Qorikancha was one of the most important Incan structures, The Temple of the Sun, around which the Convento de Santo Domingo del Cusco was later built. The Incan parts were the most interesting though once again the cloisters were beautiful.
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| Convento de Santo Domingo |
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| Incan wall in cloister |
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| Model of Incan village |
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| Ceiling of cloister walkway |
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| Cloister arches and tower of Convento |
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| Astrological painting of what the Incans made of the stars in the heavens |
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Painting representing Cusco (and, in particular, the Temple of
the Sun) as the center of the Incan world |
Next stop was San Blas which is known as the chic/hip part of the city with the church in the square and lots of little shops and coffee spots. We relaxed at one of them, Glenna with her first coffee with Baileys and me with pineapple/passion fruit juice. In the square we saw women dressed in traditional costume each with a llama. They want tourists to take their picture and pay them something for it. That always annoys me a little, but I know they have to make money somehow, so I applaud them if they can get tourists to do that. We also saw the police chasing them off though, so it must not really be allowed.
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| Rooftops of San Blas |
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| Bell tower of San Blas church |
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| Typical San Blas shop |
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| Row of San Blas shops and plaza from upper street |
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| Fancy street sign |
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| One of the narrow streets of San Blas |
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Woman in traditional dress
with her llama |
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| Betty with her drink at the coffee shop |
On the way back down to the Plaza de Armas area, we passed a long Incan wall. You know it’s Incan if the stones are fit together with no mortar, particularly ones where the stones are odd shapes. I had read that you can’t even fit a piece a paper between the stones. Glenna wasn’t terribly impressed, given what Europe, for example, was building at the same time (16th century), but on a later trip past this wall I showed her that indeed my piece of paper didn’t go anywhere. That evening Glenna enjoyed the sauna in our hotel after a meal of chicharones with tacu tacu sauce.
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| The Incan wall along the route |
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| The chicharones |
Friday was our day to ride through the Sacred Valley on our way toward Machu Picchu. After a great breakfast at the Marriott, we set out in a taxi which would take us to Ollantaytambo where we got the train to Aguas Calientes. Our driver did not speak English, but that was never a problem for us anywhere. I had heard Glenna speak Spanish elsewhere, but she really excelled in Peru. She did a fantastic job of understanding and making herself understood. One guide complimented her on her Spanish and asked her where she had learned it (Honduras—five mission trips during college).
It took awhile to get out of the bowl that Cusco is in. We climbed to 12,000 feet (we kept checking with an app on Glenna’s phone). Actually the countryside was not all that gorgeous, but it was interesting to see the little settlements along the way. We saw lots of llamas and alpacas. It took awhile for us to distinguish the two. Llamas have a longer neck, and alpacas are much fuzzier. We never saw the vicuna, the one with the softest wool.
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| Andes mountains in the Sacred Valley |
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| Mountains with valley and settlement below |
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| Settlement in the Sacred Valley |
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| A fuzzy alpaca |
Almost every house and barn had a political sign painted on it since they had a general election this year. Maybe they make a little money this way. Would you believe that the surnames of the two candidates running in the presidential election were Fujimori and Kuczynski?
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| One of the political signs we saw painted on a building |
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| Another array of political signs |
We turned off the main road onto one that was just stones, sometimes passing trucks on a road which sure looked like one-lane. We stopped first at Moray which looks like an amphitheater, beautifully laid out and huge. This place was actually a series of agricultural terraces where the Incans experimented with growing crops. We learned much more about it from our guide at Machu Picchu. They experimented with crops grown at various heights and at various angles to the sun. After they learned what they could here, they put it into practice at other places.
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| View from above the Moray agricultural terraces |
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| Here you can see the steps leading from one terrace to another |
Our next stop was Maras which was an amazing site from above. You see a series of white rectangles, joined by stone walkways. These are salt pans where rain has been caught in these large pans and the water has eventually evaporated, leaving the salt. When we got up close, Glenna walked around and even on the pans. They are solid. Naturally they sell salt there. Evidently this salt isn’t used for eating but rather for bathing and medicinal purposes. Glenna tasted it and said it was really salty. I touched the crystals, and they were very rough.
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| The Maras salt pans from above |
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| Getting closer |
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| Closeup of the individual pans |
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| Glenna on the walkway |
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| Three Peruvian ladies observing the pans as we observed them |
We drove through Urubamba, one of the large valley towns, but didn't stop because of time. Strangely enough, we started to see auto rickshaws that are ubiquitous in India. They are small and economical either for carrying passengers or goods. They are so practical that I’m surprised that more countries don’t use them. As in India, we saw them in many colors and styles of decoration.
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| Not a very good picture, but the autorickshaw is there on the right |
We got to Ollantaytambo with just enough time to gobble down our lunch. Too bad because it was really good—sopa de criolla (noodles, sausage and egg in a broth which we had subsequently), taquenos and quesadillas. Glenna tried chinchmorada (lemonade with corn beer) and liked it. Then it was off to the train station where we left our taxi driver. He asked to pick us up the next day when we got back to Cusco and we agreed. That has happened to us many places; I guess a certain job is a good thing. It really involves a lot of trust on both sides.
We took the Vistadome train to and from Aguas Calientes. It has large windows which extend into the ceiling of the car.
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| VistaDome train in Ollantaytambo station |
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| Interior of train--lots of photo opportunities |
The views along the way were a little more spectacular than they had been in the taxi. Here we were traveling on a track with mountains on either side and along the Urubamba River all the way. It got to seem all the same after awhile.
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| We ran along side the Urubamba River the whole way |
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| Glenna looking up from her journal to look out the window |
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| Mostly mountains along the way |
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| It got cloudy later, almost obscuring the mountains |
But the train was very comfortable, and they fed us interesting food, one way a quinoa pizza and the other direction a quinoa fruit tart. On the way back we had a style show through the aisle from two of the staffers. The guy realized that this was faintly ridiculous and always had a bemused expression on his face. The woman had really interesting outfits, all of which were convertible to something else, in one case from a top to a skirt. It was really fun, and they got a huge hand at the end.
Aguas Calientes is a tiny town but really was bustling. Our B&B was all uphill from everywhere else we had to go, a real killer for me. I had to make the walk several times. We met our guide for Machu Picchu that night; he was friendly and very understandable.
Saturday was the big day and started early again—4 AM. You stand in line at the bus stop (and we were way back even though we were really early) to get a bus to take you up the mountain to Machu Picchu. You can’t believe how many buses there were to take everyone up. It really was a very efficient process, going and coming. Most people want to go early to see the sunrise. Glenna had been concerned for days because the prediction was for rain. We were so lucky. As the bus took us up the mountain, we saw patches of blue. When we got all the way up, we had sun and clear views. And it poured in the afternoon when we were back down.
It is hard to describe your first view of Machu Picchu. After passing the entry point guides always take visitors up, up, up to the Hut of the Caretaker for the iconic view of the entire place. It is probably akin to getting the first glimpse of the Treasury at Petra. That climb was the hardest thing I did on the whole trip. There were lots and lots of steps, and many of them were high steps. I held on to the mountain as I climbed. But you have to do it. You have to see that view. We had seen patches of blue on the way up in the bus. When we got up to the top, the sun came out. Glenna was thrilled. And, of course, took tons of pictures.
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| The iconic first view with Huayna Picchu ("young peak" as opposed to Machu Picchu "old peak" for which the place was named) in the background |
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| A closer view of the right side |
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| Betty at the entrance to Machu Picchu city |
All during the tour, our guide told us about the Incans and about the place. The Incans had no written language, so experts can really only speculate on the purpose of Machu Picchu—rather like Stonehenge. It was surely an astronomical and religious place. They worshipped the sun as father, moon as mother, and stars as children. There is a giant stone sundial on a high spot which, of course, is situated so that the shadow falls a certain place on the summer and winter solstices. There is a building called the Temple of the Sun which has two openings into which the sun shines on the altar at those two moments. There is one room which was previously thought to be the kitchen because of two stone indentions in the floor. The current wisdom is that when water was in those bowls, the people would touch the heavens by putting their finger on the reflection of a star.
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| The sundial |
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| Temple of the Sun |
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| The two pools where they could touch the stars |
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| inside the Temple of the Three Windows |
Another theory we heard was that MP was a place of learning where young people came for nine months or so and then went back to their homes. There was strict separation of men and women. The king came only twice a year—of course during the solstices.
It was built from 1432 to 1533 from rock that was right there. It took so long because they could only work during the dry season. One slip maneuvering those huge slabs of stone during the wet season and you would fall off the mountain. Ironically, in 1532 the Spanish led by Pizarro found the king’s brother Atahuallpa enjoying the hot springs at Cajamarca before marching to Cusco to overthrow him, thus starting the conquest of the Incan people by the Spanish. Machu Picchu was hidden away and known only to a few peasant locals; it was thus lost to history for almost 400 years. On July 24, 1911 Hiram Bingham, a professor of South American history at Yale, was led to a very overgrown MP by some locals. He wrote a book; thus the world knows about Machu Picchu. They removed all the trees except three, so today we have the wonderful view of the whole place.
There are many buildings in the city. Some of the walls at MP did have mortar or didn’t fit together terribly well. You didn't see that at Cusco because that was the home of the king.
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| Mother and child llamas walking along an imperfect Incan wall |
Many of the buildings are two-story storehouses with slits for aeration. They knew how to grow plants (many varieties of corn, beans, and potatoes), and they knew how to preserve them. There are many agricultural terraces outside the walls on the sides of the mountains.
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| Water conduit used in the 16th century still seeps water |
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| The immense agricultural terraces outside the city walls |
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| Closer view of the terraces |
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| Some llamas chomping on the grass on two levels |
The town was divided into sections—storage, the area for the important people, the sacred area, men’s housing area, women’s housing area, and the ceremonial and dancing area. One of the buildings is the Temple of the Condor, so called because the natural stone was carved into the shape of the head, body and wingspan of a condor, along with the puma and the snake, the important ceremonial animals (sky, earth and underground).
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Nearest the city walls were the storehouses (on the left side), behind them the area for the king and other
important people and behind that the temples in the sacred area. On the right side in the back is the men's area, in front of that the women's area, and nearest the front of the picture the industrial area. The central grassy area is where the ceremonies and dancing took place. |
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| Somewhere in there is a stylized image of a condor |
The whole area is settling, most clearly evidenced in one of the walls of the Temple of the Three Windows which is toppling. Our guide told us that UNESCO is concerned that so many people walking around on the site is hastening its destruction. He said this is the last year that visitors will be able to come all day long.
After the guide finished taking us around and educating us, Glenna decided to climb up again for that view to see if she could get different perspectives with the light changing.
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| Workmen planting blades of grass through the grid |
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| Glenna loves finding spiders |
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| The last view of the city |
I stayed back and waited for her. We then left this remarkable place and went back to Aguas Calientes where we killed time until our scheduled train (and watched the rain from inside). We had morning snack at a French café and later lunch of rellenos and noodle soup. Our previous day’s guide met us at the Cusco train station after our return trip on the Vistadome and took us back to the Marriott.
Sunday was our planned shopping day. We got another taxi who took us to the famous Sunday market at Pisac. But before we got there we first stopped at Sachsayhuaman, another huge Incan place which was partly dismantled by the Spanish to build their houses and churches in Cusco—not to mention they stole all the gold and silver objects. The focus on what is left is the remarkable building method of the Incans that I mentioned above—odd-shaped stones joined with no mortar and no spaces between stones. These stones were massive—the ones too big to cart away. Scientists have speculated that that method of building together with the fact that the walls slope inward has spared them from destruction by numerous earthquakes.
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| Long view of Sachsayhuaman |
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| Closer view of the large stones |
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| And a really close view |
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| Looking through a doorway up the stairs |
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Betty with her hiking poles--which she should
have used at Machu Picchu! |
Our next stop was Q’enqo. This was another Incan structure that was cave-like and which was probably ceremonial. According to the guidebook we should have seen carvings of the puma, condor and llama, but we couldn’t find them. So this site wasn’t so exciting for us.
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| The cave at Q'enqo |
Our guide thought we might to like to stop at Awana Kancha, a place where native crafts are highlighted. We saw the plants from which the Incans got their vivid colors and the natural materials with which they worked. We had been wondering where the bright pink came from, and we saw here that it is from a cactus with something added to it.
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The plants on the right from which the various colors
are derived |
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| The colorful yarns |
Since many of these crafts center around the llama and the alpaca, they had many of these in pens also. They were very friendly and would come right up to us for a pet. Of course, they had a store there also, but it was quite expensive so I only bought something small for my collection of little bits from each country.
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A friendly llama (long neck, smooth skin,
and banana ears)... |
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...and a friendly alpaca (shorter neck,
fuzzier, and smallish ears) |
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They don't look so fuzzy here; they were filthy--and in
contrast to the soft alpaca poncho I purhased |
Soon we were passing by the pretty Pisac valley and then into Pisac and arranging with our taxi driver to pick us up in a couple of hours. It was a good market and we knocked most items off our list. It’s always hard to focus at first in these places; there is just so much to see and the color is so overwhelming. But soon we had made most of the purchases from our lists.
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| The Pisac Valley |
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One of the streets of the market; the colors
were overwhelming |
We had time also to grab a quick freshly-made empanada for lunch.
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| Guinea pigs (cuy) in their enclosure |
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The empanada cafe's menu with the
oven in the background |
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Our empanadas and Glenna's favorite drink--
chincha de morada |
Back in Cusco we went back to San Blas for some more shopping. At the end of the long hill is the Plaza de Armas where we toured the Cathedral. There is a lot of money there; every inch of wall space is covered and there is plenty of silver and gold, obviously very valued commodities in Peru. It was hard to get your bearings inside; the transept was as long as the nave and choir.
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| Downhill from San Blas to the Plaza de Armas |
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| The Catedral through the arches of the Plaza de Armas |
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| The bell in the catedral's tower |
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| We saw lots of flowers (often gladioli) taken to church |
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| The Catedral at night |
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| The very ornate and gold main altar |
Monday began at 4:30, the beginning of our approximately 42 hours without seeing a bed. We flew back to Lima, stowed our suitcases at the left luggage office, and set off for town. Since we hadn’t gotten to see the sites around the Plaza de Armas because of Obama and company on our first day, we headed there first. First stop was Iglesia de San Francisco. That day was a feast day for someone, so there were really long lines to go into the church to get blessed, I guess. That meant that we didn't get to go into the church but did get to go through the convent part which is now a museum. We saw the cloisters, sacristy, refectory and other usual rooms. The refectory had a very Cusco-esque version of the Last Supper with cuy and native vegetables. As we walked around, occasionally there were grates that allowed us to see up into the church. What we saw were white walls and ceiling with red painted along the ribs. I’m sure the effect would have been quite striking had we been able to go in.
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| Iglesia de San Francisco |
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| The crowds lined up to get in |
The pride and joy of the church is the catacombs which are large and immensely interesting. There was trench after trench of bones, all sorted by type—femurs here, tibias there, and skulls elsewhere. They were beautifully laid out, especially the skulls. They were buried whole, one on top of another with lime and sand between them. They decomposed pretty quickly and were then removed and placed in one of the trenches to make room for more bodies. This burial place is the most extensive in South America.
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| Skulls and bones in a nice display |
After lunch we visited Iglesia de Santo Domingo completed in 1535. Here there were lots of decorative tiles in the cloister, so Glenna loved it. The library has more than 25,000 volumes, many of them really old. This church celebrates three saints which seems like a lot from one area. St Martin de Porres was canonized for caring for the poor. Santa Rosa of Lima was the first person to be canonized in the Americas. She ate only bread and wine and died at 31, maybe not surprisingly. She also cared for the poor and sick. And St John Macias did the same. Seems to be a pattern here.
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| Exterior of Iglesia de Santa Domingo |
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| Colorful cloister arches |
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| Glenna against a tiled wall in the cloister |
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| Betty against the same wall |
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| Ceiling and bookshelves in the library |
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| Santa Rosa, one of the three saints associated with Santa Domingo |
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| I just liked Glenna's shoes against the tiled floor |
In the church we walked up into the choir which was in the back to get a wonderful view of the nave. The choir stalls were beautiful. I liked this church; it was much simpler than most of the Peruvian churches.
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| The chapel from the choir above |
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| The beautiful choir stalls |
After spending a few minutes in the Plaza de Armas, we headed back to Miraflores to Mercado Artesenal where we got a few last items.
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| Lima's government palace on the Plaza de Armas |
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| The Catedral also on the Plaza de Armas |
Finally our lists were all checked off. We sat for a long time at a café over our drinks and good frozen tres leches. We stopped at a supermarket; it’s always fun to do that in other countries. I had been bugging Glenna that JR was being shortchanged with all her purchases for others, so she got him some drinks she knew he would like to try.
After a good dinner (the ceviche with shrimp and at last a glass of malbec for me), we headed back to the airport. Our flight wasn’t until 1:50 AM, and the Delta counter wasn’t even open when we got there. I sat with our stuff while Glenna wandered. I nodded, and she told me she wasn’t going to trust me with her stuff again! At the gate we went through another security check. We were told that this was a TSA requirement. I guess our country doesn’t trust Peru’s security check. No wonder; I forgot I had a bottle of water and got through. Back in the US I had to drive from Atlanta back to Columbia almost all of it in driving rain. We had a really nice lunch with JR, and then I headed back to Greenville. Amazingly enough, in all that I didn’t get sleepy. Mind over matter, I guess.
As usual, at our last meal, we listed our impressions and our most and least favorites. My overall impression was that this is a well-run country. We didn’t see as much evidence of poverty as we usually do. And the people were so sweet; that word is really the one that fits. They were unfailingly friendly and helpful. And we never saw anyone raise his voice to anyone else. We also never saw a Peruvian smoking! They are very proud of their Incan heritage and don't seem to have a problem with their Spanish heritage of conquering the Incans and not treating them very well. At that time there was a deliberate symbolic intermarriage of an Incan princess with a prominent Spaniard. That was probably very smart. Today they are a diverse people as evidenced by those last names of the presidential candidates.
For Christmas Glenna gave me a calendar of her flower pictures of Peru. She could have made one of food too!
At the end we always ask ourselves where this trip ranks in the hierarchy of our trips. That’s a hard question to answer usually. But this one was right up there. I’m so glad we went and glad that I survived!
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The highlight of the trip, of course, but there was so
much more too. Great trip. |
