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Experience the La Ciclovia Tradition in the Heart of Bogota

Colombia is a fascinating country with a colourful history and vibrant modern culture. While its rainforests, beaches, coffee plantations and pristine natural areas offer vast riches to visitors, its cities are also packed with treasures. Founded in 1538, Bogota is with good reason referred to as the ‘culture capital’ of this amazing country. Every Sunday, the city centre even goes car-free for the day, and locals take to the streets on bikes in a tradition known as La Ciclovia!

Here are just some of the best ways to enjoy the city at its best.

Museums

There are 58 museums in town. The Gold Museum perhaps draws the most crowds to gawp at the mind-boggling collection of pre-Colombian artefacts from across this gold-rich nation. The largest of its kind in the world, the museum is part of the cultural complex of the Bank of the Republic.

The Police Museum is also an interesting place to spend a couple of hours. The National Museum of Colombia has an amazing array of scientific instruments, crafts, portraits and art.

(Don’t forget to check out the art and culture found in Medellin too!)

The old town

The district of Candelaria is the city’s captivating old town. With its cobbled streets, Spanish colonial and baroque architecture, this is certainly the prettiest part of Bogota. Here is where the Gold Museum and the Zipaquira Cathedral – an underground place of worship carved in the remains of a former salt mine – are located.

The Casa de Nariño, (site of the President’s offices) is located in Candelaria, as is the Congress of the Republic, the Supreme Court of Justice, and the Mayor’s Office.

Some of the city’s best boutique hotels can be found here, too, many in colonial buildings and oozing a charm you simply can’t get from modern buildings. Hotel de la Opera offers just 29 rooms within the warm atmosphere of its colonial walls, each with large picture windows and balconies with views over the rooftops and distant mountains.

Art

South Americans are passionate about artistic expression, and nowhere is this more evident than in Bogota. The Bogota Museum of Modern Art was founded in 1963 and today houses over 2,200 works of art. There are some brilliant pieces by local masters such as Juan Antonia Roda and Fernando Botero.

There are festivals held throughout the year in the public parks – from theatre to jazz and dance, so there’s nearly always something on worth seeing.

Eating and drinking

The best of the city’s entertainment is found in the Zona Rosa – the part of the city that draws in the young and the beautiful for great food and glamorous partying. Restaurants open for dinner around 7, and the more upscale ones stay open until after midnight. La Fragrata is one of the hottest venues in town. Specialising in seafood, the dining rooms of this upscale restaurant revolves so you get a view of the whole city during the course of your meal.

Photo: from natalia love

The Golden Temple In Cusco Beckons Questions Regarding Its Creation

According to Wikipedia:

The Coricancha or Qorikancha (from the Quechua words Quri Kancha meaning “Golden Temple”), originally named Inti Kancha (“Temple of the Sun”) or Inti Wasi (“Sun House”), was the most important temple in the Inca Empire, dedicated primarily to Inti, the Sun God. It was one of the most revered temples of the capital city of Cusco.

Drill marks made using bronze chisels?

We wrote an article called Coricancha, The Golden Temple last year. The official tour guides in Cusco will tell you the history of Coricancha begins with the Incas, But does it?

Miro and Ie recently had the honor of visiting the sacred site of Qorikancha again, but this time we were accompanied by archeologist and researcher Brien Foerester.  Together, we looked closely at the stones that were said to have been created by the Incas only 500 years ago using bronze chisels and stones tools.

(Or are we witnessing some sort of ancient machine fabrication?)

The stone scattered about in the Qorikancha were revealed after an earthquake. The intricate stone modifications look as if they were produced by instruments other than chisels, perhaps drills and saws of some sort? The Inca didn’t have the ability to make these modifications into the stones with their bronze chisels. Then who did

 

What do you think?

 

               

 

A Re-Look at Peru’s Qorikancha: Stone Work Made with a Bronze Chisel

The Coricancha or Qorikancha (from the Quechua words Quri Kancha meaning “Golden Temple”), originally named Inti Kancha (“Temple of the Sun”) or Inti Wasi (“Sun House”), was the most important temple in the Inca Empire, dedicated primarily to Inti, the Sun God. It was one of the most revered temples of the capital city of Cusco. (from Wikipedia).

Drill marks made using bronze chisels?

The official tour guides in Cusco will tell you the history of Coricancha begins with the Incas, But does it? We recently had the honor of visiting the sacred site of Qorikancha for our second time, but this time we were accompanied by archeologist and researcher Brien Foerester.  Together, we looked closely at the stones that were said to have been created by the Incas only 500 years ago using bronze chisels and stones tools.

(Or are we witnessing some sort of ancient machine fabrication?)

The stone scattered about in the Qorikancha were revealed after an earthquake. The intricate stone modifications look as if they were produced by instruments other than chisels, perhaps drills and saws of some sort? The Inca didn’t have the ability to make these modifications into the stones with their bronze chisels. Then who did?

 

             

 

 

Peru: Top Ten Simple Albeit Great Things About Cusco

There’s so many things to love about Cusco – here are ten simple but beautiful things to get there.

1: Food.

Cuisine in Cusco is one of the best things about it. The variety, diversity, presentation, taste, all of it.

2: Weather.

Many people will tell you that the weather in Cusco sucks. I disagree. There’s no better feeling than listening to the rain as you drift off or getting under the covers with a book.

3:  Stray Llamas:

You got to love ‘em, they’re freaking llamas.

4: Bakeries:

Brownies cakes and cookies, oh my!

5: Mamitas:

The women in the market are extremely friendly (most of the time), and make going to the market at least 10 times better.

6: Almost no sun.

Because getting sun burnt sucks.

7:  Alpaca sweaters and beanies.

Sure, they may be touristy, but it feels like a giant layer of warm marshmallow on your body. Oh god the softness…

8:  It’s quiet (most of the time, at least).

Being in a quiet area lets you get more work done and relax, although sometimes it’s too quite, and you feel like Slenderman is watching you as you sleep.

9: It’s safe.

This one is obvious, as I’m almost never in the mood to be robbed.

10: Llamas.

I know I already said llamas, but c’mon. It’s like if you crossed a giraffe and a pony, and then gave it the ability to spit really far and made it have eyelashes. What’s not to love?

By Miro Siegel

Peru’s Pisac Botanical Gardens, a Village Oasis

These photos were shot in Pisac’s Botanical Gardens, an oasis located in the middle of the village.

       

 

Meet the Largest Collection of Elongated Skulls in Peru

Miro and I first came into contact with Brien Foerester and the amazing elongated skulls of Paracas Peru in December of 2011 when we visited the Paracas History Museum.

From that day on, I have become fascinated with the enigma of the skulls here in Peru and have visited every museum containing one of these enigmas as often as I could. In summer of 2012, I volunteered to travel to Paracas to photograph the skulls so they would have a documentation of the skulls in the collection of this private museum. The Paracas History Museum is the home of the largest collection of elongated skulls in Peru. 

 

Discovering the Elongated Skulls of Paracas

The Paracas Peninsula was excavated by the great Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello in the 1920s. He found a series of tombs as well as the remains of a small underground village. Today most of these graves are filled with sand blown in from the nearby ocean. It was here that Tello found dozens of these strange skulls.

He believed the people of Paracas were related to another Andean culture, the Chavin culture, which is thought to have originated more than 3000 years ago. The only problem with this assumption is that no elongated skulls have been found within the remains of the Chavin culture. What was the genetic history of the Paracas culture?

Worldwide Phenomena

Today about one dozen skulls can be viewed at the Paracas History Museum, which features artifacts from Inca and pre-Inca cultures. Until the elongated skulls of Paracas are more intensely researched, their origin and development will remain unexplained. Brien Foerester has taken samples from some of the skulls to try to gain more insight into their origin.

DNA Testing & Funding

Funding is required to conduct these tests, 700 US per carbon 14 and more for DNA and these dedicated researchers are actively raising money to pay for this expensive testing  By obtaining at least one sample of each from every geographic location we can map where these people lived, when they existed, and where their ancestors came from.

Peru’s Village of Andahuaylillas for Andean Rituals

The village of Andahuaylillas is located an hour outside of Cusco and was our  recent destination one Sunday afternoon. Although our main reason for visiting Andahuaylillas was to visit the Museo Andean Rituals that was said to contain the remains of an alien-human hybrid mummy, we found the beauty and quaintness of this little town absolutely endearing.

Andahuaylillas was founded around 1572 reduced by the Viceroy of Peru, Francisco de Toledo.

Andahuaylillas main attraction is a humble looking church, called the “Church of San Pedro of Andahuaylillas” known throughout Peru. The picturesque colonial church The church was built to impress and impress it did – and does. It is sometimes called the Sistine Chapel of the Andes because of the extent and quality of its frescoes.

The history of that church is not benign. Using a common form of intimidation throughout the new world, by the Conquistadores build this grand church in 1631, as a statement of conquest on top of the base of an ancient Inca temple. This actual church was one of the first attempts in this area to impress and convert the pre-Spanish inhabitants of Peru.

Although we did not spent anytime inside the church, we found the history interesting. The town itself stole my heart with it’s quaint beauty and welcoming personality.

 

 

 

 

A Dedication to the Victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

Listening to the sound of the rain, and sitting safely with my son, I am reminded of how I felt, 13 and a half years ago, as I watched the news channels report on the Columbine High School shootings. Then, I was living in Los Angeles California and I was holding my two week old baby and felt so uneasy about bringing this new little soul into the world.

I made many promises to Miro as a result of that event, among many, I promised my son he would always feel loved, heard, understood and safe. I have done my best to meet that promise and part of my commitment to him has been to lead a very conscious life together, which has taken us away from the culture we once knew.

I watched the events of Columbine repeat, different  story, different location, different circumstances. But the same form of unconscious behavior resulting with a violent ending.  And this time, as the details were being revealed little by little about what perpetuated on the grounds of that Connecticut elementary school, I recognized  once again, the unconsciousness of humanity.

This post is not written to point fingers, make  political statements about health care, gun control or school security. But today, I think of the children.  I think entirely of the children and families who live in the culture of unconsciousness who will likely witness a repeat experience again and again, until we collectively wake up as human beings.

And now,  I am feeling an overwhelming sense of compassion for ALL of the people effected by this tragedy, especially the children. As we know, violence perpetuates more violence, and I wanted to contribute to the solution, not stir up more dust surrounding the problems.

And so this morning I woke up, thinking about the children all over the world. And I thought about a children’s book my son used to have and wanted to opportunity to add  healing energy to the world. I was given a copy of this book when I was expecting him and have read it to him countless times throughout his life. I have always loved reading children’s stories and wanted to share my joy to the world in this way.

This is a reading The Little Soul & the Sun, by A Children’s Parable by Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations With God. I have no special permission to read this book, however, I was inspired to make this recording in honor of the children and families effected by this event. I dedicate the reading of this inspirational book to the children of the United States and around the world, in hopes that they can connect with own inner compassion, forgiveness and start  healing.

 

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