door is always a time of high anxiety. But there it is, in all its reassuring blueness. At that moment the possibility of Machu Picchu became an eagerly awaited reality…
Ailsa’s weekly travel themes
Weekly Photo Challenge: Community
…or “machupicchucountdown” revisited!
Thanks to Cheri for challenging us this week with our interpretation of “Community”. I have also taken the opportunity of “Repurposing” as she also suggested. 
For those of you who have followed my blog from the beginning you will remember “Machupicchucountdown” was the title I used as we prepared for our trek with Mountain Lodges of Peru to Machu Picchu in June. I started the blog in May as a way of allowing family and friends to join us, “virtually”, as we undertook the trip of a lifetime. This was my first time blogging, and there was a definite learning curve as you will remember. In Cusco we met a wonderful new group of friends who made up our little “community” of trekkers. The group photo was taken at our first stop at Quillarumiyuq, eager and ready for anything! I think the photos speak for themselves, but seeing all of us together experiencing each day’s adventures in one post shows the special bond that was created between us and one that will never be forgotten.
To learn more about our amazing adventure I invite you to explore the early days of my blogging. Once the countdown was over I couldn’t use “machupicchucountdown” as my title any more, and so “thechangingpalette” was born. The last few months of exploring the “community” of my fellow bloggers has been quite inspirational. You are an amazing group and I look forward to continuing to follow your remarkable journeys wherever you are in this beautiful wide world of ours.
…and if my fellow trekkers are reading this, Happy Holidays to you all, and “Thanks for the memories”…
Weekly Photo Challenge: Grand 2
Weekly Photo Challenge: Grand
…Can there be any place more “Grand”. Photo Essay to follow…
Daily Prompt: Come Fly with Me
“Share a story about the furthest you’ve ever traveled from home.”
…A few years ago we travelled to Port Douglas in northern Queensland, Australia. One morning we rose early to walk along the famous Four Mile Beach to see the sunrise. It was a beautiful morning as we walked south along the beach for about an hour. Not a person in sight; just us and the rising sun. Where was everyone on such a perfect day?
It was on our return that we saw the sign.
The reason for our solitude was explained, and we were alive, happily, to tell the tale!
Machu Picchu -5 Cusco
…This morning we toured Cuzco and its surrounding archeological sites with our guide Juan who has been with us these past four days. We began at the spring shrine of Tambo Machay at nearly 3800 meters, but with all of our training there was no cause for allama 🙂 A party of kindergarten children was also visiting and looked so smart in their uniforms. Next we visited the magnificent ceremonial centre of Sacsayhuaman thought to be a sanctuary and temple to the sun. I hope the photos do justice to this amazing site. We ended our morning tour in Cuzco with visits to the cathedral and finally Qoricancha at Santa Domingo, The Temple of the Sun. Tonight we meet the other members of our group who we will be hiking with. The hike is organize by Mountain Lodges of Peru and if you visit their website you will see a description of our next six days together with a map of the trail: http://www.mountainlodgesofperu.com. I’m not sure how successful the blogging will be, but at least you will be able to follow our journey day by day. Hope to post again soon. Thanks for joining us…
thechangingpalette 