The start of our Peruvian journey was blessed by the arrival of a really good friend of ours: one Keith Holleman. It’s amazing that he was able to show up at all, seeing as he has a 1 year old romping around his house and no vacation time at work. Regardless, we were thrilled to have him join us for a week and were thankful that his wife Julie graciously gave him a kitchen pass! As a bonus, Keith has promised to write a special guest blog entry of his time in Peru and as such I’ll keep this post relatively short. So if you’re looking for the usual color commentary: stay tuned. This should be good (No weaseling out of this one Keith)!
We started off our trip in Lima, but quickly headed south to Cusco where most of the tourist action is. Cusco is a quaint little town high up in the Andes mountains at around 11,000 ft. It’s famous because it was originally the capital of the Inca empire in the pre-Columbian times before Francisco Pizarro. There are numerous Inca buildings and ruins in the city and the surrounding Sacred Valley, so Cusco was a great base of operations for exploring and learning about Inca culture. While there we saw a few ruins worth mentioning:
Saqsayhuaman: This ruin was actually on the outskirts of town, so we were able to walk to it pretty easily. The amazing thing about Saqsayhuaman is that a large part of the defending wall is constructed with massive blocks of solid stone. It’s mind boggling to think that the Incas build this fortress without iron tools, beasts of burden, or any type of machinery whatsoever. The civil engineering here is superb… with 300 ton stones fitting together with millimeter precision. I’m not sure that many modern buildings can say that. The Inca’s construction methods were primitive but surprisingly effective. Holes were drilled in existing stone using wet sand and wooden poles… basically sanding down a part of the rock until there was a hole. Several holes were aligned to the shape of the cut, and then dry wood was inserted into the holes and saturated with water. As the wood slowly expanded, the stone cracked into the desired cut shape. Amazing.
Pisac: This site was deeper into the Sacred Valley, so we had to catch a cab here. Pisac is a fortress built high up on a peak overlooking the valley. The views from here are pretty spectacular… almost rivaling Machu Picchu itself. There are many citadel and temple structures here, but I think the coolest aspect of this site was the numerous terraces that were used bu the Inca for agriculture. These terraces are in great condition still, and are widespread… almost reaching the valley floor. The main citadel was a bit of an adventure to explore because we could not figure out how to get in. After climbing a few walls and getting lost in the labyrinth of rooms we arrived at the Temple of the Sun to take in the views… simply beautiful. I’m not exactly sure how high up we were above the valley floor, but it must have easily been around 4,000 ft. On the opposite ridge, we could see a sheer cliff riddled with holes and caves: The graves of thousands of Inca nobles, buried next to this sacred site.
From Cusco we headed deeper into the Sacred Valley to the place that everyone comes to Peru to see: Aguas Calientes. Ok, just kidding… Everyone comes to see Machu Picchu, but to do so, one must go through the overpriced and insect ridden town of Aguas Calientes. We took a train here from Poroy (apparently you can’t catch it from Cusco anymore) with the plan of staying overnight and beating the crowds of day-trippers the next day. Or so we thought. Heading out at 5am, there was already a line for the shuttle busses that went around the block. So much for beating the crowds.
Machu Picchu: Since we were up early and there are strict quotas for its entrance, our first target was Huayna Picchu: the tall peak that overlooks the main site. This was a pretty sketchy climb, with steep, narrow stairs and some cables here and there to help you keep your balance. The ascent was well worth it though, as the panoramic views of Machu Picchu were breathtaking. From here we made a very long decent to the Gran Caverna… also known as the Temple of the Moon. The funny thing here is that no one is really sure what this shrine was used for, as it’s really small and quite out of the way from the rest of the city complex. It’s quite a bit lower in elevation than Machu Picchu, so my guess is it was used as a place to grow some specific types of crops… who knows. The main site itself was spectacular if you discounted the throngs of tour groups that pretty much took over the place in the afternoon. I’m glad we didn’t try to catch the train and visit the site in the same day.
Here are the two sets of photos to look through:
http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Cusco
http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/MachuPicchu
… and a Map of where Cusco is in Peru: Map_of_Cusco_Peru
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