"J" is for Journal and Jotting things down....DO IT!

I didn't keep up with my journal the first few days, knowing full well that I'd remember every moment with extreme clarity...after all, I've been dreaming of this trip for most of my life. But, as we well know, the mind is a funny thing, and the first few days have all blended together, thank goodness my pictures are in chronological order, but I may have the order of some things not quite right.

Today we went to a cathedral, the Convento De Santo Domingo Del Cusco, and the only reason I know the name of it  is because that's what it says on my ticket. I actually could have sworn that we visited it yesterday, after lunch. I am apparently wrong...tickets and photos don't lie. And the date on the ticket says May 6.



Beautiful Courtyard

 The church and monastery was build over Qorikancha, which was one of the Inca's most important and religious sites. It was actually more than one temple, worshipping different natural gods...the god of the sun was the most impressive, and legend has it that the temple was filled with gold statues, gold alters, the walls were covered with gold sheets and the most holy item of the empire "the golden disc of the sun" was there.  The disc was never found by the conquistadors (still hidden somewhere, a la Indiana Jones? I like to think so.) But needless to say, the rest of the gold was taken by the invaders and melted down, and the remains of the temples were left to the Dominicans, who quickly erected their own church over the ruins, hiding most of the Inca walls, although they utilized them for the foundation and for stability.



The cloisters at Santo Domingo


In 1950, a massive earthquake in Peru damaged the church, revealing many of the Inca walls, as a result you can see and touch some of  the best and most complete walls  in Cusco today. I love the fact that I can freely touch them. I'm usually getting scowled at and frowned upon for touching things in museums...I really try not to, but my hands sometimes seem to have a mind of their own. It's truly involuntary, I'd never deliberately disrespect someones rules.



Still so perfect, after 700 years.

 It was interesting to walk through the church, seeing the remains of the Inca temples still standing so strong. I always wondered why their walls didn't shift during earthquakes and just the simple fact that the ground shifts after years of rain, and well, just plain old "settling". I was impressed to learn that the blocks are almost like a Lego block, with interlocking parts. Genius!

Inca Lego.

And just how did they cut those rocks? Some theories include pouring water into small holes and natural cracks in the stone, and letting it freeze until the stone cracked, also using wet wood and inserting it into holes and  as it expanded and froze, the stone would crack. In any case, for a culture with no iron (to make tools) it's a mystery to this day, and just as mysterious is the method by which they raised some of the stones...some weigh up to 100 tons! Yes, I said one hundred tons.

You can see one of the Inca walls at the end of this cloister.

There were some chapel-type areas in this cathedral as well, filled with paintings and icons, but no pictures were allowed. It was quite a beautiful place, but I find it uncomfortable to be in a church that is supposed to represent sanctity and peace, but yet there is still a pervasive feeling of  unease in the walls.  I would have made a lousy missionary.

After leaving the church (which, by the way, monks still live in the monastery part) we headed out to the Sacred Valley.

The Sacred Valley is an area that has an amazing micro climate thus there is prime farming land, something that is a bit rare in the Andes, and was the "heartland" of the Inca empire. 

The road switch backed up from Cusco, and I was surprised to see thousands and thousands of eucalyptus trees. Although, to be honest, i didnt' realize they were eucalyptus until I was told. The Inca were not great lovers of trees, they cut down forests to use wood for heat, and to build their homes, but they did have an appreciation for pachamama, or, Mother Earth and they didn't decimate the forests. That happened when..."surprise", the Europeans came.

Long story short, no trees quickly equalled mudslides and flash floods, the washing away of farmland and of homes, and pushed an already poor culture even further into poverty. The the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture started a campaign to plant some 60 million trees. They needed a fast growing tree, and the eucalyptus fit the bill. unfortunately, the trees are taking away water and nutrients from the local flora, but, it's a start.




Eucalyptus trees.


Our first stop were some ruins called Tambomachay. 

Tambomachay

Tambomachay is called the Inca baths or Royal baths. It's surmised that the Incas used this for religious ceremonies, either directly dedicated to the worship of water, or maybe to use as cleansing for other rituals. The small fountain on the middle terrace is just a source, and the bottom two were the ones for cleansing...one for men, one for women, side by side.. The Inca were strong believers in equality, which is nice to think about.

The interesting thing is that there is no one knows where the water comes from, there isn't a way to backtrack the source, but its been flowing for hundreds of years and it's apparently still clean enough to drink. But I didn't try it.

It was a hot and quiet day, there was no one else there yet, so it felt very peaceful.



A day in the Andes.

 Our second stop was a short drive, to Puca Pacara and I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong. This place had an underground cavern, and is one of the places that has a carved hole in the rock where the sun shines through on certain days (generally one of the solstice's) and in this case it hits another rock and the shadow forms the profile of an Inca ruler. I'd have liked to have been able to see that. You can just see the opening in the rock, to the left.



Sacrificial alter?

The above picture is inside the cavern, and you can see a bit of sunlight coming inside to the right of the square carved niche. It shone towards some jagged rocks on the left and that's where the profile shows up. I look like I'm being reprimanded for touching something, but I'm not. Pictures and touching were allowed in here.
As we left this area, and walked across a small bridge that took us back to the bus, the sounds of El Condor Pasa being  played on the pan pipes drifted gently through the air. It sounds like it might have been a magical moment, but it was just some vendors trying to get us to purchase their Cd's. I mean, nothing wrong with that at all, everyone has to make a living, and I did buy an small necklace from a lady, but it just seemed kind of schmaltzy to me.

Next stop...Sacsayhuamon...pronounced "sexy woman", with a kind of a "hu" in front of "woman". We almost thought we weren't going to get in there, our Boleto Turistico, or tourist ticket, had been punched wrong at one of the prior places, and the folks at the gate of Sacsayhuamon would not believe we hadn't already been there. I almost thought our guides were going to come to fisticuffs, but they eventually seemed to work things out, and we got to enter.

The site itself is massive, over 3,000 hectares, needless to say, we only saw a tiny fraction.

The imperial city Cusco, meaning ‘navel of the earth,’ was laid out in the form of a puma, the animal that symbolized the Inca dynasty. The belly of the puma was the main plaza, the river Tullumayo formed its spine, and the hill of Sacsayhuaman its head, which I thought was quite interesting.

The walls are just mind blowing.There are no other walls like these. They are different from Stonehenge, different from the Pyramids of the Egyptians and the Maya, different from any of the other ancient monolithic stone-works.

This is where some of the 100plus ton stones are. The "how" and the "why" are baffling. Modern man can neither explain nor duplicate. Theories become both scientific and whimsical. Myself, I lean towards to the otherworldly.
Originally there were three walls and three levels, which coincide with the three sacred animals of Peru, the Condor (upper) the Puma (middle) and the Serpent (Lower).




My sexy toes at sexy woman.




At the top, overlooking part of the site.




Overlooking Cusco

 After feeling somewhat overwhelmed by all this magnificence, we headed back to Cusco for some food. 



More coca tea.



a veggie sandwich.


At a great sandwich/soup spot.

How can a person pack so much into one day? The day isn't even over yet...now that we're back in Cusco, there is still much more exploring to do. And foods to eat and things to purchase. And sights to see. And memories to make.


Love the little stores!

 The tiny little stores that are tucked into every available open spot are so intriguing. They almost all carry the same items...water, juice, some treats, some fruit, but I feel the call to go into each and every one...you never know what might appeal to you.