Machu Picchu, PERU 2019

For me, one of the highlights of our trip to South America (besides catching up with our American friends on the cruise) was visiting Machu Picchu. To get there from Santiago, Chile, Jenny, Peter, Murray and I flew to Lima, the capital of Peru, and then another flight to Cuzco. See travel details on the photo above. We were met by our tour guide and driver, and the 4 of us were driven to our San Augustin Hotel in Urubamba, nestled in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in Sacred Valley. 

Our first view of Sacred Valley

Traditional wool dying

We were taken on some tours including a visit to Chinchero where we saw local women demonstrating how they dyed alpaca wool using local plants, and how they weaved their garments. We also saw a re-creation of how the local lived during the Inca period, and of the crops they harvested - what an amazing variety of corn alone, let alone quinoa etc. 

Varieties of corn

Traditional Inca crops - corn, quinoa, squash, varieties of beans

Peruvian Dancer on Vistadome Train 

On our last day in Sacred Valley we were driven to Ollantaytambo train station for our Vistadome train trip to the town of Aguas Calientes, also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo. The Vistadome train was great in that we could see out of the side windows as well as much of the roof - beautiful scenery - river rushing on its way to the Amazon, snow on the Andes, sections of the ancient walking track to Machu Picchu - it takes 4 days to walk it from Ollantaytambo - it took us 1.5 hours in the train. 

On the way home a local Peruvian dancer entertained us, and we were treated with a fashion parade that showcased local beautiful garments woven with baby alpaca wool.

The stones used in Inca buildings used for spiritual purposes or for their royalty were built using no mortar. These stones were cut so precisely, and wedged so closely together, that a credit card could not be inserted between them. Peru is a seismically unstable country—both Lima and Cusco have been leveled by earthquakes—and Machu Picchu itself was constructed atop two fault lines. When an earthquake occurs, the stones in an Inca building are said to “dance” or bounce through the tremors and then fall back into place. Without this building method, many of the best known buildings at Machu Picchu would have collapsed long ago. (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/peru/machu-picchu/secrets/)

After visiting Machu Picchu, it is not surprising that it is listed as one of the seven modern wonders of the world. 

Cuzco is also known as the Imperial City and declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. We visited the Koricancha temple which was an ancient Inca palace of the Sun God and the building was right opposite our Abittare Hotel. We visited the fortress of Sacsayhuaman  which is it an impressive example of income military architecture. We visited Kenko another archaeological site where the sun moon and stars were celebrated in Inca days 

 The Sacsayhuaman (also Saksaywaman or Saqsawaman, meaning ‘Royal Eagle’) fortress-temple complex lies at the northern edge of the former Inca capital Cuzco. Constructed during the reign of Pachacuti (1438-1471 CE) Huge blocks were quarried and shaped using nothing more than harder stones and bronze tools. Marks on the stone blocks indicate that they were mostly pounded into shape rather than cut. Blocks were moved using ropes, logs, poles, levers, and earthen ramps (telltale marks can still be seen on some blocks), and some stones still have nodes protruding from them or indentations which were used to help workers grip the stone. That rocks were roughly hewn in the quarries and then worked on again at their final destination is clearly indicated by unfinished examples left at quarries and on various routes to building sites. The fine cutting and setting of the blocks on site was so precise that mortar was not necessary. Finally, a finished surface was provided using grinding stones and sand.

Experimental archaeology has demonstrated that it was much quicker than scholars had previously thought to prepare and dress the stones used by the Incas. Even so, it would have taken many months to produce a single wall. The Incas also ensured that their blocks interlocked and the walls were sloped to maximise their resistance to earthquake damage. Time has proved their efficiency as 500 years of earthquakes have done remarkably little damage to Inca structures left in their complete state and the Sacsayhuaman is no exception.(https://www.ancient.eu/Sacsayhuaman/)