I spent the weekend following tour guides through ruins! Yay! Okay, so that's a slight exaggeration.... I don't follow very well, so it was more like me and the guide at the front of the group, with me asking the guide questions as we climb mountains, leaving the group in the dust because apparently I climb ruin-covered mountains faster than average people (and guides do it all the time so it would seem they have the endurance for it). Go figure.
I have so many pictures of me on top of mountains....
On Saturday, I woke up bright and early so I could join up with a group that was going on a one day Sacred Valley tour. First stop, Urubamba River Valley, complete with Sacred Urubamba River.
Please not the sacred river to my left.
Then immediately off to Pisac! Pisac, as far as we know, was an agricultural hub, as well as a military station, a central hub on the Inca Trail (able to access both Bolivia/Columbia and Cusco easily from that point), and the largest burial ground in the Inca Civilization (with over 3000 mummies in the cliff faces). It's a city on top of a mountain with terraces up the entire face of the mountain and a sheer drop off behind.
Then to Ollantaytambo, reportedly the crowning jewel of cities in the Inca Empire. It was the royal estate of Emperor Pachacuti who conquered the region. The site houses the most amazingly beautiful, perfect Incan stone work I've ever seen.
And to make it even better, the quarry where the granite came from is 8miles away, on the other side of a mountain ridge. The workers brought the stones over on log rollers (similar to the construction of the pyramids of Egypt), except, because they were climbing mountains to do it, archeologists estimate it took 3months to get one stone from the quarry to the site. They also estimate it took 15 people per ton of stone (and the largest stone weights about 90 tons, meaning it took about 1000 people to pull this rock from the quarry to the site).
While it has terraces (indicating an agricultural component, however, this site is believed to be mostly spiritual. This is because it's construction and alignment line up with sunrise sun rays during the summer and winter solstices. Around the main section of ruins is the city of Ollantaytambo, built by Pachacuti (still original for the most part). In the face of the mountain across from the ruins, the Inca carved two faces, to honor their most important god and the soldiers of their empire. This cliff face is also where the storage houses for their crops were built.
Can you find the two faces in this mountain's facade?
From Ollantaytambo, I was on my own. I actually climbed this ruin site twice, because I could and because the rain scared off most of the tourists, so I could go get better pictures! In the evening I caught my train to Aguas Calientes (the hot springs town at the base of the mountain housing Machu Picchu). This place is an awful tourist trap and I was happy to go straight to bed once I got there....
On Sunday, I had to be at the entrance to Machu Picchu at 7am. When I got up there, there was nothing visible but the misty cloud sitting on top of the mountain. As soon as we began our tour, however, the mist began to part in spots, and the ruins began appearing through the mist before being enveloped again a few minutes later. The mountains surrounding the ruins did this as well, peaking out the top of the clouds. It was an absolutely majestic view, and I could definitely understand why coming early was so strongly recommended. In total, I spent 6 hours at Machu Picchu, between our tour, wandering and climbing amongst the buildings, drawing, and a hike out to the Inca Bridge (beautiful but scary looking narrow bridge along side a cliff face on one of the Inca's many traveling routes).
Team Darcy! "Follow me friends, I show you something special."
Inca Bridge
Spent a few hours, sitting in the shade (apparently misty clouds wear off your sunscreen and don't go away until after you realize the sun is burning you through the mist, so at that point I wanted nothing to do with the sun), reading in Aguas Calientes before catching my train back to Cusco. On the train I had the unusual experience of sitting next to a tour guide who spoke 6 languages, and I talked to him about regional textiles and my Fulbright project and archeology for most of the train ride. I was also introduced to the group of Lebanese women he was guiding for the weekend (what a crazy bunch!) who were textile specialists of some sort and were affiliated with the Museum of Art and Craft in LA. Didn't get home until 8:30 that evening.... Yay for long days of adventure!
And now, go HERE for my flickr to see more pics, because I took hundreds and managed to sort it down to 70-ish?
Gorgeous landscape! Thanks for sharing.
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