Machu Picchu

The Sacred Valley of Peru

Ruins, Ruins and More Ruins

Just outside of Cusco, Peru lies the Sacred Valley, which
was the traditional homeland of the Inca Empire. I
definitely got my inner archaeology geek on as we
visited eight different ruins, all different from each
other in form and function.


Sacsayhuamán - Located just above Cusco, it served as
a fortress, with some stones weighing over 70 tons!


Q'enqo - Servied as a sacred sanctuary to fertility


Q'enqo


Puka Pukara - Used as a road control, administrative center, military
headquarters and food warehouse


Puka Pukara


Tambomachay - A resort for Inca royalty that included baths


Tambomachay


Chinchero - A farming center with large terraces


Moray - a huge number of circular concentric farming terraces, each
with it's own microclimate!


Moray


Ollantaytambo - An example of Pre-Columbian urban planning, is
one of the few places the Incas defeated the Spanish Conquistadors


Ollantaytamo


Pisac - A huge amount of farming terraces. We took a several
hour long hike through these ruins that kicked our butts at
over 11,000 feet in elevation.


Pisac


Pisac

Hiking the Andes

Yesterday we spent most of the afternoon hiking
through the Inca ruins in Pisac. Little did we
know that it was going to take hours and hours...
sometimes on all fours, scrambling up and down
the trail at almost 11,000 feet elevation. Of
course, when we were done, it was quite satisfying,
but I am pretty sure none of us felt that way while
the hike was in progress.

Pretty Amazing

Today we saw some pretty amazing things.
After literally seeing four weddings and a
funeral in the tiny town of Chinchero, we
headed to the Inca ruins at Moray. The only
known circular terraces in the region, it is
believed that they were used for agricultural
experiments since each of the terraces has its
own microclimate!


On the way back to Cusco, we stopped at a way
out of the way place called Salineras. Here
was the one of the strangest operations I´ve
ever seen. A huge salt gathering/producing
site that dates back to the Incas and is still
in use today. The workers fill the ¨boxes¨
with a naturally salty spring water and when the
water evaporates, they gather the salt and
package it for sale. Our driver, Carlos, bought
40 kilos of it for his own use and to give to
relatives since it´s about half the price of
salt in Cusco. He gave us a kilo as well. What
he´s going to do with 40 kilos of salt, I have
no idea!

During the entire trip today we were right next to
some of the highest peaks of the Andes in Peru
with peaks all over 5000 meters. Pretty specatacular
scenery.

Sacsayhuamán

We visited four Incan ruins today in the
Cusco area. The largest and most impressive
was Sacsayhuamán (proununced ¨Sexy Woman¨).
The fact that it was built of stones larger
than some houses was truly amazing. And
all of it built totally with man power.
It served as a fortress for the Inca in their
battles against the Spanish and when it
eventually fell, pieces of it were carted
away to help build the city of Cusco.

Cusco

We arrived very early this morning at the
ancient Incan/Colonial city of Cusco. It´s
high in the Andes and the altitude is a problem
for many but doesn´t seem too bad since we´ve
spent the last several months in the higher
levels in Ecuador. Our friend Liz is joining
us later this afternoon and we´ll be here the
next ten days, exploring the city, very old
Incan ruins, the Sacred Valley and what we´re
looking forward to the most...Machu Picchu.