Liz and Richard in South America 2006

The new home of our blog!

Monday January 23rd

We've moved the blog to this web site as Liz was having problems uploading photos to Blogger - plus this site allows for a journal like diary so the posts will be in chronological order.........Hola!

We're in South America for 10 weeks - 3 weeks in Peru, 4 weeks in Galapagos and then 4 weeks in Chile - hope you enjoy our blog!

It's organized in 3 ways - on the left hand margin you can click on:

• "Recent Posts"
• or by major destination - i.e. Galapagos, Chile, etc
• or by Month - i.e. January, February, March

Hope you enjoy our blog!  - Questions?  email us at

[email protected]

Adios!

Liz and Richard

Sacred Valley #1

We fell in love with highlands Peru - the people, the landscape the culture, the history - note we're talking about the "highlands" - Lima (7.5M pop) is apparently a totally different world – as our Marriott bartender described it – “6.5 million very poor people and 1 million very rich people”.  We saw only the rich neighbourhood – Miraflores – we were told the remainder can be dangerous.

But the countryside is wonderful. Friendly, proud people. Helpful without being obsequious; amazingly clean – very little litter and you could perform open heart surgery in the washrooms – just bring your own toilet paper! They work incredibly hard – tilling their land in still primitive ways. It’s a constant juxtaposition of the old and the new – oxen pulling ploughs everywhere, while the farmers chat on cell phone.

 

Donkeys, horses, pigs and cattle graze on the roadsides everywhere. There are few tractors and animals still provide most of the motive power….

Our hotel in Ollantaytambo was reminiscent of a Swiss Chalet

From one window we had a stunning view of the Inca temple

 

And from the other window we could look in the courtyard of the Chicharia next door (more about Chicharias later!) – complete with guinea pigs being fattened for the oven. No, we did not dine on guinea pig – they are served roasted with the head on and the whole experience is too reminiscent of eating your kid’s pet (Our guide David confirmed “they taste like chicken”!)

 

 

Sacred Valley - #2

The village of Ollantaytambo is built on Inca foundations and the 600 year old irrigation system still runs around the hotel, complete with kids who sail boats in their ancestor’s 600 year old waterways.

What is amazing is not just how much of the Inca constructions are still extant, but how much of what they built is still in use – walls, irrigation systems, tiered fields, etc….the people may be Peruvians as far as the U.N. is concerned, but in their souls they are still, and primarily, Inca.

We mentioned how welcoming the Incans are. They even held a demonstration the day we arrived – to protest an increase in taxi fares. In a world where few people own cars, taxis fares are a big deal. They demonstrate with typical Inca efficiency by throwing large numbers of bread loaf (and larger) rocks on the only road in and out of town (we’re at the end of the road). Rocks are in ample supply here so they barricaded the town in 20 minutes – Jack Layton would have been envious!

 

Our guide (henceforth David) had arrived early, but we were trapped. Took the logical decision and had a beer in the square and watched the proceedings. It was over in an hour or so. The demonstrators departed peacefully and the police were left to clear the rocks off the road. Contrary to North American beliefs, a hernia is a more common work injury than a gunshot wound for your country policeman in Peru .... but the Shing Path lurk.

So –we were off to do some touring. The countryside is beautiful. A constant series of landscapes crying out for a Monet or Seurat to capture them.

One cultural trait – the high school graduating classes like to carve their names into the side of the mountains – this is not a 7-11 ad – it’s a school number!

First we visited the Inca ruins at Moray. There are 2 huge natural bowls that the Incas terraced. It is believed that they were an Incan agricultural development station where they acclimatized lowland plants to grow at higher altitudes. It’s 5 degrees C warmer in the bottom of the bowls than on the higher terraces.

We’re a little skeptical and sense a religious purpose, but the Inca religion is so interwoven with their agriculture that both functions are probable.

Evident in the following photos is the exquisite geometry of the Inca constructions; their attention to innovative details – note what we call “Inca Stairs” and the intensity of their farming – all these terraces were once tilled. You’ll also see David Choque our Guide – a lovely person who contributed enormously to our visit. (highly recommend his services as a guide and trip planner - http://www.cuscotoptravelperu.com/)

 

At 11,000 feet it was a long haul to the bottom and back – you learn to carry water everywhere (note Liz’s pocket above) and we’re drinking approx 3 litres each a day.

Next – voluntary – a visit to the salt mines.

Sacred Valley #3

There’s a natural salt spring running from the base of the mountain at the left. (Pic below) The Incas built hundreds of individual evaporation ponds (subsequently added to) where they collected salt for trade. It’s still in production and of course we bought some to use at home.

 

An interesting sidebar – geologists have calculated that at the rate the salt dome inside the mountain is being dissolved away, the whole mountain could collapse in the near geologic future!

 

That evening, the constantly welcoming Incas held a total town celebration to acclaim our arrival…..also apparently to acclaim the arrival of 3 kings at Christ’s birth 2005 years ago (It was Jan 6 – Little Christmas!). A marvelous blend of Christian symbols overlain on Inca integrity.

 

The following pictures are a small taste of the incredible costumes, processions and dancing that went on for 3 days – replete with tuba players expunging their hangovers at 6am – sorry some are out of focus – it was an exciting time that happened in front of our hotel.

 

 

Somewhat sleep deprived we arose to continue our explorations.

 

A Few more pix of the festival

Sacred Valley #4

Like the ancient Incas, the modern Incas are still building. The following photo is of a new road being carved out of a mountainside to gain tourist access to a remote Inca ruin.

 

Along the way we passed a number of old colonial haciendas – most are in ruins, but this one is still functioning – dwarfed by its mountain backdrop.

 

On to Pisac……

Everywhere you look in the valley there are Inca terraces. The Pisac valley owns some of the loveliest. How the Incas climbed up … and down….to work these fields constantly amazed us….until we found out later.

 

The Inca ruin at Pisac is a perfect introduction to the awesome ability of the Incas to shape and move stone using only other stones and some copper – no iron, no pulleys, no wheels, no draft animals. The joints really are so perfect that you can’t get a knife blade between them – we tried. They also were incredible hydraulic engineers, with water flowing everywhere for irrigation and religious fountains:

 

You will note that we don’t have any photos of the actual town of Pisac . The reason is shown below. To get to the city centre you climb the steps shown below…..go through a cave…and then 2 more similar flights of stairs. It’s a 500 foot drop to the left and it gets very narrow near the top. We got through the cave part and Richard crawled on is hand and knees to the base of the next set of stairs – the ledge was 18 inches wide. We then chickened out and came back down the stairs on our bums. David assured us that he had never lost a client and we didn’t want to ruin his record. When you’re sucking for oxygen at 11,500 feet, fear overwhelms testosterone!!

Machu Picchu #1

We bit the bullet and stayed at the Sanctuary Lodge which is right at the site. – the bullet cost $835/night – we stayed 2 nights. The usurious pricing (which went up 40% on Jan 1!!) did include some side benefits

1) the site opens at 6am but the buses with the people who stayed down in the nearby town don’t arrive until just before 7am and many people leave for the last train at 4pm or so – giving we spendthrifts hours of private time.
2) all the food – really good food – is included
3) all the liquor is included – Johnnie Walker Black, Champagne et al – Liz stuck to beer!

It was wonderful – a life list visit – do go.

 

Following are some general pictures to give you a sense of the site. Llamas wander freely. There are surprisingly few visitors (when we were there, anyway). It was awe inspiring. We’ve not seen the pyramids or Angkor Wat …. Perhaps they are close.

Pictures open with Liz at the Gateway to the city – note the stone work

 

The Inca culture and religion have come to fascinate us. Unlike the Egyptians, Mayans or Aztecs, they have left few obvious humanoid idol forms.

We’ve come to agree with archeologists who believe that Incas worshipped the actual mountains and their temples are shrines to the geologic forms. This notion is best illustration in what have been described as “echo sculptures” – images in temples that represent the mountain beyond.

 

The most obvious example is the following photo of what is the altar in a temple (in the foreground) – it clearly replicated the mountain behind….as does the sugar loaf shape on the right.

 

 

 

 

Machu Picchu #2

Other examples of the wonderful non humanoid shapes are shown below. We were fascinated and surprised that some of the shapes had not been translated into jewelry.

Note, many of the temple enclosures consist of wall (and a missing roof) and a sculpted piece of stone as the altar.  The minimalism is charming compared to the cathedrals down in the valley.

 

Throughout there is the constant display of Inca craftsmanship in working stone and their love of running water. Sublime walls and fountains abound. Notable is a staircase hewn from the living rock:

The shot below demonstrates that even sometimes the Inca Engineers had their problems!

Of course we did eat well - we ate with a wonderful couple we met from Texas....He was an engineer for Lockheed specializing in F-16s and they lived in Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia on co-production arrangements. They have amazing insights into Arab culture and think George’s war is madness. Naturally we loved them!

 

The food was very, very good – especially considering the remote location….but the hotel management are the same people who run the Orient Express - this is a salad of Peruvian Tree Tomatoes - they were exceptional:

The shot above is a leg of pork - the Peruvians haven't bred every ounce of fat out of pork so it still has flavour! The lunch buffet at the hotel was delicious.

A comment on how wussy we’ve become……you might note on the following shot that there is a temple on the top of the Mountain in the centre background (the mountain is called Wayna Picchu). The climb is so precarious that you have to sign in and – hopefully – sign out. We took a pass!

The bus ride to our hotel was precarious enough as emphasized by the partial shot of the switchback road that got us there!

 

Back to Ollantaytambo

How did the Incas climb those mountains every day to till their terraces?

Perhaps there's a modern day answer.

In the photo below you'll note a ruined square structure in the centre of the mountainside to the right of the talus slope.  It's an old Inca storehouse.  Above the storehouse are a bunch of white dots.  The dots are Incas.  As you'll note in the 2nd photo below:

It took them about 45 minutes to run up the mountain and then 30 minutes to run down and continue dancing on the temple terraces on the valley floor., as shown below.  Liz and Dickie would have been demanding Sherpas with oxygen after the first 100 feet!

A note about Raul.  David our regular guide had other commitments.  Raul filled in for the day.  He was much fun - very different from David.  He also looked like a potential Che Guevera recruit.....which is ironic since most of Raul's face had been rebuilt with plastic surgery after a Shining Path Guerrilla took himout with a submachine gun.  An interesting long story for another time.  But as you'll note above,  Raul is still determined to promote Inca culture, even when confronted by a tough Elizabeth (comment from Elizabeth - this is possibly the worst picture of me ever taken - Richard, why is it here????)

The stones at Ollantaytambo are big - as shown below What is amazing is how far and how high the incas hauled these multi-ton monsters.

The stones were actually quarried on a distant mountain peak and hauled down the mountain side and up a constructed ramp.  In the following photo the quarry peak is the dark triangle partially hidden by the centre left clouds.  We are standing at the top of the ramp which sweeps off to our right down to the valley floor.

 

 

The Chicheria

Next we visited a Chicheria - a local bar that serves corn beer (Chi-cha).  It was that wonderful juxtaposition that we had come to appreciate in Peru.  Primitive cooking on open fires while the kid in the next room was playing with his x-box.  Do note the cat warming herself by the fire; the ever present guinea pigs being fattened fro the oven and the display of potatoes (fresh and dried) and beans, and corn types - they were put out for us.

Liz tried the Chicah (of course - it's beer, isn't it??? But Raul said - only one sip) - plus our hostess offered us salsa and corn.  Research sponsored by the Beeby Foundation has confirmed that sufficiently spicy salsa kills all intestinal bacteria, viruses, leprosy and can even make Dick Cheney cough.  Her salsa was to die for - bottle it and she could own the mountain