Slept in this morning, then after breakfast went for a walk around
the village. This is one of the best-preserved Inca villages in Peru
apparently. Very tight alleys with a variety of houses in various states of design
and decay. The streets are typically cobblestone, and have gutters with water
flowing through them in a controlled manner from the river. The hills
surrounding the village are dominated by Inca fortifications and buildings, all
still in pretty good condition considering they have not been maintained for
much of the last 500 years. We wandered around looking at the village, people
and markets. We stopped for a coffee as Harry got excited to see a coffee
machine of the same brand as his one at home. It was a pretty good coffee, but
this was helped by Hax directing the barista about stopping the extraction
sooner than he otherwise would have. People were busy in their business in the plaza,
which is mostly selling trinkets to tourists. Whenever there was a tourist bus
stopped in they swarmed with their textiles and pottery. There was a family
with small children in the plaza and the mother was caring her baby in a
blanket wrapped around her shoulders. This same blanket form of baggage is the
main way that things are carried by the women here and most women seem to have
one over their shoulders, the only give away that there is a baby in it is if a
leg or arm is sticking out.
As we were walking back we found an art gallery and Harry and I
bought a piece of art each. Back to the hotel, packed and then off for another
day on the bikes.
We headed out on our freshly cleaned bikes, cleaned by the hotel
staff while we were out, who also took great joy in giving use fruit from their
garden, gooseberries and a passion fruit type of fruit as well as tamarillos.
The clean bikes did not last for long as we headed down a gravel road then
followed the railway line for a km or so before heading up another gravel road
into the hills. We were headed for Moray, an Inca archeological site. We wound
our way up the hill past a group of horses walking up the road, and a motorbike
with three people on it. The terrain flattened off and cultivation began. Hax
stopped to look at a depression in the ground with circular Inca walls. We
stopped to photograph the interesting landform, and Geert speed past. There was
a group of people meditating at the bottom of the depression, playing music,
and generally getting in the way. A few jokes were made at the expense of this
group, then Hax, the usual laid back Hippy type jumped on his bike and said
“meditate on this!” gunned his engine and took off in a shower of gravel from
his spinning back wheel. Good old Hax, he is no ordinary Hippy.
Just around the corner was the car park for the Moray archeological
site, which the depression was part of. This is an interesting area of three
natural depressions in the ground, the deepest being 70m deep, that the Incas
terraced with typical Inca dry stonewalls. They used this as a laboratory
apparently doing genetic engineering for various crops to try to get them to
grow at altitude better. At the bottom of the depression it is up to 15 degrees
warmer than at the top. Sadly they failed to cross wheat with Llamas to create
the ultimate altitude crop, but they did manage to optimize the various crops
that they relied on. We walked around and down into the largest depression. The
steps into these were once again the typical it seems steep of flat stones
protruding from the wall, very handy but very widely spaced. It must have been
a challenge for the Incas who had an average high of 145cm according to Geert,
as they would have been carrying a load up out of these areas, and the step
must have been at the limit of their stride. I had a go at meditating at the bottom,
but it was no better than anywhere other laboratory or farm.
We continued along the gravel road to Salinas de maras. This is a
pre-Inca slat farm. It has been functional for many years (not sure how many).
The mineral rich water flows rom a spring in the hill and this is directed onto
a web of terraces, with 2000 terraces, where the water dries out and leaves the
salt. There is a complex web of channels that direct the water into each of
these 2000 terraces that are controlled by blocking the appropriate channels.
The water had a very strong brine taste, and the white terraces were quiet a
sight.
After lunch we headed into Cusco. This was another very important
Inca city, which became less important after the Inca Empire fell to the
Spanish. However it had resurgence with the rediscovery of Machu Pichu and is
now a thriving tourist town. A bit of a challenge getting to the hotel Geert
had booked due to road works in the street of the hotel creating a complete roadblock.
Got there eventually weaving the bikes in through the maze of wet concrete and
holes in the pavement to get them of the road in the hotel yard.
Wandered to a massive trinket market, and marveled at the similarity
with all of the other trinket sellers around the country. Same stuff different
city. Dinner was at Geerts favourite restaurant, the Fallen Angel. This is
quiet a place, set in an old attached house (for wealthy people) with a central
courtyard. A beautiful historic building but it is so packed full of art,
figurines and disco balls etc. that it is difficult to see the building. There
are four hotel rooms in the upstairs part of the courtyard that have been
kitted out very lavishly and can be hired for about US$300 per night, the owner
showed us the two that were not in use, with pride. Another excellent meal was
had by all. Hax couldn’t resist the cocktail menu and had a Latin Lover. Don’t
worry Sarah, it didn’t taste that good.
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