Getting High In The Andes (above 16,000 feet)

Getting High in the Andres, Part 2

           I get asked by the Calvin students we brought to Arequipa for the semester how I spend my time. I am in the process of writing, revising, and publishing about my past forty years (1972-2012) digging, researching, teaching, and doing photography in and about the Middle East. I have been blessed to be able to travel, to work, do research and photography in twelve countries around the Mediterranean Sea.  I dig the Bible; so where Abraham … Jesus, Paul, John … traveled, I’ve been following. 

            I have been blessed to be able to write up an Old and New Testament Bible curriculum, and that company plus other publishing houses and benefactors have helped finance repeated trips to the lands of the Bible stories. Much of this was due to the skills of my son, Joel, and together we have been able to produce and to market thousands of images including in CD-ROMs, DVDs, and Videos. Plus, thousands of our images have been published by numerous publishing companies in various countries. My digging work in the Middle East may be finished, but I am hoping to produce several volumes about the Bible stories from my perspective as an archaeologist and as a teacher of the stories. So, I brought my work with me. Already, Amazon.com sells several books I’ve published, and I am now publishing books via Kindle, Smashword.com, and I plan to publish paperbacks via CreatSpace.com as well.

            However, I have long been fascinated with the Mayan and Incan cultures, and one of the first things that I did here in Arequipa was to visit the museums that have Pre-Incan and Incan artifacts. I plan to post some of these images in my next post. I also attempted to join an excavation at a beautiful Incan site; however, travel is not so easy here. The excavation by bus was hours from Arequipa and the team stays in a hotel near the site. They have now finished and returned home, but I hope to establish contact with them again by June 2014 (Ogala, we plan to return next summer again). They plan to have an excavation closer to Arequipa next year.   

            I get to travel with the Calvin students and take the pictures. They need to listen to their professors (or guides), but I get to move around in the background and take the shots. Some of these are used for the Calvin blog (adventure-in-peru.blogspot.com), on various student Facebook pages and on my Facebook page. Now, my story and pictures will also be posted on my blog site:  http://nealbierling.blogspot.com
Paz y Shalom y Salaam
Neal Bierling