Land of the Incas

We arrived in Cusco after an uneventful 8 hour trip by van from Puno. After we checked into the hotel our guide Lila took us out for a quick orientation of the city around the Plaza de Armas area. Loreen and three other ladies stayed out to do some window shopping and went to a bar for a beer. Back at the hotel I ran into Lila and she was worried that they had got lost. When I told her they were out drinking she was amazed, five years of taking tour groups, this was the first time she had people go off drinking on their own. I told her she needed to travel with Loreen more!

Next day we went on a tour of the Inca ruins/sites that are close to Cusco. We visited Saqsaywaman, Q'enqo and Tambomachay and then back to town for a tour of the church Iglesia De Santo Domingo.

The three Inca sites seem to all be part of a huge complex of towns, temples and fortress's on the entrance way to Cusco from Machu Picchu. The religious theory of Inca culture is based on three elements: fire, water and earth. All that was needed to survive was water, the fire provided by the sun, and Pachamama, the earth.

I was impressed at Tambomachay, a stone structure that captures clear spring water and takes it via channelsto a series of baths. Known as the The Bath of the Inca, theory connects the site to the Inca water culture, one of the three religious elements. The Inca were very adept at building water systems to collect and transport water for drinking and bathing. Not so much for agriculture as the terrace systems they built captured and retained water for long periods.

Water system at Tambomachay

I managed to find one lady on the trail that liked me and insisted she have a picture taken with us.

Photo Op!

Q'enqo, zigzag in English, is a religious temple built in a natural set of caves and follows a zigzag pattern from the entrance to the exit. Used as a ceremonial place it is speculated that it was a place where animals, mostly llamas, were sacrificed. Unlike the Aztec the Inca are not known for human sacrifice.

Saqsaywaman, the Inca name, but most folks just call the site Sexy Woman, is a huge site, with both military and religious significance. At the height of it's importance it is estimated that 5,000 warriors were stationed here. It had huge towers for both water and food storage - the largest one 22 meters in diameter. Today about 20 percent of the site remains, the balance either destroyed by the Spanish or the stones taken to build churches and homes. The largest stone used in the building of Saqsaywaman is around 300 ton, transported to the site on log rollers and pushed and pulled by who knows how many slaves, for the Inca was a slave culture. There are lots of stones there that weigh in the 160 ton range.

The huge stones at Sacsaywaman

The Inca ruler at the time envisioned the settlement of Cusco to be in the shape of a Puma and Saqsaywaman was designed as the head where 22 zigzag walls were put in place to represent the Puma's teeth.

We toured the Sacred Valley so named by Incas because of the year round river that flows through the valley. The river floods and brings sediment to grow crops, creating it's own micro climate in the highlands, the Sacred Valley is still a highly productive growing area.

First stop was at Planterra (GAP sponsored) community project to help women living in the village to become self sufficient with crafts, etc and the men are employed as porters for GAP. Here the women hand spin the wool from sheep, llama and alpaca into thread for weaving. Using various plants, leaves, roots and rocks for dye, the material is colored, then colors are randomly selected for weaving into table runners, scarves, etc. No patterns are used as the designs are done from memory.

Weaving

Next stop was at Pisac ruins, an agricultural village where many terraces were established, these terraces create individual micro sites which allowed different crops to be grown for food. Pisac also contained religious and administrative offices form this area of the Inca empire. Part of the town and houses remain, as well as a cemetery area with some 6000 burial caves. Pisac also has a stone aquaduct system that brings water about a mile from a set of springs to the town site area, for drinking and bathing.

Pisac Terraces

The Ollantaytambo ruins totally blew me away. A highly terraced fortress and religious site, Ollantaytambo is one of the few Inca sites to be known for an Inca victory over the Spanish. The town itself sits at the bottom of the terraces and many of the Inca houses are still used today as homes by indigenous people. In the surrounding mountains are high structures that were used as granaries for storing grains and other food. Taking advantage of the wind these granaries had natural cooling and refrigeration.

From the top of Ollantaytambo

One of the Stones at the top of Ollantaytambo

The Chief and I at Ollantaytambo

At 100 meters above the valley bottom a temple was still under construction when the Spanish came, several 80 and 90 ton stones had been put in place, others are still lying in front of where the temple was to be constructed. These stones were brought to the site from a quarry six kilometers away on the top of another mountain, lowered 1100 meters, transported across the valley and the river, then raised back up 100 meters to get to the site, what an effort by human power.

Machu Picchu at last, undiscovered by the Spanish, the site is intact, although they are still finding more there under the jungle. This site was an administrative area for an "Inca State or Province" and depended on other sites like Pisac and Ollantaytambo for food supplies. One theory is that as these food sources were destroyed by the Spanish, the people of Machu Picchu moved out and the city was never found until 1911 by the American Hiram Bingham. So far about 260 buildings have been found, with an estimate that about 100 of those were residences, the rest being used for storage or for temples, etc. At ratio of 8 to 10 people per residence Machu Picchu probably had between 800- 1000 residents.

Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate

Machu Picchu is a beautiful site and here we learned about Inca engineering and safety during earthquakes. All the Inca buildings were built with the walls erected with between 9 and 13 percent slope inwards from foundation to roof, this principle of using angles increases the strength of the structures. The walls were sunk below the ground surface a minimum of one meter and the area inside and outside the walls filled with compacted sand, thus absorbing any type of shock. Finally in every wall there was a series of triangular shaped inset niches, these were to allow flexibility in the walls and also absorb shock. All windows and entrances were wider at the bottom than at the top.

Earthquake Proof

One temple designed in a circle with two narrow windows was constructed so that the sun from the summer solstice entered one window and the wall ends where the sun eliminated the ground. The sun from the winter solstice entered through the second window and hit the exact spot of the summer solstice. These are amazing engineering feats completed in 1400 to 1450.

The sun temple for capturing the Solstice sun

Three of us hiked up the Inca trail to the Sun Gate, where there are amazing views of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains, although not quite the same as the four day Inca Trail hike there is still a feeling of accomplishment to stand at the Sun Gate and look down on Machu Picchu.

At the Sun Gate