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Hello again!! Believe it or not, I am still alive and almost well! I am kind of sick right now, the Incan Revenge has been replaced with a lovely head cold. I don't think Peru liked me very much. This blog will probably be a bit lengthy because Machu Picchu was amazing!!!
We got up at 3am to catch our 6am flight from Lima to Cusco on Monday. Once in Cusco, we spent the majority of our afternoon resting and acclimating to the 11,000 feet above sea level. Later that afternoon our tour guide took us to the Incan ruins that are right outside of Cusco. They were very interesting. We saw an old Incan fortress and even their old bathrooms, where the water still flows. I was surprised to see that the people there still dress very traditionally. The women still wear their hair in long braids with a hat resembling a top hat. They wear brightly colored woven long skirts and sweaters. And they carry their babies on their backs with a long woven shawls. No baseball caps or tennis shoes for these people.
Along the way, I saw my first Alpaca! Alpacas are these silly looking animals, kind of like a sheep and llama mixed together. They are native to the Andes and are renowned for their soft, not itchy, wool. In the markets here, everything is made from Alpaca...scarves, gloves, sweaters, slippers, hats...you name it. It is SO cheap too! I got a gorgeous scarf for approximately $3. I have become addicted to Alpaca..it is so soft and too cheap to pass up! Jill has been having to pull me away from the Alpaca scarves. I loved Alpaca so much, I ate it for dinner one night...so tasty, and half the fat of beef!
Early Tuesday morning, we caught our 6am train to the town of Aguascalientes, which is the town closest to the ruins of Machu Picchu. It is only 68 miles from Cusco but it took us nearly four hours by train to get there. We saw some gorgeous scenery on the way and saw so many small little villages where people still live in mud houses with straw roofs. People always stopped to wave when they heard the train coming and smiling little kids chased after it.
Once in Aguascalientes, we found our tour guide, Raquel, and boarded the bus to head to the ruins. It was raining when we arrived and I was forced to buy a poncho or get soaked. When we finally got to the ruins of Machu Picchu, the clouds were covering a good part of them. Fortunately, an hour or so later, the rain cleared up and the sun came out...so much so that all of us got burned.
So...let me just say, Machu Picchu was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It is truly remarkable. It is 8,000 feet above sea level and was built by the Incas several thousand years ago, although they are not sure exactly when. The Inca Empire at one point stretched all the way from Peru to modern day western Argentina, northern Chile and into Bolivia. They were conquered by the Spaniards in the 16th century. Also, the Incas were famous for their architecture, as seen at Machu Picchu. The Incas knew were quite good at geometry and used angles to hold the rocks together instead of glue or paste.
There are various academic opinions on what Machu Picchu was actually used for. Some say it was built mostly for women and children because most of the mummies found at the site were women. Some say it was a religious site because there are several temples and some say it was built as a astronomical center because there are several rocks placed as sundials, etc. They do know that approximately 800-1,200 people lived there due to over 200 residential areas found.
No one is sure what happened to the people that lived there. After the Spaniards conquered the Incas, the city was forgotten and believed to be an ancient myth. Until... Machu Picchu was discovered by American professor Hiram Bingham in 1911! The story goes that we had heard the legend of the "Last City of the Incas" and after 2 years of searching the jungles and mountains of Peru a little Peruvian boy who lived near the ruins showed them to him. I am not surprised that it took him two years to find the ruins...they are so remote. The Spaniards never even found Machu Picchu.
We hiked around all day and enjoyed every minute of it. The ruins are on a mountain top overlooking a steep valley on each side. I can't even imagine how they built it. We spent the night in Aguascalientes and returned to Cuzco on Wednesday evening. Now, it's off to Chile!!!! Pray that there are no illnesses in store for me there!
previous travel blog entry
mel-jerm says:
I am glad you like alpacas, they are closely related to camels you know. We miss you alot.... and we are glad that you are having fun. Hope you get better soon. Love you!