No Thai or Laotian restaurants in our small town, so I finally attempted making khao soi — a spicy coconut curry with crispy onion, pickled scallions, wilted basil, Thai peppers, and rice noodles — from scratch. 

Yum.

Mark McElroy

First taste of chicha morada, the slightly-sweet non-alcoholic beverage made from purple corn. An instant favorite!

Welcome to Cusco, Peru. (11,00 feet above sea level.)

Our home for one night in the Sacred Valley. Sunset.

Early morning light, Aguas Calientes, Peru.

This oval stone dates to at least Incan times, a symbol of the egg or seed of life, associated with the Patchamama, or Earth Mother. The Cusco Cathedral has demoted it to a doorstop, but locals who remember the old ways still leave the occasional offerings.

Flying toward thunderstorms near Atlanta.

Order iced tea when traveling, and you never know what you’ll get. Here’s my husband, Clyde, who didn’t expect his lemongrass and ginger tea to come with a head of foam. Cusco, Peru, July 2022.

Shades of the Andes. Snapped during our flight to Lima from Cusco.

So much random beauty in Peru. This is an iPhone shot, snagged out of the window of a bus from Ollantaytambo to Cusco in July of 2022.

Self-portrait, me and Clyde, Cusco, Peru. 

Morning market, meat vendor, El Salvador district shanty town, Lima, Peru. Ask to buy the chicken, and they will split one and show its bright organs to show that it is fresh.

Shanty towns (slums, really) of Lima, Peru, house 70% of the city’s 11 million inhabitants. This photo was taken in the village of “Potato,” in the El Salvador district, where the shanties spread as far as the eye can see. 

Mama Rosita’s house in Ollantaytambo, Peru, is an Inca residence, occupied since the 1500’s. This is the skull of her grandfather, whose shrine guarantees he will watch over Rosita and her home. We visited Rosita in July of 2022.

Me, on the wrong side of the camera, with the husband.

Underground swimming hole in dead of winter.


Rare, sweet little snow came to our Mississippi home last night. 

My greatest regret about our trip to Cuba was that it took place during my “Discovering HDR” phase. But this one shot remains a favorite from this this 2016 adventure.

Full Moon, August 22, 2021. Hand-held through binoculars. 

Not a great photo, but a great memory. All my life, I have refused to swim in public because I’ve been ashamed of how I look. Here, today, that changed, and I took a swim. How much I’ve missed! They said this lake has healing properties, and for me, it did.

Celebrating Clyde’s 60th, Athens, Greece