Ollantaytambo is the name of the pueblo from where I am finally writing a post. We left Buenos Aires 3 days ago (was it really only 3 days), landed in Lima, made it through immigration and customs and connected with our flight to Cusco, landed in Cusco and made it to our beautiful hotel, El Balcon, on the slope overlooking Plaza de Armas and Cusco. It was a long, tiring travel day (made longer by Alberto, a very nice tour organizer who met us at our hotel, greeted us as though he was the host of the place, and proceeded to talk to us about how long we were staying, what were we planning to do, offering us several tour options, catching us with his "used car salesman pitch" while we were still reeling from the flight!) We did book a half-day city tour with him for the next day, and arranged transfer back from Ollantaytambo train station by car upon our return on Sunday from Machu Picchu. Anyway, we finally made it to our room and collapsed! I took some beautiful night photos of the city from our balcony, including of the brightly lit white statue of Jesus high on a hill overlooking Cusco with his arms raised in blessing! (Talk about a neon cross!)
The next day we went to the Perurail Train Station to trade our Internet voucher for our tickets on the train to Machu Picchu, found a bank to change some dollars into nuevo soles, walked around some lovely squares visiting some shops for Dianne to browse and shop. We picked up lunch to take back to the hotel, ate and got ready for our tour. While we are not fans of group tours (yes, it is amazing that we took this tour!) the tour guide Puma (yes, that is his first name, he is Quechua, which is the proper term for the native people we know as Inca) was excellent and made the tour extremely worthwhile. Cusco lays claim to being the longest settled and populated city in the hemisphere, with its roots dating back possibly 7,000 years. The Inca Empire was only about 100 years long, though it was probably the high point of construction and settlement. Of course, most of what the Inca built was destroyed by the Spanish conquerors, beginning with Francisco Pizarro.
One fascinating fact we learned was that while most Inca structures have been destroyed or damaged, it was all by human hands, not a bit by earthquakes. The Inca, or their predecessors, figured out a way to construct stone structures that would move with the earth and not topple or crumble. So, for instance, in 1650, when there was a massive earthquake in the region of Cusco, all the Spanish buildings constructed on top of the Inca buildings crumbled, but the bottom portions of the buildings, which were the original Inca construction, all remained standing! To this day engineers from Japan, San Francisco, and other earthquake prone areas, have visited and studied the Inca construction but have not figured out how to duplicate it.
While it is only a small portion of the vast gold and silver wealth of the Incas, we were amazed at the opulence in the Cathedral. The vast usage of gold and silver plating on altars and various structures was stunning. Just the wealth exhibited in this one, huge, structure (actually it is three churches joined together, with the Cathedral in the center and two "smaller" churches on either side) is mind-blowing! Plus we saw the blackened Christ on the cross known as ¨Lord of the Tremblors" which was the crucifix they finally, in desperation, paraded around town in 1650 when the earth was shaking and the earth stopped! Finally, we saw the Peruvian version of Davinci's "Last Supper" which depicts Jesus and his disciples about to dine on cuy, guinea pig!
After the Cathedral we rode the bus up 1,500 more feet, to the impressive stone ritual site known as Sacsayhuaman. It is huge! With huge stones in the walls that are still standing. One Inca historian who wrote shortly after the conquest by the Spanish wrote how he got lost in Sacsayhuaman it was so huge and labyrinth-like. We also visited several other interesting Inca ruins before returning to the main plaza about 7 p.m. Growing tired, Dianne and I went looking for a "simple" dinner. We went to a restaurant recommended to us by the Hotel manager, La Retrama. Located on the second floor overlooking Plaza de Armas, it was a lovely, elegant restaurant. We were the only patrons for about 30 minutes before two tour groups (they sounded German) joined us. But the food was delicious, the staff extremely attentive. One waiter named Emilio, not our main waiter but very friendly, discovered I had a headache and brought me some sort of green herb in a small container to crush and deeply inhale the aroma. (Dianne just found the name on the web, muña.) And it worked! Not immediately, but within a half-hour or so my headache was gone! Dianne even shared and we both testify to this natural healing wonder!
It was not a "simple" or short dinner, though. The food was delicious, but more than I was looking for (actually Dianne was ravenous) and then about the time we finished a Peruvian musical group, with flutes, drums, a guitar and mandolin set up in tradition garb and began playing. They were then joined by four dancers in very colorful costumes, who were very energetic and performed 4 different dances. It was at least an hour-long floor show, and the musicians were still playing when we finally left! It was a much later night than we had planned, but extremely enjoyable.
This morning after breakfast I walked to the Instituto Nacional de Cultura to buy our entrance tickets to Machu Picchu before we were picked-up by Edwin who drove us through the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo. The drive was amazing. The panoramas, the vistas, the scenery, both fascinating, stunning, awesome, breathtaking, I could pile up the superlatives and not do it justice. I am sorry I do not have pictures posted (I took many of the last 3 days) but it turns out there is not WIFI at our hotel in Ollantaytambo so I won't be able to add pictures for several days. Maybe this weekend in Aquas Calientes, where we are spending Saturday night during our visit to Machu Picchu. Otherwise, I will definitely add pictures to whatever posts I share, beginning with this one, by Monday. Sorry! Know we are safe and having an amazing visit in Peru!
The next day we went to the Perurail Train Station to trade our Internet voucher for our tickets on the train to Machu Picchu, found a bank to change some dollars into nuevo soles, walked around some lovely squares visiting some shops for Dianne to browse and shop. We picked up lunch to take back to the hotel, ate and got ready for our tour. While we are not fans of group tours (yes, it is amazing that we took this tour!) the tour guide Puma (yes, that is his first name, he is Quechua, which is the proper term for the native people we know as Inca) was excellent and made the tour extremely worthwhile. Cusco lays claim to being the longest settled and populated city in the hemisphere, with its roots dating back possibly 7,000 years. The Inca Empire was only about 100 years long, though it was probably the high point of construction and settlement. Of course, most of what the Inca built was destroyed by the Spanish conquerors, beginning with Francisco Pizarro.
One fascinating fact we learned was that while most Inca structures have been destroyed or damaged, it was all by human hands, not a bit by earthquakes. The Inca, or their predecessors, figured out a way to construct stone structures that would move with the earth and not topple or crumble. So, for instance, in 1650, when there was a massive earthquake in the region of Cusco, all the Spanish buildings constructed on top of the Inca buildings crumbled, but the bottom portions of the buildings, which were the original Inca construction, all remained standing! To this day engineers from Japan, San Francisco, and other earthquake prone areas, have visited and studied the Inca construction but have not figured out how to duplicate it.
While it is only a small portion of the vast gold and silver wealth of the Incas, we were amazed at the opulence in the Cathedral. The vast usage of gold and silver plating on altars and various structures was stunning. Just the wealth exhibited in this one, huge, structure (actually it is three churches joined together, with the Cathedral in the center and two "smaller" churches on either side) is mind-blowing! Plus we saw the blackened Christ on the cross known as ¨Lord of the Tremblors" which was the crucifix they finally, in desperation, paraded around town in 1650 when the earth was shaking and the earth stopped! Finally, we saw the Peruvian version of Davinci's "Last Supper" which depicts Jesus and his disciples about to dine on cuy, guinea pig!
After the Cathedral we rode the bus up 1,500 more feet, to the impressive stone ritual site known as Sacsayhuaman. It is huge! With huge stones in the walls that are still standing. One Inca historian who wrote shortly after the conquest by the Spanish wrote how he got lost in Sacsayhuaman it was so huge and labyrinth-like. We also visited several other interesting Inca ruins before returning to the main plaza about 7 p.m. Growing tired, Dianne and I went looking for a "simple" dinner. We went to a restaurant recommended to us by the Hotel manager, La Retrama. Located on the second floor overlooking Plaza de Armas, it was a lovely, elegant restaurant. We were the only patrons for about 30 minutes before two tour groups (they sounded German) joined us. But the food was delicious, the staff extremely attentive. One waiter named Emilio, not our main waiter but very friendly, discovered I had a headache and brought me some sort of green herb in a small container to crush and deeply inhale the aroma. (Dianne just found the name on the web, muña.) And it worked! Not immediately, but within a half-hour or so my headache was gone! Dianne even shared and we both testify to this natural healing wonder!
It was not a "simple" or short dinner, though. The food was delicious, but more than I was looking for (actually Dianne was ravenous) and then about the time we finished a Peruvian musical group, with flutes, drums, a guitar and mandolin set up in tradition garb and began playing. They were then joined by four dancers in very colorful costumes, who were very energetic and performed 4 different dances. It was at least an hour-long floor show, and the musicians were still playing when we finally left! It was a much later night than we had planned, but extremely enjoyable.
This morning after breakfast I walked to the Instituto Nacional de Cultura to buy our entrance tickets to Machu Picchu before we were picked-up by Edwin who drove us through the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo. The drive was amazing. The panoramas, the vistas, the scenery, both fascinating, stunning, awesome, breathtaking, I could pile up the superlatives and not do it justice. I am sorry I do not have pictures posted (I took many of the last 3 days) but it turns out there is not WIFI at our hotel in Ollantaytambo so I won't be able to add pictures for several days. Maybe this weekend in Aquas Calientes, where we are spending Saturday night during our visit to Machu Picchu. Otherwise, I will definitely add pictures to whatever posts I share, beginning with this one, by Monday. Sorry! Know we are safe and having an amazing visit in Peru!
Here are the Kodak Gallery Album links with more pictures of Cusco. This first link will take you to pictures of some of the ruins in and around Cusco: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6d2p4u6.ayd2yio6&x=0&y=n5wvig&localeid=en_US
This second link will take you to pictures of the Folklore Show we enjoyed at dinner: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6d2p4u6.57sw3pfq&x=0&y=ky1jw8&localeid=en_US
1 comment:
La musica local must be wonderful..I love musica andina, it seems that you get transported to the ancient times when this world created by God was not polluted and ruined by mankind..
Glad you tand Dianne are enjoying all the wonders of the Inca world!
God be with both of you...
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