Comments on: Trekking to Machu Picchu

By: Dave Tanney

Dave Tanney — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:11:15 +0000

I trekked through out the Andes in 1969, including Machu Picchu. I was the best time of my life.

By: turvyc

turvyc — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:48:21 +0000

I can verify that they were definitely caterpillars . . . I remembered my basic entomology enough to identify the 3 real legs and the other “fake” legs. Besides, they were moving quite slowly. Perhaps I have unwittingly stumbled upon an entomological discovery of yet-to-be-plumbed significance!

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:13:14 +0000

yes cool hat.

By: Dad

Dad — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:05:31 +0000

P.S. Cool hat!

By: Dad

Dad — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:03:59 +0000

Hey Colin, it’s Dad with some belated comments on your excellent appreciation of insect aesthetics! It sounds like an entOmologist’s paradise, though– wish I was there! I can hardly wait to see the rest of the photos. Comments on the ones in this blog: The long-tusked 4-incher is a male Dobsonfly. This is a great sighting, they are usually nocturnal. The larvae are aquatic predators called Hellgrammites much loved by flyfisherfolk (I’ve named our little wooden boat the Hellgrammite, though I haven’t yet written it on the hull). The huge jaws on the male are used to hang onto the female during copulation—must be some crazy sex to need vice grips like that. Actually, they are so long that they have rather poor leverage, and can’t inflict much of a bite—something like an earwig’s pinchers, I imagine. The caterpillar cluster is a tougher one. I’m not even sure they’re caterpillars—they also look something like millipedes in your photo. If they are caterpillars, they may be related to, or at least have the same behaviour as, the Processionary Caterpillar, which makes long nose-to-tail columns of marching caterpillars on their way to their pupation site. I could not find anything on your guys online, and I’ve sent the photo around to friends-in-the-know, who turned out to be, if not foes-in-the-know, at least friends-in-the-not-know. Could be something trickles in over time. Sorry! Anyway, keep those blogs coming, I live, eat and breathe them.

By: turvyc

turvyc — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:16:14 +0000

I do admit that I didn’t take the most rigorous linguistic approach to this Quechuan tidbit, but in my defence, the information is directly from the mouth of a native Quechua speaker.

By: Andreas

Andreas — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:14:33 +0000

Sorry to correct the explanation of the spelling and meaning of Machu Picchu, but since you are a Linguist, I believe it relevant.
The original Quechua spelling is interpreted by Linguists: PiX-chu, PeeK-chu, or PEEH-chu; there is no certainty as to which is correct, because the Incas had no written language. The present spelling Machu Picchu was adopted by Spanish language speakers not familiar with the Inca sounds of X, K or H. PEE-chu is the shin bone in Quechua, and Penis is Ullu. Very good Blog though.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:26:40 +0000

turvy you are without a doubt the most awesome person i have ever met. i can not WAIT till you get back…. oh NO!!! this just crossed my mind….. when you get back, no more incredible blogging!?!?!? What will everyone DO!?!?!!? will you continue to write in here anyways after you get back? for your faithful readers who are inspierd by your work? you have such a way with words, you make everything sound facinating. ok, but seriously..

Pee-choo!?!?!?!?!?!? that is the best and most useful thing i have heard in AGES. i SHANT forget it, mi amigo.