We landed in Santiago around 2:30am. If we were going to wait in an airport, we thought we might as well do it at our destination than in Lima. In hindsight, the Lima airport had a lot more facilities. We picked up some Chilean pesos at the local ATM. The bill Schwartz is holding looks impressive but is worth less than US$17 (the joys of inflation).
We had arranged with Santiago Adventures to have a driver pick us up at 5am, transport us to Valparaiso and give us a tour of the area until the ship was ready for us to check-in for the second leg of the cruise. Jaime Melendez showed up on the dot, settled us in his van and gave us two hours sleep.
After a quick check that the Radiance had arrived, we started our tour in Vina del Mar, the tourist and beach destination of Valparaiso. Although founded in the late 1800s, few old buildings remain due to multiple earthquakes that caused considerable damage.
We greeted the sun at the Qunita Vergara park, originally the estate of the Vergara family. Jose Francisco Vergera founded the city of Vina del Mar in 1874 and resided in the Palacio Vergara, rebuilt by his daughter Blanca Vergara de Errázuriz after the 1906 earthquake. Her grandfather, Salvador Alvarez, brought back plants and trees from all over the world to grace the park.
Vina del Mar has nice beaches, but only for sun-bathing. The surf is usually too rough for swimming. The area has the usual tourist features, like caleches. We caught one of the horses having a hearty breakfast.
Around the area are a number of very modern hotels, as well as the more traditional Hotel O'Higgins, which gave Jamie an opportunity to relate the story of Bernardo O'Higgins. O'Higgins was an Irishman who, along with the Argentinian Jose de San Martin, liberated Chile from Spanish rule in 1818. As a result, plazas and streets named after O'Higgins are in every town and city in Chile.
Valparaiso managed to retain many of their historical buildings. The main plaza was dominated by a statue of Arturo Plat, a Chilean frigate captain who died early in the War of the Pacific (1879-1884) in which Chile defeated Bolivia and Peru. In the process, it gained access to rich resources and also cut off Bolivia from the sea. Valparaiso has strong legislation protecting their historical heritage. We saw an innovative upgrade in which the original facade was combined with a modern glass building, the Compania Sud Americana de Vapores (thanks to Amanda Tucker and a guide at Santiago Adventures for identifying the building).
We boarded the Radiance, headed to our cabin (Ricki Pieke, our travel agent, had managed to get us the same cabin for both cruises) and checked out the Norwegian Sun that had shadowed the Radiance after we left the ship in Lima. After supper and lifeboat drill, we watched the activity on the docks and then pulled away around 9pm.
Although neither of us were in peak condition, we checked out of our room and headed out into Cusco. We stumbled on a procession coming out of the Monastery de Santa Catalina de Sena and followed it to the Cathedral. Later, we saw another procession passing the hotel. Definitely not the same group - no sheet music on the backs of the musicians!
We visited the Convent of Santo Domingo, which was built on the foundations of the Korichancha, or the House of the Sun. A Peruvian family had staked out one of the church entrances and was sending out their children with a baby llama to pose for photographs. Colonial buildings integrated into Inca walls are quite common in Cusco.
Cusco has numerous narrow streets reminiscent of Europe, some with complex designs in the roadway. We came upon a hotel flying the Canadian flag and caught one of the staff taking a break.
Cars managed to navigate even the narrowest and steepest streets. And in spite of the signs, Peruvian's penchant for driving with their horns regularly won out. Llamas roamed freely, which may partly explain the horn-blowing.
We tracked down the famous 12-sided stone on Hatunrumiyoc, a few streets northeast of the hotel. The stone is 150 x 124 cm (59 x 49 inches) and has exceptionally tight joints. By this time, we were definitely struggling with the altitude. We headed back past the vendors and spent the rest of the afternoon in the lobby of the hotel.
Late in the afternoon, we started our trek to rejoin the ship with a short flight from Cusco to Lima.
A few words and pictures cannot do justice to Machu Picchu. The site is huge, with over 200 buildings in multiple sectors. The stonework is in amazingly good shape, considering that the site had been abandoned to the elements for about 400 years. Somewhere between 80-90% of the structures are complete - only minor restoration and reconstruction has been required.
When we arrived, the city was wreathed in mist. We entered at the Guard Houses, which had been reconstructed with the traditional thatch roofs. In front of us was the Urban Sector. As we walked into the city, we could get a sense of the scale of the Agricultural Sector with its terraces and the Principal Plaza with the Urban Eastern Sector.
The history of Machu Picchu has been lost. It is believed that the city was built by the Inca Pachacutec in the 1400s and abandoned when the Spaniards invaded Peru in the early 1500s. The Spaniards never reached Machu Picchu. Although Machu Picchu had significant agriculture, our guide believed that certain staple crops did not flourish there, and were imported from Cusco on the original Inca Trail. When Cusco fell to the Spaniards, Machu Picchu could no longer be maintained, and the inhabitants moved to other cities. Based on reports from locals, Hiram Bingham of Yale University re-discovered the site in 1911. The city was heavily covered with vegetation and virtually hidden from view. Bingham led the considerable effort required to clear the site.
We visited the Temple of the Sun with the Royal Tomb below. At least, this is the usage that researchers ascribe to the buildings. High status buildings like these were constructed of excellent stonework with polished faces and tight joints.
Deeper in the city was the building called The Three Windows with an example of an Inca cross, the Intihuatana, and the Condor Temple. The Intihuatana (or 'hitching post of the sun') marks the winter solstice on June 21 (we are now south of the equator) by a triangular beam of light that appears for just a few minutes. The Condor Temple has a representation of the head and beak of the condor, the white markings around the neck. The natural stone rising up on both sides behind the condor represent the wings. Much of the stonework for Machu Picchu was quarried locally in the area behind and to the right of us.
The north side of the city was quite steep, but also covered with terraces. All of the terraces were kept neat by roving llamas. After the official tour was over, we climbed to the Caretaker's Hut at the very top of the Agricultural sector, a vantage point that provided an excellent view of the entire site.
We decided to head back and grab lunch in Aguas Calientes. The first picture below gives a sense of the height of Machu Picchu above the train station. As often happens, the sun started to break through. This time, we were actually part of a train, although without an engine. We had a 'front row seat' just to the left of the driver.
After supper, we watched the sun set over the mountains, arrived in Ollantaytambo, located our driver and headed back to Cusco and the Hotel Ruinas. Exhausted and feeling the effects of altitude, we quickly fell into bed.
