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

People of Cusco

¡Adiós Perú!

After a long day of traveling, first from
Cusco to Lima, where we´ll find ourselves in
the familiar (3 times now) situation of sleeping
in the airport, we´ll catch a flight at 3AM for
Quito. We´ve really enjoyed our stay in Peru
and maybe someday we´ll be back.

Machu Picchu

We just got back from Macchu Pichu and are waiting
for our train back to Cusco. I can´t find words to
describe how fascinating and moving the ruins were.
I´ll post many photos once we get back to Quito.

Corpus Christi

Since 90% of Peru is Roman Catholic and the
percentage in Cusco is probably higher than
that, Corpus Christi (or Ascension Thursday)
is a pretty big deal here. Tens of thousands
of people packed the Plaza de Armas and it´s
surrounding environs today to watch the local
cathedral host this big event in the Latin
American Catholic world. At times, watching
the processions became claustrophobic. Once,
when there were literally no people within 5
feet of me in any direction, Liz joked that I
could almost feel like I was back in Colorado
with all that wide open space! The people
here though are very devout and it was
definitely interesting to see how Catholicism
has mixed with the local Quechua Indigenous
customs to make a very different form of the
Catholic religion. It seems to work here
though as witness to the throngs of the devoted.

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.