Machupiccu in the Misty Mountains

Speaking of Machupiccu, it is maintained with the help of llamas which may be found wondering among the ruins and cropping the grass.  They provide a very pleasant contrast to the lifeless stones around them and provide great amusement to the throngs of tourists taking photos.

After joining a tour of the central area, Deb and I venture out along a trail that was a key access route before the coming of the roads, the busses and the trains.  In places, this trail is only a narrow shelf cut in a sheer rock wall with a drop that must exceed a thousand feet.  There is a unique feature in this trail, consisting of a missing section of the "shelf" spanned by a couple of logs that are easily removable.  Of course this makes the main village easier to defend from hostile forces like Spanish Conquistadores.

We don't cross the "Inka Bridge."
This is far enough.

To be clear, we understand the Spanish never visited Machupiccu and there is no evidence of battle.


Back in the central area, we swing through again, trying to absorb the significance of the structures.

Mysteriously shaped stones are the centerpieces of
several courtyards may have been altars.

Stone steps and water-courses are abundant and we enjoy thinking about the feet that trod the steps before us.  As the bard once wrote.  "So light a step will n'er wear out the everlasting flint."

Approaching the altar.

There are just a few restored buildings which give a sense of the appearance in the fifteenth century and in the case of two buildings, shelter scantily clad tourists from a brief rain shower.

Guard House or Storage - Memory fails

The entire complex is served by streams that originate higher on the mountain and follow channels through various buildings and sixteen fountains.  There is a separate drainage system for rainwater runoff which includes a porous sub-base in each of the terraces to prevent them from becoming mud slides decorated with corn and potato crops rushing down the mountain.

Did I mention the water still follows the channels?

Dear reader: amateur bloggers tend to get the sequence of blog posts inverted from time to time and on behalf of amateurs everywhere, I beg your indulgence.

Machupiccu, Holiday Retreat of Inka Kings

Apparently no traveler's bucket list is complete without Machupiccu and it is certainly spectacular.

My! That's a long way down.

This is what I think of as the iconic view.  As you can see
there was a bit of cloud and mist during our visit.

We stay a couple of days in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes and spend several hours in the beautifully curated "Museo de Situ"  This museum does not allow photography, but each case is clearly labeled in Spanish and English showing when and where the artifacts were found as well as details about the item like the age, presumed use, material and significance to the culture.  

We had this one taken to prove we finally made it to the
holy grail for South American travelers.

The powers that regulate tourism in Peru have figured out how to make the most of this national treasure.  Therefore it takes quite a bit of time and money to get there.  Our travels outside of the Cusco/Machupiccu area have been bare bones or shoestring tourism, but Machupiccu is the exception.  Many travelers rush through the area so fast that they spend six or eight hours on the train and on the road on the same day they spend two hours actually exploring the site. We are fortunate that our timetable is more flexible.

The site is accessed from Aguas Calientes in the river valley by taking a bus up a short bad road to the gate.  At this point we are not very high by local standards, but we must be 2,000 ft above the river and the drop is very steep on two sides.  For those of us with acrophobia the thrill is enhanced by the view to the valley below.

In some historic sites in Peru "huacheros" or grave robbers did immeasurable damage before scientists and the government stepped in to protect the sites.  Part of the beauty of Machupiccu is that there was very little damage other than the natural decay of grass-thatch roofs and wooden roof beams.  The Inka culture peaked in the 1,400s and reportedly lasted about 100 years.  They extended their influence over other tribes in an area stretching a couple thousand miles from present-day Columbia to Chile.  These tribes paid taxes by providing workers for Inka roads and towns.  Without hard metal tools, the workers chipped away at softer rock using chunks of harder rock and developed a unique way of fitting the stones together without mortar which proved highly resistant to the earthquakes common in the Andes.

No straight horizontal lines to be found here.  There is much
we don't understand about how they could achieve so fine a
fit between adjacent stones with crude tools.

This is an altar-type structure, one of several.  Some had calendar
and astronomy related functions: alignment with the sun on winter
solstice and so on, but information we found was not too clear.
It is clear that this is  a restoration with poorly fitted joints.

This example shows the well-preserved condition of many
buildings at Machupiccu.

Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo, Peru


North of Cusco we find the delightful village of Ollantaytambo where we are never more than a ten minute walk from cafe' con leche or our choice of awe-inspiring Inca or pre-Inca ruins.  The ruins require one to hitch up his britches and exert a little effort to climb but they are worthwhile.

This Inca structure is on the left side of the river and is not controlled or patrolled.

The site above is known as temple of the sun.  This and the associated ruins are on the right side of the river, require an admission fee and are carefully patrolled and regulated.

Terraces near the temple of the sun.

The best part is that the village of Ollantaytambo itself is a fascinating place occupying the same buildings occupied by the Incas in the fifteenth century.  The streets too narrow for an oxcart, uniquely fitted stonework of the walls and cobblestone pavement attest to it's origins.

Typical street in Ollantaytambo

This is actually a staircase in an area

away from where most tourists circulate.

Up the down staircase

From our base in Ollantaytambo, a cold-water hostal, we patch together buses and cabs to take us to the neighboring town of Urubamba and a unique mountain site where a spring of salt water flows out of the mountain and over a large matrix of salt pans constructed centuries ago on a terraced hillside.

This stream is only a couple inches wide.  If you
look closely you see salt crystals on the the edges.

The stream feeds a large complex of drying ponds.

In addition to selling the salt, modern-day Peruvians benefit from the patronage of tourists who visit the site called "Salinas."

As an aside, the majority of tourists we meet in sites other than Machupiccu are native Spanish speakers and I believe they are mainly Peruvians.  The largest minority of foreign tourists appear to be French.  A local guide we meet at breakfast points out that there are an awful lot of folks from USA at Machupiccu.

One of the English-speaking tourists charms a local child.

We understand the locals speak the Quechua language.

These costumes are common on the streets of Ollantaytambo.  This hat indicates a different "tribe" from the lady above but we have not learned names of histories of the groups.

A lot of my interest in the ruins is related to architecture.  In this area they use straw thatch for the roofs.

The life expectancy of a straw roof is about one year.

The thatch is supported by wooden "beams" which are in turn held down by leather thongs secured to stone "anchors" in the masonry gables.

This following photo is representative of the area around Ollantaytambo.

This glacier appears high above Urubamba and is readily visible from the village of Moray where we stop for lunch.  We took a delightful stroll through corn fields to get to Moray.  

In November, the campesinos are preparing the soil and planting the seeds.

Quite a character to find behind a team of oxen

Arequipa, Peru

We visit Arequipa in Southern Peru with high expectations and we are not disappointed.  The visitor goes to Arequipa for the colonial architecture, culture, history and access to the surrounding mountain terrain.  At a tourist stop on a dusty dirt road in the suburbs, we observe another group of tourists, school kids from a nearby town enjoying the big treat of the day: their first horseback ride.  Just watching them brings joy to our hearts.  At the same locale, two irresistible ladies in the dress of the Cabana Culture of the Colca Canon pose with “Andes Eagles.”

Gringos tend to be fascinated by local markets and we are no exception.  Arequipa has one of the best.  We spend the better part of a day visiting with the vendors, quizzing them about their produce and marveling at the sights and smells.

This fellow is very helpful when Deb asks him the names and how to prepare the various fruits.

Below are olives, a variety of which is offered in every market.

We learn that Peru produces over 2,500 varieties of potatoes. These are a few examples.

When I complain of a cough back in Ecuador, my friend Victor recommends the naturopathic treatment of a kind of tea made from dried frogs.  He even told us where to find it in the Arequipa market. "Rana" is the Spanish word for frog. 

The most popular attraction of Arequipa is the old convent.  With declining interest in the cloistered life, the 20 remaining sisters retreated to a fraction of the space that once housed up to 500 nuns, orphans and battered women.  The balance of the space was opened to the public as a museum.  There are a few glass case type displays of artifacts, but the real attraction is in the cells, common areas, kitchens, laundry, etc.  We learned that here, at least, the families paid for the sisters admittance and maintenance in the convent.  This lead to a sort of class system where some sisters had more comfortable accommodations than others.  Then came reform, everyone must be treated equally, at least in terms of creature comforts and a more communal way of life was adopted.

The convent grounds includes two of these formally named "streets" and . . .

one of the most beautiful gardens in recent memory.

Eventually time comes to move on and we catch the bus for the town of Chevay, gateway to the Colca Canyon.  This Canyon is advertised to be twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, but how does one measure these things anyway?  Oops, I digress.  On the way we cross a high plain blessed with a few springs and herds of wild, protected vicunas.  They are one of the four “camelids” found in Peru.  We learn that they are always cinnamon color and observe that they resemble the small fleet antelope seen occasionally in the Colorado high country of the USA.  The vicuna have no horns or antlers, are probably not as fleet as the antelope and look like they weigh about 35 lb.  

Vicuna in a very high and windswept valley.

They don't make them like this anymore.  Details from the Cathedral of Arequipa.

Interior of the cathedral at Arequipa.

Remote Lodge on Amazon Tributary

We treated ourselves to a lodge on a tributary of the Amazon
River about two hours by boat from Iquitos, Peru.  These are
Piranha; small but they have sharp teeth and there are lots.
Not wanting to be wasteful, we ate them.

It is a lazy river, but not the Suwanee

We spent our time birdwatching . . . 

Exploring . . .

Viewing giant lily pads

Kuelap - Ancient Fortress of the Chachapoyas Culture of Northern Peru

We went to a place near the present town of Chachapoyas, Peru in September 2014 to learn a little about this ancient culture which flourished between 500 and 1,400 a.d.  The ruins are located somewhere above 3,000 meters and twenty-some kilometers from a paved road down in the valley.  We went with a group in a 12 passenger van  and just the shelf road was quite an experience.  Photos do not do justice to the views.


Residences were circular.  Archiologists speculate that this design was more resistant to earthquake than rectangular structures - an important consideration in the Andes.  The structure shown below is a controversial reconstruction.

Before I forget, let me apologize to my Greek readers who patiently tell me that it isn't Ancient if it is less than 3,000 years old.

Though the pictures don't show it, early phase of the construction involved building a wall around the whole site with limestone quarried five kilometers away.  Then fill material was placed within the wall to make a relatively level space for residences and temples.

When the Incas came to conquer the Chachapoyas, they had to find another way to breach the citadel or run the gauntlet through one of two access ports with Chachapoyas warriors raining death and destruction down from above.

Apparently there was a third option which was to prevent the Chachapoyas from leaving to access their water supplies beyond the walls.