Sacred Valley & Machu
Picchu, Peru
Sunday–Tuesday November 2–5, 2003
We left Cusco’s airport in a van and traveled down hill to the Sacred Valley. Our first stop was at Pisac, where the weekly market was going. Vendors walk from miles away (and over and down high mountain passes) to Pisac to sell their merchandise on market days. The market is outdoors and on offer is food and clothing woven from camelid wool.
This photo shows different varieties of corn that were on sale. Germinated corn sprouts were also on sale for use in making corn beer, a popular beverage.
This is Ollantaytambo, not far from Pisac. The steepness of the mountains here is evident in this photograph. The block of rock at the lower part of the picture, center, is a remnant of Incan work. No power tools, no steel, and no wheels, yet the block appears to be perfectly shaped. To get it here it had to be dragged from the quarry, quite a distance away, and then, more work, up the side of a steep slope. The photo below shows how the Incas fit large stone blocks together. The gap between blocks is almost not visible, and this work was done at least 600 years ago.
A wall at Ollantaytambo.
We took a train the next morning from the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu. Actually, as Machu Picchu is up on top of a saddle of a mountain, we actually took the train to a village (think Pier 39 in San Francisco) on the Urubamba River (it is visible on the right side of the photograph) and then took a bus up to the site. The road has several switch backs. There is also a pedestrian trail, but it is actually a series of steps, uncounted, probably. We saw people walking down the steps, which may be tougher than walking up them.
Machu Picchu is on top of a saddle between two peaks. The Incas built retaining walls to create terraces for growing food. But the slope is steep, and there is some fear the entire site could slide down toward the river. There were electronic detectors in view monitoring the situation. It may be wise to visit Machu Picchu sooner, rather than later.
A nice view of Machu Picchu. Actually, this mountain is not Machu Picchu, but another mountain, Huayna Picchu. Machu Picchu is behind the camera, and not as photogenic. But what the heck. The settlement of Machu Picchu is a Unesco World Heritage site.
If you look at the mountain, just down from the peak, you may be able to see a trail with switchbacks. It is possible to walk and crawl up to it. There are structures on the side of the mountain.
What is missing from this scene are the roofs of the houses. They disappeared a long time ago, of course.
We took the train back to Cusco, reportedly the oldest inhabited city in the western hemisphere. This is a view from the impressive Monastery, built in 1592.
We visited the equally impressive cathedral, which has a lot of silver and gold in use in its interior. At a museum we also saw a striking display that showed how the Incas could fit blocks of stone tightly together to make a wall and, in contrast, how the Spanish tried but failed to come close to duplicating the work using the same blocks of stone. We also visited the ruins of Saqsayhuamán just outside the city.
We drove from Cusco to the Sacred Valley and from there took a train to Machu Picchu.
Next—back to Lima for a flight to Punta Arenas via Santiago and Puerto Montt. We will break up the journey with a few nights in Santiago.