Breathless in the Andes

On Sunday the 30^th of January we arrived in the capital of the Inca Empire, Cuzco, Perú after 26 hours of traveling (we left the hotel in Cartagena at 9:15am on the 29^th and arrived at our B&B in Cuzco just after 11:30am on the 30^th; there were three flights with two long layovers between and a 4.5 hour delay on top of it when the weather was not good for flights in Cuzco!).

Due to exhaustion and hunger, we merely had grilled cheese sandwiches with sweet potato chips and some Mate de Coca (to help prevent altitude sickness) and then slept before a break for a simple dinner and then a full night of sleep.

Our first full day was spent exploring the World Heritage City of Cuzco, taking a few wrong turns, and purchasing our Boleto Turistico General, which grants access to several museums and Inca sites around Cuzco and the Sacred Valley. We actually visited many of the museums that day and got some information on the Inca culture, agriculture, architecture, tools, practices, and weapons as well as a look at some modern and popular art.It was a full day of walking and adjusting to the high altitude (11,600 ft/3400m). Interestingly, ginnie feels pretty much the same shortness of breath she always has when climbing, so maybe her reduced lung capacity wasn’t as effected or she was just drinking more Mate J. We’ll share more about Cuzco in a later post since we still have a lot of exploring to do and want to combine our photos.

On Tuesday, the 1^st of February, we began our tour of Inca archaeological sites by visiting four located just outside the city. We took a taxi to the farthest site, Tambo Machay (5 miles/7.5 km) and then walked our way back through the sites to the city center. It was a very long day and a great workout – all that downhill walking left our calves and buns pretty sore! The sites gave us a glimpse into the incredible and breathtaking architecture and agricultural construction of the Inca and provided some information as to their culture and rituals. An interesting aspect to exploring the Inca sites has been comparing and contrasting to the many Maya sites we have visited. The Maya have their tall, steep sloped structures with thin but tall steps and large courtyards surrounded by temples and homes and, of course, the ball court, while the Inca have many terraces for farming and preventing erosion by mudslides and heavy rains and have perfectly smoothed large granite blocks created by hammering them with smaller pieces of granite. Also, it’s been interesting to note that the only information historians, anthropologists and archaeologists have about the Inca comes from the biased accounts by Spanish conquistadors, the writings of a priest who interviewed Inca after the decimation of their empire and the drawings of an Inca man who was a young boy when the Spanish invaded, so he drew images of life as he experienced it before the conquest. The Inca left no written records and no pictorial graphics displaying their life and culture, unlike the Maya who developed the first writing system in the Americas and had detailed stela depicting their culture and daily activities and ceremonies. We really enjoy all this history and share an interest in learning about such ancient cultures with such impressive histories and advanced technologies, which is a good thing when planning our journeys!

The Inca Empire extended to the far north into Ecuador and as far south as present-day Chile at its peak. Cuzco served as the center of the empire and had well-planned road systems and even a postal system. The Inca became a major power in part due to their roads and their impressive work with granite and building into the mountains. They were able to intimidate simply by the mere fact they could build places like Machu Picchu high in the Andes in a place where heavy rains were common and could cause massive mudslides. One could easily spend several weeks here and still not see everything. It’s a bit unfortunate that all the sites are not advertised or discussed in the tour guides because to just come in, see Machu Picchu and leave would really mean missing out on all there is to learn about the Inca and their short reign.

Our day with the Cuzco sites was fun - we dealt with a few rain showers and spent some time sheltering under the granite walls of Inca buildings in Puka Pukara, a site believed to be a military checkpoint. Once the first showers cleared, we had nice blue skies for our 2-mile walk along the autopista to the next site of Q’enqo, a ritual site where a toad-shaped rock symbolizes fertility and where the Inca did carve some drawings into stone (Anthony thought he saw a llama in one, but second-guessed it and then we saw it highlighted on a postcard in the city!). Just as we arrived at Q’enqo, rain drops began to fall again – just our luck! We rain across the highway to wait under some trees and it quickly cleared enough that we got the next ½ mile to the entrance toSaqsayhuaman, the largest of these sites and possibly also a center for ceremonies with its large circular center.Another little tidbit about this site is that it is actually higher in elevation than Machu Picchu (it’s just not as precariously perched along a mountain edge!). When we reached the road to enter the site, it got much colder and suddenly we were being pelted with hail stones! We found a little overhang by a shop and waited it out. It was a fairly short storm burst and we were able to spend time at the site with no more rain. We stayed for quite a while, resting at different points along the way and trying to capture the impressive structures in photos. We had a dog join us for much of the trip and then went ahead of us into town – we saw him resting on a street wall when we arrived! These dogs are impressive. There is also an overlook of Cuzco that allowed us to view the city from above.

From there, we walked back into the city center and returned to our hostal (these are somewhere in the middle of a hostel and hotel, but we haven’t quite figured out the exact difference, they seem a step above the hostel, and we’ve generally always had a kitchen for our use and common areas, so pretty similar to a hostel but a bit more comfortable for our needs!) for a much-needed rest after all the walking. On Wednesday we again spent time in the city, arranged our travel plans for the coming days, and looked into transportation needs for a later journey to another area of Peru.

On Thursday, we travelled to the village of Ollantaytambo, where we would catch the train to Machu Picchu.We spent two days here exploring the archaeological sites (which are also at a higher altitude than Machu Picchu) in the town and in the nearby area of Moray, as well as visited the Salineras (salt pans). The ruins in Ollantaytambo are the biggest we’d seen to this point – they span the mountainside and include the trademarkterrazas. We watched a National Geographic special Anthony brought on the laptop and learned even more about the Inca, in particular as related to the mystery of Machu Picchu, but it explained a lot about the terrazas and their use in agriculture and supporting the mountain communities.

The ruins in Moray are clearly an agricultural site as they consist of three steep circular terrace structures between large mountains. We’ve read it was an agricultural experimental site. It’s amazing to consider the locations of these structures and the work and effort to put into moving such large granite slabs into place. Not to mention the work that went into the terraces themselves as they are made of three layers to remove water from the top: topsoil atop gravel atop granite and rock which all took the water downward and allowed it to seep into the earth beneath and protect the mountain communities as well as provide water for the crops growing in the topsoil. The Inca were detailed farmers and also tested varying techniques for growing their plants: such things as potatoes, quinua, and maize were staples.

The Salineras are an incredible set of salt pans along another mountainside that we were fortunate enough to visit. We hired a taxi for the day along with a friendly bloke from Ireland and not only enjoyed the site and each other’s company, but also had the pleasure of driving through mountain villages and among the breathtaking Andes. We even saw snow-capped peaks when the clouds broke. Traveling in rainy season has meant we’ve had rain for a bit of time each day, but it’s not been torrential downpours.

We left Ollantaytambo on the PeruRail to Machu Picchu at 9:10am on Saturday, the 5^th and arrived in the very tourist-driven town of Aguas Calientes, now actually referred to as Machu Picchu Town. Everywhere we turned was another pizzeria and because it is low season, people hassle us on the street to come to their restaurant and offer descuentos and free drinks and garlic bread. It’s a bit too much and no one menu looks any better than the next. We ended up eating a mediocre, okay terrible, pizza at one place and feeling mighty disappointed that the highly recommended vegetarian place was closed L Sadly, it started some heavy rains around 5pm and now we are hoping it will just rain a bit and clear itself up for our visit to Machu Picchu in the morning. We’ll give Machu Picchu attention in a separate post; onto our final destination in the Sacred Valley.

After returning to Cuzco, we spent Tuesday the 8^th of February touring the site of Pisaq. We took a 45-minute colectivo bus ride up the mountainside and down again to the town of Pisac where we hopped into a colectivo taxi with two young girls from Germany for the 13 km ride up to the topmost section of the archaeological site.We were greeted by several Inca women selling various crafts. We spent several hours exploring yet another fascinating Inca site and admiring the stonework and construction along the mountainside. We walked all the way back to town where we entered the well-known Pisac market and passed through several stalls of locally crafted items. We only had a glimpse of this quaint town, had we known more when planning we would have certainly taken a night to stay in town and enjoy the quiet, peaceful atmosphere.

We hope you enjoyed this post on the Inca and the beautiful sites surrounding the Sacred Valley (El Valle Sagrado) as much as we enjoyed doing the research to put it together! We know it’s a long one, but we are so fascinated by all we learned and hope you can learn a bit, too.

Since our internet connection is not consistent, we are not sure the Machu Picchu post will get out before moving onto a new area of Peru, so here are some tidbits about where we are off to next:

~it is said to be the best place for Alpaca textiles and merchandise

~it's been named the "Capital folklórica del Perú" (and we'll be there right in the midst of the celebrations of the Feast of the "Virgen de Candelaria."

Paz y Amor!