A "Ruined" Trip

Thursday April 2, 2009 Nighttime
Hotel in Cusco

We got to sleep in until seven this morning, when we took the train back through la Valle Sagrada (sacred valley, known for various Incan ruins) to see the ruins of Ollantaytambo. Here we learned a bit more about pre-Columbian farming techniques and architecture. They would actually take fertile soil from distant areas to support different crops on the terraces. We were in awe when Edi explained how the temple stones weighing more than 35000 kilos (1 stone averaging the weight of 5 cars) were taken down from the top of a large mountain that we could see in the distance and then back up the mountain the temple rested on – all without the help of pack animals or devices such as the wheel. And, if you took out one of these massive stones, the structure is so study that the rest of the stones would remain in place.

Across the ruins, on the other side of the town, was a huge natural rock that had been carved into an angry man who was the founder of the earth. The indigenous people believed in three worlds, represented by the 3,000 year old chacana, a common Andean symbol in the form of a square cross. The three worlds were: Hanan Pacha (world of the gods), Kay Pacha (our present world with humans), and Urhu Pacha (underworld for the ancestors and the forces of fertility). At the end of our tour, Edi was demonstrating how you could stop the cascade of the fountain in the princess ceremonial bath by brushing your hand across an almost invisible line when a group of Andean women in traditional dress came up and sang to us Quechua (second widest spoken language in Peru).

After Ollantaytambo, we returned to Pisac, but this time for the market, where I shopped to my heart’s content. The bus then took us out to just outside Cusco to the ruins of Sacsayhuamán, where we had a great overlook of the city just as the sun was setting. The approach of an oncoming storm created a stark contrast in the sky between bright skies of untainted blues and dark, fierce clouds. The lightning over Cusco was enchanting but the threatening rain forced us to run and take cover. Once back in Cusco, the hail that unexpectedly came down on us while on the Plaza de Armas broke up our dinner group (as we were all headed to a restaurant with bathtubs filled with fish as tables), so a small group of us ended up at a random restaurant where I tried sopa de asparrugus, lomo saltado, alpaca meat (yum!), and cuy (guinea pig – it’s a popular dish here). They brought the cooked cuy out with its head still on and then cut it into pieces for us (of course we acted like typical tourists with it before actually trying it).

Coli