Most of these notes are taken from awesome JL's notes. Thanks JL!
Sunday
On flight to Cuzco, we saw how rugged Peru is.
View of Cuzco after we finally got to our hostel:
After a too-short nap, we went to explore Cusco: Plaza de Armas. It's the central square where all the excitement is. It's surrounded by a cathedral and a church.
Every weekend they have a parade.
Ate lunch at explorador (?) and tried some Alpaca burger - poor alpacas! It was a little gamey for me.
And also guinea pig! Despite how it looks...it was quite tasty! NL saw one on sale in the states and seriously considered buying it...
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| I believe this was tallest mt in Peru: Huascaran...or was it 2nd highest? |
After a too-short nap, we went to explore Cusco: Plaza de Armas. It's the central square where all the excitement is. It's surrounded by a cathedral and a church.
Every weekend they have a parade.
Ate lunch at explorador (?) and tried some Alpaca burger - poor alpacas! It was a little gamey for me.
And also guinea pig! Despite how it looks...it was quite tasty! NL saw one on sale in the states and seriously considered buying it...
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| Benefits of traveling with photographers... |
Monday
In our not adjusted jet lagged minds, it seemed to be a good idea to use our extra days in Cusco to go visit the renowned Rainbow Mountain. But in hindsight, it was a terrible idea, and we were told we were lucky to have made it out without serious injury!
Turns out the Mtn was probably the highest elevation I've ever been: 17,000 ft!!!! (5,000m). Definitely not a good idea to go up that high after only being in the country and adjusting to 3000m in Cusco for 1 day.
Anyhow, we woke up at 4 am. And a bus took us up to a trailhead, and we hiked 1.5 hours to the top of Rainbow Mountain. We definitely felt short of breath, as we saw the locals guiding horses next to us, running in flip flops. And for those who didn't take the altitude sickness medicine, they could REALLY feel it. At the end one group member could only take literally 2-3 steps and had to stop and rest. When I waved down to her to tell her where we were, I thought she couldn't see me because she didn't respond, but she was literally too out of breath to respond. "Glad we made it down alive! DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME OR EVER!" -JL
Along the way we stopped for breakfast and lunch ....only later did someone tell us this is also the place where people got diarrhea. O_o
But along the way we also saw some super super cute alpacas!!! They are like teddy bears!
Some victory poses:
We were happy to have survived our poorly planned Rainbow Mountain trip without vomiting (altitude sickness) or diarrhea (food poisoning). But there were definitely headaches. Glad we had altitude sickness medicine (acetazolamide)!
Ate dinner at Kion -Peruvian Chinese (it's a type of dish J's coworker said we needed to try). A lot of the dishes were very sweet, so I wasn't as used to it, but it was ok.
Turns out the Mtn was probably the highest elevation I've ever been: 17,000 ft!!!! (5,000m). Definitely not a good idea to go up that high after only being in the country and adjusting to 3000m in Cusco for 1 day.
Anyhow, we woke up at 4 am. And a bus took us up to a trailhead, and we hiked 1.5 hours to the top of Rainbow Mountain. We definitely felt short of breath, as we saw the locals guiding horses next to us, running in flip flops. And for those who didn't take the altitude sickness medicine, they could REALLY feel it. At the end one group member could only take literally 2-3 steps and had to stop and rest. When I waved down to her to tell her where we were, I thought she couldn't see me because she didn't respond, but she was literally too out of breath to respond. "Glad we made it down alive! DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME OR EVER!" -JL
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| They told us coca leaves (yes, they make cocaine out of this plant) is supposed to help with altitude sickness.....not sure if it helped. |
Along the way we stopped for breakfast and lunch ....only later did someone tell us this is also the place where people got diarrhea. O_o
But along the way we also saw some super super cute alpacas!!! They are like teddy bears!
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| So cute!!! |
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| You see the end of that trail? Ya we came from beyond that... |
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| We finally made it to the top! Thought I was fit, but this proved me wrong...haha. The guide was trying to hurry us (which is a sign of a bad guide cuz we could've gotten really sick). But it was truly amazing and the colors were really in stripes like in the picture. It's also such a contrast between the two sides of the valley - snow vs stripes. |
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| More alpacas!! |
We were happy to have survived our poorly planned Rainbow Mountain trip without vomiting (altitude sickness) or diarrhea (food poisoning). But there were definitely headaches. Glad we had altitude sickness medicine (acetazolamide)!
Ate dinner at Kion -Peruvian Chinese (it's a type of dish J's coworker said we needed to try). A lot of the dishes were very sweet, so I wasn't as used to it, but it was ok.
Tuesday
The next day we really took it easy and went around town and visited Coricancha - the Old Temple of the Sun. Cori - gold, Cancha - many “many gold.”
The next day we really took it easy and went around town and visited Coricancha - the Old Temple of the Sun. Cori - gold, Cancha - many “many gold.”
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| Diorama of what Korikoncha used to look like |
It was the most important temple in the Inca empire, and people would take pilgrimages to it.
We learned about the Machinevrado technique, which was a construction technique where the stones used were like giant Legos pieced together - with a "male" and "female" piece. And it was so precise, you couldn't event fit a piece of paper between them! The Spanish build the Church of Santo Domingo on top of it. But the Coricancha was so well constructed that in the big earthquake of 1942 and many other earthquakes, the church and many of the buildings in Cuzco fell or were damaged, but the walls of the Coricancha remained standing because of its excellently fitted stones. All without calculators or a written language! Our guide said the more angles the stones had, the more earthquake resistant they were - not sure if it's really true...
Different types of building stone building blocks:
We learned about the Machinevrado technique, which was a construction technique where the stones used were like giant Legos pieced together - with a "male" and "female" piece. And it was so precise, you couldn't event fit a piece of paper between them! The Spanish build the Church of Santo Domingo on top of it. But the Coricancha was so well constructed that in the big earthquake of 1942 and many other earthquakes, the church and many of the buildings in Cuzco fell or were damaged, but the walls of the Coricancha remained standing because of its excellently fitted stones. All without calculators or a written language! Our guide said the more angles the stones had, the more earthquake resistant they were - not sure if it's really true...
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| Our guide says this tiny rock is the corner stone. Strange it's so small. But it's so smooth from all the people touching it. |
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| Aftermath of the earthquakes of Peru - just a millimeter crack! |
The once gold covered walls were taken by the Spanish, who also painted murals and took away gold statues (Star of Venus statue suppose to be on right with embedded jewels all around).
They Incas worshiped the sun god, Inti, so the solstices were very important. These windows were aligned in a way for the sun to shine through at the solstices. The Incas believed their king to be the son of Inti.
Above right are all the different gods that the Incas worshipped.
At the end of the Coriconcha is the sun room where the Sapa Inca would sit with mummies of his ancestors. This is also where burnt offerings were made of llamas or at great times of disaster, children.
The right picture shows certain small points that jutted out, which were intentional because at certain astronomical times, these points would align.
The entire Coriconcha is supposed to have astronomical significance, in the shape of an ellipse.
It's hard to imagine at its prime, the Coriconcha's court yard was filled with gold statues:
During the height of the Inca Empire, it extended from Bolivia to Chile including Equador, Peru, Argentina, and Colombia. It was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The de facto capitol was Cuzco.
They were such an interesting empire to learn about! Despite no wheeled vehicles, animals to ride or pull, no iron or steel, and most unbelievably, no written language, it grew to be one of the most impressive empires in human history. They still managed to build amazing architecture to such precision, extensive road/communication networks throughout the empire, and record history using knotted strings (quipu). Scholars were undecided whether to call it a socialist paradise or socialist tyranny.
Saw this at the American Indian's museum in DC (Special exhibit on the Incas!!!):
The entire Coriconcha is supposed to have astronomical significance, in the shape of an ellipse.
It's hard to imagine at its prime, the Coriconcha's court yard was filled with gold statues:
During the height of the Inca Empire, it extended from Bolivia to Chile including Equador, Peru, Argentina, and Colombia. It was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The de facto capitol was Cuzco.
They were such an interesting empire to learn about! Despite no wheeled vehicles, animals to ride or pull, no iron or steel, and most unbelievably, no written language, it grew to be one of the most impressive empires in human history. They still managed to build amazing architecture to such precision, extensive road/communication networks throughout the empire, and record history using knotted strings (quipu). Scholars were undecided whether to call it a socialist paradise or socialist tyranny.
Saw this at the American Indian's museum in DC (Special exhibit on the Incas!!!):
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| Example of quipu (Incan way of record keeping, "writing") |
I recalled learning about how the Inca's literally used straw they use to make enormous suspension bridges across gigantic canyons. Yeah, seriously, bridge made out of straw!!
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| How to make a suspension bridge out of straw. There seems to be a big jump from step 5 to step 6! |
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| Museum showing strength of 1 braided straw vs a combo of braided straws. Still wouldn't be the first one to test out the bridge |
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| They even talked about Coca leaves in the exhibit!! |
After the Coricancha:
Ate lunch at Los Toldos Pollos
Souvenir shopping around the square some more:
Return around 7pm to pack for Inca trail!!
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