Our time in Cusco has at last come to a close; it has been a wonderful month, both seeming to have gone quickly and slowly at the same time. Trying to remember back a month ago to our life in Calgary seems like another lifetime.
For our last Saturday hike, we finally made it up to Templo de la Luna, which Monica, Maija, and I had attempted but failed to reach back on November 14th. It is a small-ish set of ruins, but quite pretty with an interesting set of caves (which were unfortunately mostly cordoned off, although you could look through them).
One of the caves which you could actually enter. There is a large altar here, similar to the one at Q'enqo
The hike up was short, albeit a bit steep (maybe 2km distance, but about a 150m climb). The day was very hot and sunny, and the kids were... let's say... moving slowly. As you head away from the city, the dogs get more vocal, which did not help the kid's dispositions at all. Suffice it to say, we eventually made it, although I have no comment as to the emotional state of anyone.
The kids sulking at the entrance of a cave after their 'grueling' 2km walk
Panorama at the top of Templo de la Luna, looking out at the surrounding countryside
The site consists of a rocky hill with caves in it, and some Inca stonework at the top. Looking down from one side and you can see the remains of various structures. The view from the top is beautiful - you can see into the mountains on one side, down to Cusco in the valley on the other side, meadows with sheep, people on horses, various rocky outcroppings with caves, etc.
Looking down at the ruins from the top
The rocky hill to the left, and the remains of the buildings to the right
Proof that we actually made it this time
Inca stonework in the side of the hill
Maija enjoying an "Inca Sofa"
On the way back to Cusco we followed an old Inca road. Apparently these roads crisscrossed the entire empire, going from city to city. Runners (called "Chaski") would transport messages or cargo between the destinations.
On the way back we found and explored another site called Kusilluchayoq. The entire area here is littered with ruins... some (like Kusilluchayoq) at least have a name which you can later research, but many are completely anonymous.
Kusilluchayoq
Stone carvings in Kusilluchayoq (with Terran hiding beside one of them). A random blogger said that this site meant "Temple of the Monkey"; not sure about the authenticity of that claim, but it sounds pretty cool.
After getting back to Cusco we headed over to San Blas square. Today (like most Saturdays, apparently) there were musicians and dancers performing, while vendors sold their goods. If a picture is worth a thousand words, it stands to reason that a video must be worth 30,000 words per second; so, here are 8.67 million words: the first video showing the bustling marketplace, and the second showing one of the songs performed by the musicians.
I'm impressed at how seldom it seems your kids seem to whine. It's going to sound terrible, but it's a nice reminder of how they're regular kids reading this :p
How seldom they whine is directly proportional to how steep the daily walk is! Lol ...they are just regular kids, and are great some days, but drive us nuts most days! You and your siblings were awesome kids too! Love you guys!
Monday morning we said good bye to our nice home in Cusco, and headed to Urubamba. We walked down to the paradero, and took a "colectivo" (a large 20 person van), paid our 6 soles/per person, and rode for about an hour and a half to the town of Urubamba. According to Wikipedia, Urubamaba or Urupampa in the Quechua spelling means "flat land of spiders"....poor Maija. (We didn't tell her yet... she can wait until we leave or she reads this blog post to find out). The Sacred Valley is much warmer than Cusco, and is full of flowers. A beautiful little town
For our last Saturday here in Arequipa we decided to visit the Santa Catalina Convent. The convent is located in the historic center of Arequipa and it is considered the most important and impressive colonial structure in the city. Constructed from Sillar, a white volcanic stone quarried locally, the convent was founded in 1579, and is truly a city within a city. The nuns constructed private cells within the convent where they could lead isolated lives, protected by high walls sheltering them from the surrounding city. Most museums, or tourist sites here in Peru encourage you to have a guide, normally we prefer to do it without one, but this structure was so large, and with so much history, that I am glad we opted to have a guide show us the place. One of the many alleys within the Convent. Each street within the convent is named after a Spanish city, I think this one might have been Malaga.
So, after I went to Rainbow Mountain on Saturday, I have a few things to say about it.Pretty, and painful. If you wanted to do it while you are in Cusco, I would suggest it only if you are a strong hiker, and if you are an intermediate hiker, I would suggest getting to the first summit and sucking on Coca leaves. Maybe get help from horses, it pays off with the view at the first summit. My dad made it to the 2nd summit. The hike down is easy and it has a good view. You see a valley with random alpacas dotting the green grass. The alpacas are fairly tame, but will still run away if you approach them too fast. Some fun facts about this Mountain are: 1. Another name for Rainbow Mountain is Vinicunca. 2. When you are on the first summit of the Mountain you are closer to the Mount Everest summit than you are to Calgary. 3.There is snow on a mountain close to Vinicunca. The roads on the second half of the way there are the scariest roads ever. And we were in a bus. A BIG bus.
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ReplyDeleteI loved the 30000 words per second and the previous comments as well!:)
ReplyDeleteHappy to follow your adventure
I don’t think you could find a prettier place to sulk at! Well done! The market place looks like fun!
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed at how seldom it seems your kids seem to whine. It's going to sound terrible, but it's a nice reminder of how they're regular kids reading this :p
ReplyDeleteHow seldom they whine is directly proportional to how steep the daily walk is! Lol ...they are just regular kids, and are great some days, but drive us nuts most days! You and your siblings were awesome kids too! Love you guys!
DeleteI suppose that's fair :p
DeleteLove you guys, too!
(Were?! Haha! Just kidding)
Everything you do and see is so interesting! And Wyatt, great job on that picture of Monica and the kids on the Inca road!
ReplyDelete