Unfortunately we had to leave the terminal at the Lima airport and then go back through security again to get to our next plane. Since we had some time, we stayed in the main section of the airport for a while. We looked for gifts in the shops there and I ate some more of the breakfast and part of the lunch.
Eventually we boarded an Airbus A318 and flew to Cusco, high (11,200 feet) in the Andes. We headed through some traffic made busier than usual due to some parades and festivities to our hotel, the Novotel. This is an upscale hotel with nice rooms and amenities, and we had a nice view from our room.
I was surprised to see how many of the original Incan walls and streets remained in Cusco.
The tour itinerary called for a guided tour of the Basílica Catedral the next morning but it was going to be closed for the day of celebrations so, after settling into our rooms, we walked a few blocks to the cathedral where we met JJ, our local guide. He showed us how local artists and craftsmen working under the Spaniard’s direction subversively included symbols and scenes from their traditional religion into the cathedral’s art and construction.
When we came out of the cathedral a bunch of dancers had started proceeding past what I think was a judging stand with music. The square was pretty busy but we walked around it and went to another outlet of the Choco Museum where we had more time to sample the products. We bought some chocolate liquor and some gift bars. Dinner was on our own this evening but Raul recommended a place that I think almost everyone decided to go to, so it was back around the main square and to the restaurant. It was a good recommendation and I think everyone walked away happy with their meal.
We returned to the hotel close to nine. I had thoughts of working on this journal and sorting photos because the internet connection was good, but it had been a long day so we just went to bed.
We had an 8:45 departure from our hotel after a nice buffet breakfast.
While our luggage departed in a van, we walked to Koricancha or Qorikancha. This had been one of the major temple centers of Cusco, which is itself the “belly button” of the Inca culture. In fact, the Incans apparently had no specific name for the town, it was simply called by a word that translates as either “center” or “navel”. Cusco is a mispronunciation of that word adopted by the Spanish conquerers.
As part of conquering the place the Spaniards took away an astounding amount of gold that the Incans used as decoration simply for its color and ease of working, and then tried to destroy the Incan temples. The blocks the Inca used, though, were very heavy and fit so tightly together that they were difficult to destroy, so the Spaniards ended up forcing the locals to build a cathedral atop the remaining parts, and that is Koricancha but is also the Convent of Santa Domingo.
Besides the original walls seen when walking the streets of Cusco, the temple was our first good look at some of the Incan construction details.
Wavy lines and sloped walls resist earthquakes. One of the most famous remnants of the Inca are the construction details including large rocks that are very tightly fitted together. While the lines of the various levels of stone appear straight at first glance they are actually wavy. Apparently having the slightly convex and concave surfaces meeting helps keep the stones locked in place, even during earthquakes.
The Inca used a variety of techniques to resist earthquakes, so we can assume they had not only experienced quakes but had used these events to learn how to keep their buildings from falling down when they occur. Along with the convex and concave surfaces, they built their walls with a significant taper from a wider base to a narrower top. Their doors and windows display a matching angle.
There was a seven-plus Richter Scale earthquake in 1650 that destroyed a large fraction of Cusco. In this quake a fair fraction of the convent was destroyed, but it was the parts the Spaniards had built using their traditional techniques that fell down while the Inca temple bases remained standing. Another strong quake struck in 1950 and destroyed much of the convent, but again only the new parts.
We walked a bit from Koricancha to a larger road that could accommodate the tour bus we would use for the next few days. Our driver Santos took us up one of the ridges surrounding Cusco to the Cristo Blanco statue that can be seen from many parts of the city. From there we had a view of the city as it slowly creeps up the surrounding hillsides.
A short distance from the statue we stopped at a shop specializing in alpaca products and silver jewelry. One of the salespeople gave some information about the various grades of alpaca and llama wool and how to distinguish authentic products from an increasing number of sheep’s wool or synthetic imitations being sold. We bought a nice sweater and a hat.
Another very short ride brought us to Saqsaywaman or Saqsayhuaman. This was the most important temple of the Inca where Incans other than royalty or priests were only allowed on one day - the winter solstice celebration Inti Raymi.
The rocks used to construct Saqsaywaman are huge, and the nearest place this type of rock is found is three miles away. We heard a number of the theories that have been proposed to explain how the Incas, a culture lacking iron and several other technologies, were able to both move stones weighing over a hundred tons several miles to the top of a tall ridge, and then to cut and fit them with a precision that boggles the mind. No theory has been proven, and many have serious contradictory facts or evidence.
The big Inti Raymi ceremony and performance would occur there tomorrow and we saw hundreds of people rehearsing.
For lunch we drove back down into Cusco to a fancy restaurant called TikaSara. We had a nice meal while listening to a live performance by Rumi Tallan.
Then it was back into the bus and up a different ridge to a high plateau with a couple lakes and a town called Chinchero. Here we stopped at a textile center where several ladies who work to maintain the traditional weaving techniques gave us a fantastic presentation showing how they clean, spin, dye, and weave sheep and alpaca wool textiles. They use a surprising variety of minerals and plants to produce different colors, and the woman presenting had a hilarious dry humor. We couldn’t resist buying one of the fantastic long woven pieces, although we’re not completely sure what we are going to do with it.
Our planned agenda from there was to go to some salt works to see and taste Andean salt but the sun was getting low in the sky, and people’s energy was flagging, so we went directly to our hotel, the Casa Andina Premium Valle Sagrado Hotel and Villas.
Most of the group met for dinner in the hotel restaurant but we were still full from the big lunch and wanted to do some sink laundry so we grabbed a couple of Cusqueña Dorada’s and some snacks and went back to the room where I tried to catch up with this journal.
We had to get up fairly early for an 8AM departure to Ollantaytambo, about half an hour bus ride from the hotel. These structures apparently served a variety of purposes: a significant stream meets the Rio Urubamba here, so this served as a watch point and fortress, but also as a food production and storage area.
Several terraces climb the south-facing slope with some being primarily retaining walls but many set up for farming. Guard stations at the top offer views up and down the main valley and the side valley. Across the valley on a much steeper north-facing slope are food storage warehouses. These are positioned to minimize insolation and maximize exposure to cool down-valley breezes. Additional structures below and to the right of the warehouses were apparently quarters for those charged with storing and releasing the food, rotating the inventory, and the like.
The name Ollantaytambo includes “tambo” which means something like “rest stop”. In the course of extending their control over much of the South American continent the Inca built over 25,000 miles of trails. The trails were generally set up to have major destinations like towns or at least an outpost with some amenities (food, water, and shelter) about every twenty miles, which would be about a day’s walk. These were called tambos. They also had lesser stations or rest stops about every 4 miles. Runners were stationed at these intervals. With the runners, messages could quickly be relayed from the empire’s frontiers to the center in Cusco. It is said that when the Spanish made landfall on the coast in the morning, the ruler in Cusco heard the news before dinner.
After climbing several terrace levels and walking through much of the site we had a break at a small cafe where I had some lucuma ice cream and we picked up some 7 Vidas beers.
Back into the bus we headed back up the road beside the Rio Urubamba for a few miles, but then we crossed over the river and headed up a narrow gravel road. We went up and up the side of the valley with a number of switchbacks eventually arriving at a plateau area.
After a few more miles we arrived at Moray where the Inca had taken advantage of some sinkholes to build an agricultural laboratory. The sinkholes were caused because salt deposits that geological activity had buried underground were dissolved by water seeping in from the surface. They built terraces in and above the sinkholes which help to catch and redirect the prevailing breezes. By at least temporarily capturing air that the wind is moving across this plateau area, the air tends to pick up a bit more heat and humidity from the ground. While it’s only a small amount of additional warmth and humidity, it makes a big difference to plants in this high, dry, and cool area.
Evidence suggests that the Inca would coax plants normally found at lower elevations to grow on the bottom (warmest) level of the hole. If they succeeded, seeds from these plants would be planted on the next terrace up. Over the years, plants that could survive on this slightly cooler and drier level would eventually produce seeds that could survive at the next higher level. By repeating this process, and moving from the lower sinkhole to the higher one, the Inca created new varieties of food-producing plants that expanded their farming options significantly. That is, areas of their territory that were previously too high elevation, dry, and cold could now become farms.
Their agricultural prowess was not just a way for the Inca to provide more food for their own people, but evidence shows that they used these new crop varieties to bargain with other kingdoms and bring them under their control. That is, in addition to their warrior’s prowess and the efficiency of the trail system they built, their agricultural technology helped extend their empire. Probably their construction techniques and and food storage also helped. That is, if an earthquake struck, adjoining kingdoms with adobe or less well-constructed stone cities might have their infrastructure mostly destroyed, but there the Incas would be with their infrastructure in good shape and years worth of food in storage. The Inca were well-positioned to manage drought years or other natural disasters while many societies back then (and even now) were not.
Many of the fields nearby now grow barley for Cusqueña and other Peruvian breweries.
We drove further along the plateau and then up higher on the slope (12,000 feet) to the small village of Misminay. About five hundred families live there and in the surrounding area maintaining many of their ancient traditions. We met half a dozen men and women and were treated to a lunch of traditional foods.
We started with a baked potato accented by a mild cheese and an unusual sauce. The sauce was made with cilantro, crackers (not very traditional!), cheese and spices. Then we had a creamy corn and potato soup followed by a main course of a stuffed whole spit-roasted cuy (guinea pig), some chicken in a creamy sauce, and some mashed squash or yucca. The cuy meat was similar to duck but with a different, fairly distinct, flavor.
Dessert was a potato cream with a slice of plantain.
After lunch the women worked on washing the dishes while we went outside into the the yard where the men first explained and then led us in a K’intu ceremony. During the explanation I got to watch some cute “teenage” chickens that were hanging around the corner of the yard, and we saw one of Peru’s large hummingbirds.
Everyone present in the ceremony receives three coca leaves. The men have a number of objects representing various elements and spirits arranged on a cloth on the ground. A jug of chicha beer, which is made by fermenting corn, is used and some is spilled to the four directions as an offering to the earth. Then a prayer is chanted and the local and most notable distant Apus (mountain spirits) are invoked with a gesture in the direction of each, followed by the “breath of life” - everyone breathes several times on the coca leaves cupped in their hands followed by whispering your own message to the gods into the leaves. The leaves are then collected and buried in the Mother Earth along with small offerings of food and drink. Then everyone drinks a bit of the chicha and spills a bit for the earth.
After some time for question and answer we walked back to the bus accompanied by the singing and clapping family. We thanked them and then began driving down the hillside. After a few miles we stopped at a roadside store that carried the locally produced salt. We got to taste some samples and do a little shopping. It is high quality salt at a much cheaper price than the locally produced gourmet salt near us (Jacobsen’s).
After our shopping stop we drove further down the hill into a steep-sided little canyon. The water dissolving the underground salt that caused those sinkholes higher up the slope comes out here at the Salineras de Maras. Archeology shows that ancient people before the Incas built evaporation ponds here to collect salt, but when the Inca took over they built it up substantially in order to produce large quantities of salt.
There are hundreds of evaporation ponds constructed so that the spring water can be brought to each pool and flowed in or blocked off individually. Each pond is owned by a local family, although many of the families own several ponds, but they never change hands - the pond always stays in the family. The manufacture and distribution of the salt is cooperatively controlled by the families, with the coop being known as “Marasal” and producing thousands of pounds of salt every day.
On the way back to our hotel we stopped at the ceramics workshop of Pablo Seminario and Marilú Behar. It was interesting to hear Pablo’s experiences living through several eras of Peru’s recent history while trying to make a living with pottery.
We returned to our hotel in Urubamba. Dinner was on our own, but the hotel restaurant was the only obvious choice. We had a light dinner and many in the group went to an astronomy program that the hotel offers. I enjoyed one of the 7 Vidas beers we picked up in the morning.
