6 posts tagged “peru”

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.
 

 

 We were picked up bright and early at 6am.  It appears that the train journey from Cusco to Aguas Calientes (the nearest train station to Machu Picchu) is quite slow leaving Cusco, so many tour companies are driving their customers to Ollantaytambo.  The journey was uneventful.  In spite of the altitude, we saw considerable agriculture and ranching.  Many taxis appear to be covered tricycles with smoky engines, definitely not 'safe at any speed'.  Many roofs had ornaments: clay bulls are variously associated with luck and fertility, or warding off evil.

Ollantaytambo lies at an altitude of 9,100 ft (2800 metres).  It has been inhabited for over 700 years and has significant archaeological treasures.  We had little chance to experience any of it other than the bumpy cobblestone streets and the train station, crammed with vendors and hawkers.  We saw a group of back-packers who may have hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, a 33 kilometer trek that typically takes four days.

When it was our turn, we did not actually board a train, but rather a diesel-powered railway carriage that followed the Urubamba River for about 1.5 hours.  Vegetation was surprisingly lush, with some ruins tucked up into the hills.
The end of the line was Aguas Calientes, a village at 6560 feet (2020 meters) with few attractions other than being a gateway to Machu Picchu.  It had started to rain, so after a cursory check of the train station for anyone looking like a guide holding a sign, we donned heavy weather gear and walked to the bus that climbed the ridge on which Machu Picchu sits at 7,810 feet (2400 meters).  We must have looked lost, because we were approached by a guide who tentatively asked for us by name.  It turns out the guide had been waiting for us at the train station, and the tour company had been frantically calling around trying to locate us.  They dispatched another guide to the entrance of Machu Picchu.  All is well that ends well...    

We decided to take the bus from Nasca to Cusco.  Although a 14-hour trip, it seemed to make more sense than doing a seven hour drive back to Lima, find a hotel for the night and then catch an early morning flight from Lima to Cusco.  The 9:30pm bus on which we were confirmed had been cancelled and we were booked on the 11:30pm.  11:30 and then midnight came and went.  Staff at the bus terminal locked up and some went home.  Fortunately, our bus finally arrived at 30 minutes after midnight.  We had opted for the VIP (recliner) seats - finding them in the darkened bus that was aready quite full was a challenge.  Fortunately, they were on the lower level.  The Cruz del Sur bus was new and quite comfortable, and the ride was uneventful with the exception of one sharp turn that send camera and camera bag flying across the aisle.  No apparent  damage was done. 

The early part of the scenery up into the Andes was similar to what we had seen between Lima and Nasca.  As we rose higher, we started to see more green along with settlements and agriculture.

We checked in the Hotel Ruinas, a lovely building not far from the central square of Cusco.  Cusco is at 3,400 metres (11,200 feet) above sea level, and we had been warned to watch for altitude sickness.  Given that the bus had been heading downhill on the road into Cusco, we had clearly been higher through some of the Andes passes.  In general, we felt fine, until we climbed the stairs to our third floor rooms and found ourselves quickly winded. 

Cusco, a city of about 300,000 inhabitants, has a European flair, very different from the other cities we visited in Peru.  Particularly interesting were the ornately carved balconies.

Cusco was built in the 12th century by the ninth Inca Pachacutec, who constructed his palace on what is now the Plaza de Armas.  It was captured by the Spaniards under Francisco Pizarro in 1533.  When the Spanish turned their attention to Lima, Cusco became something of a colonial backwater, until the discovery of Machu Picchu in 1911 which re-awaked an interest in the local archeology.  Many buildings in Cusco were constructed using blocks taken from nearby Saqsaywaman, a large complex constructed in 1460.

We managed a few pictures, had supper, met the local G.A.P representative and and decided to make it an early night before tackling Machu Picchu.   

We were picked up at 9am and driven to the airport.  After a short wait, we walked out to the tarmac to a six-seater Cessna.  The pilot reviewed the flight plan, got us settled and secured, then took off.  After passing over the valley, the pilot continued on to the plains to the south, following the course of the Pan-American Highway that we travelled the previous day.

To give passengers on both the left and right side of the plane good visibility of the Nasca Lines, the pilot would bank sharply to one side, then turn back and bank to the other side. The figures (or geoglyphs) cannot be appreciated from the ground, due to their size (from a few metres to 30 kilometers).  They were sometimes not easily seen from the airplane, even though we were provided a diagram and were told what to look for.  From left to right, the figures are:

• astronaut, monkey, dog, condor
  
• spider, hummingbird, tree, hands (the last two pictures show the viewing stand we saw the previous day)
  
  
  
  
  

  

Early geoglyphs tended to be representative figures, while later glyphs often included geometric shapes and lines.  These have been taken as evidence for an extraterrestrial landing site.  The Nasca Lines or geoglyphs are believed to have been constructed between 300 BC and 800 AD by the pre-Inca Nasca culture.  The Nasca removed the darker surface material, revealing the lighter desert soil underneath, or scratched furrows into the surface up to 30 centimetres deep.

Since the Nasca had no written history and their oral traditions have not survived, the purpose of the geogylphs is open to interpretation.  Paul Kosok and Maria Reiche, proposed that the figures and lines represented a giant astronomical calendar.  Marie Reiche, whose pictures were prominently displayed at the Nasca Lines Hotel, dedicated her life to uncovering the secret of the Nasca Lines.  Researcher Johan Reinhard believes the Nasca Lines were related to water and fertility rituals, pointing to hills and underground sources of water.  Unfortunately, none of the hypotheses have sufficient supporting facts. 

Our bus to Cusco was not scheduled to leave until 23:30, so we visited the local museum on the outskirts of Nasca.  In addition to extensive specimens and information about the archeology of the region (unfortunately all in Spanish), the museum had a model of the aqueduct system that the Nasca constructed to access and channel underground sources of water in an area that often did not get rain.

After supper at a local restaurant, we headed off to the bus station and waited.  And waited some more.  The bus to Cusco finally arrived half an hour after midnight, but that is a story for another day.

We arrived safely back to the ship at Valparaiso on Nov. 23rd.  It took us a few days to recover from the effects of high altitude and try to get control of the 1,800 pictures we took over the last 5 days.  Also, Internet access is increasingly unpredictable - we are quite far south and at the edge of coverage from the satellite that provides services to the ship, and the weather is closing in.

Royal Caribbean had taken our passports in Ft. Lauderdale.  After several trips to Guest Relations, they returned our passports the evening of Nov. 22nd.  We left the ship at Callao (the port of Lima), exited the port and joined the throng of people trying to find transportation.  Fortunately, we located our driver (Mario) and guide (Omar) and started the seven hour drive from Lima to Nasca along the Pan-American Highway, which stretches from Alaska nearly to the tip of Chile. 

We passed through a rather bleak landscape of sand dunes and some rock outcroppings.  Shanty towns are common, sometimes far from any apparent towns.  This desert extends the length of Peru between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes.

The desert was cut through periodically by rivers that allowed vegetation and agriculture to flourish, such as onions (bagged in the fields) and vineyards.  We did see some unusual vehicles: three-wheeled taxis that based on the exhaust were probably powered by two-stroke lawn mower engines.

 

Nasca is in a valley fed by two rivers, the Ingenio and the Tierras Blancas.  Along the way, we passed a tower which we later learned was used to view part of the Nasca Lines.  An airplane doing an overflight of the lines passed overhead.

The town itself was not particularly picturesque, although that may be a 'surface' perception.  Some of the buildings that looked quite ramshackle on the outside were quite nice inside.  The Nasca Lines Hotel was very nice, both inside and out, with an excellent restaurant and attentive staff.  We met up with the local G.A.P representative, got our instructions for the overflight on the next day, and 'crashed' for the night.