Machu Picchu

The first thing to know about Machu Picchu is how to pronounce it. It's Ma-chu Pee-h-chu, according to the locals. Machu Picchu was an Incan city built in the 15th century in the mountains used as a university and some believe as a retreat. It was abandoned about a century later during the Spanish Conquest, and remained a secret for centuries to the outside world until 1911, when an American explorer discovered it. Until 1911, its existence was just a rumor, a myth. Since it is hidden in the jungle, when the Incas abandoned it, it only took a few months for the natural elements to take over it again. It camouflaged into the jungle in the 3 months the Spanish took to get to it, so the Spanish missed it and thus it is the only remaining Incan city that was not destroyed.

The story goes that the American explorer, Hiram Bingham, was convinced of its existence and was on his third attempt at finding it in Peru. He did not have much luck searching around the jungle, so he took a break in Cuzco. He went to the market and saw one of the venders was selling some interesting looking vegetables. He asked where they were from and the vender said they were from Machu Picchu. The locals all knew about the abandoned city's existence, it was just the outside world that found out about it in 1911. Nobody knows Machu Picchu's original name, it was called Machu Picchu because that is the name of a large mountain next to it. Bingham became very interested and asked more about it, and the vendor said that if he wanted to know more, he would have to buy all of his produce. So Bingham spent the last of his money on the vegetables from this stand, and the man told him where he could find the city. So Bingham set out with his crew to find the city, and after much hiking came about the old city, which at this point was buried in jungle. There were two families living there at the time. When he approached the entrance of the city, a little boy came up to him and said "you're in the middle of the jungle, let me show you around our home" and so he found Macchu Picchu. Here is Bingham with the boy.

Bingham at the time was working for Yale University. He came back to Machu Picchu later with a much bigger crew, and they took many of the artifacts from the site, promising to return them the next year. He never returned them, so they became the stolen property of Yale University. Recently, the Peruvian government spoke out against Yale University, demanding its priceless artifacts back, and Yale agreed to return them over the course of 10 years. The first installment was returned a few months ago, and we were able to see them at the Machu Picchu museum in Cuzco.

To get to the site we had to take a bus, a train, and another bus, which ended up taking a few hours both ways. However, the trip over was very pretty. It is right on the edge of the Amazon jungle, so the closer we got the greener the landscape became. This was the train we took.

And here are some shots from the trip.

Here we are at the entrance of the park.

And here we're standing in front of the city, excited to be where we were.

Notice the profile of the head in the background made by the mountain? I found this picture online where it is photoshopped to look more pronounced.

The Incas worshipped the elements - sun, water, earth, and wind. They said there was a fifth element as well, which was love, because without love you cannot worship anything. Each element had its own place of worship. This was the temple of the sun.

A few years ago some tourists drew graffiti on the walls of it so we couldn't go inside, only view it from the outside. Notice the two windows in it, one is in the front and the other one is off to the side. They were carefully and thoughtfully placed. During the winter solstice, the sun shines through one of the windows at such an angle that the light splits in two, so there is a shadow in the center. And during the summer solstice the same thing happens with the other window. We were there just a few days short of seeing this.

These steps leading up to the city functioned as their growing areas for the crops. They grew enough here to feed the entire city.

Notice the way these stones fit together, they fit almost perfectly. These stones didn't originate from the mountain they were on either, they were transported from a nearby mountain to be cut and put into place. I could barely manage a flight of stairs without getting out of breath, I can't even imagine what went into transporting enough stones from one mountain to another to build a city.

They cut the rocks in such a way that their breaks went along with the grooves already in place. Here is a rock that was almost cut. After the cut was made, it would have to be polished some more to to perfectly flat, and that process could take years.

The Incas also had a strong eye for art when they were building the city. A theme that comes up repeatedly in its design is the shape of the condor. This is a drawing from the original design of the city:

See how it resembles a bird? This is a sculpture inside the city, also representing a condor. The two big rocks at the back are the wings, and the white half ring at the base represents the white collar that condors have.

This is a sculpture in the style of cubism (apparently Picasso wasn't the first to invent the style), representing the mountain we are standing in front of. All of the faces on the sculpture are designed to catch the light in the same way the mountain does.

And this sculpture represents a constellation the Incas used for navigation. It's also a common shape in Incan designs, called the Inca cross. In the constellation, the stars point out north, south, east, and west. This sculpture shows only half of the shape, but when the sun shines on it its shadow creates the other half. I put the original design of the shape next to it.

 

This sculpture was used as a compass - each point represents a different direction. An interesting thing about this is that normally true north is not the same as compass north. This statue points to true north, as directed by the stars. However, here compass north and true north are the same. The reason for that is that Machu Picchu is partially magnetic, making them align.

The Incas also had very advanced medicine for their time. For example, they knew about blood transfusions. And they knew that to match blood types, you needed to take blood from pregnant women, because their blood will match 90% of the blood types in existence. They were able to perform brain surgeries as well. If you look at ancient Incan skulls in museums, some of them have multiple bumps of them from holes that were healed over all (meaning they survived), from surgeries performed. When surgery was performed, they used the white flower from this plant to help the patient with the pain. When you turn it into a tea, it makes the body entirely numb and acts as a hallucinogen, so the patient felt nothing and probably enjoyed the experience.

The tea from that plant was also used to help with meditation. The people would drink it and then go to the temple to meditate and relax the mind. Here was the temple they would use.

The acoustics in here were really good. We (the tour group) all chanted Om together in here, and it felt very loud and resonating.

The coca plant was also a big part of their lifestyle, for the reasons I mentioned in the previous post - it helps the body absorb oxygen, helping with the altitude, and is an antibiotic. If you look at ancient Incan skulls another curious thing is that most of them have a many teeth left. That's due to the coca leaf keeping the mouth clean. This is a baby coca plant growing inside the site.

Maintaining the site is a big job, since it is in the jungle and plants are always trying to claim it again. They have people working all day cleaning out growth from between the cracks of the stones and such. And to keep the lawn nice and short, they have llamas all over.

In my opinion, llamas are a much better solution than lawn mowers. They're energy efficient, cheap, and they will fertilize the lawn as well. And tourists like the llamas also, some will walk right up to you.

After the tour was over we were allowed to roam around the old city and explore a bit, so Greg and I took some more pictures.

Cuzco

Greg and I got back from our South American trip yesterday, and it was incredible. I love South America. The people are warm, the weather is beautiful, the land is colorful, and the food is delicious. I'm going to divide the details of the trip in 3 posts - Cuzco, Machu Picchu, and Easter Island, because there is too much to put all in one.

It was a long trip to get to Cuzco - we left on Friday afternoon and arrived midday Saturday. We stayed at a place called The Garden House, which was a great hotel in the city. It is run by 2 sisters who are both very warm and made us feel at home there. One of them spoke excellent english so communication wasn't a problem. They gave us a cell phone with their number programmed into it to use in case of an emergency, or just to call a cab. Our room was very big - it had a main room to sleep in and a sitting room. And the hotel was in a fenced off area in the city with gardens all around it, so when we looked out the window we had a nice view of the greenery.

Cuzco is at a very high altitude in the Andes mountains - it is at 11,200 feet, so it took a bit of time to acclimate. The owner of the hotel had oxygen should we need it, however the local medicine is coca. Coca is a very important plant around there and has been for hundreds of years. It can act as an antibiotic and helps the body absorb oxygen, helping with the altitude. When we arrived there was a tea station set up in our room with some coca tea to help us acclimate.

Greg was fine adjusting to the altitude, but it took me a few days. My first night I had a lot of trouble sleeping, but every day it got better. The coca tea definitely helped - it got rid of my headaches within a few sips. The Andes' people consider coca to be a sacred plant to them because of all of its benefits. It helps them with the altitude and it can act as an antibiotic as well, keeping the mouth clean. We stayed in Cuzco for 5 days, but I wish we were there for more because of that adjustment period.

Our first full day we went on a tour of the Sacred Valley. Our tour guide spoke only spanish, so it was a chance for both of us to practice our spanish. Surprisingly, I was able to understand most of it. What I didn't understand Greg was able to clarify for me. However, I still don't have the past tense entirely figured out so I did make a fool of myself on a few occasions.

Outside of Cuzco was mostly farmland. It was very beautiful, and a big contrast to the layout of the city. The Andes mountains were in the landscape, and the views were vast. We stopped by a market in Chinchero where they sold sweaters, scarves, backpacks, and handicrafts. I bought an alpaca brown sweater. Most of the things sold were handmade, like the weaving.

After that we stopped by a weaving town, Awana Kancha, to see how they made the yarn with which they did their weaving. Weaving is very popular around there, and some of the best weaving in the world is found in this area. They make it from scratch too, starting with the alpacas.

This is where they turn it into string and dye it. They had a spinning device they used to make it fine enough to weave with, and then they used natural dyes to color it.

This pot is cooking the color they use to dye the yarn. They use llama manure to start the fire to cook with, and then add the dye to the pot.

Here, each yarn is sitting in a bowl of what was used to dye it with. They used things like grains, corn, and leaves.

And here in between the dye bowls and yarn are the spinning devices they used to make the yarn fine.

We stopped by a weaving store with all handmade woven pieces. To give you an idea of just how intricate their woven pieces can be, I snapped this picture. It is entirely hand woven.

Incredible, right? I can't even comprehend the skill that went into making that. Here are some looms in progress.

I didn't buy any weaving, just the alpaca sweater. Greg bought a beautiful baby alpaca sweater also.

Because alpaca and weaving and wool are very popular around the area, so is knitting. I was able to find some baby alpaca yarns to knit with, at great prices too.

We saw some of the ruins from the ancient Incan empire in Ollantaytambo, but my photos didn't do them justice. Even though the cities are in ruins, you can tell that the Incas were brilliant architects. They worked with very heavy stones to build their cities, and in most cases they cut the stones to fit together perfectly. I have more pictures of that from Machu Picchu. They used the larger stones at the base of the city, and at the higher points they used smaller stones and mud to keep them in place.

Notice how perfectly cut this stone is that we're sitting on - every angle on it is 90 degrees.

One thing I never did adjust to in regards to the altitude was climbing stairs. And exploring these ruins involved climbing many stairs. Normally I am all about climbing stairs. At Dreamworks I made it a point to climb the 4 flights of stairs every day, and I usually choose it over an escalator when I have the choice. But here I was getting short of breath after less than a flight. It was a great feeling being able to climb stairs again when we reached the Lima airport. 

We passed this statue on our drive, its design is in traditional Incan style.

Almost all of the land around the Sacred Valley is cultivated for crops. They grew some grains that we don't have, a lot of quinoa, and a few different types of corn. There was one corn in particular that was really good - it was called Choclo. It's grown without chemicals and has a starchy taste. Here Greg's holding a cob of it. It's hard to tell from this picture, but the kernels are a lot bigger than our conventional yellow corn. It was served with a locally made cheese instead of butter. I didn't have the cheese, but Greg said it was good.

They also served a popcorn version of this corn, which was also delicious. It was a bit chewier than our normal popcorn, and sweeter.

Here's an overhead view of the crops on the land.

At the end of the tour, we stopped by a wildlife rehabilitation center. Its mission was the same as the one I've been working at, but they handle much bigger animals, and most of them come from the amazon.

These wildcats were taken from a disco down in Lima. The owners of the disco had them on display and people could pay to pet them. They were declawed so unfortunately they can't be released again. Most animals they get they are able to release in a few months.

These are vicunas, they are related to the llama. They produce the softest, rarest, and most expensive wool in the world. And they are very aggressive creatures, so it is hard to sheer them. 

At the end of our visit to the sanctuary I got to pet a stray kitten that came running up to us. There were many stray cats and dogs we saw around Cuzco and the Sacred Valley, but this was the only kitten. I bent down to pet it and it jumped right into my lap and started purring. 

Our last full day in Cuzco we explored the Plaza de Armas, which is a big touristy area with a lot of shopping and activity. We stopped by a chocolate museum while we were there, where we tried chocolate tea. It was made by steeping the cocoa bean husks. I thought it was delicious - it didn't taste like chocolate milk or hot chocolate, it wasn't that thick, but still had the distinctive dark chocolate taste.

Chocolate is becoming a more prominent crop down in Peru. Many of the coca farmers don't like the fact that their sacred crop is being used in the illegal production of cocaine, so they are switching over to producing cocoa instead.

We were in the Plaza de Armas on June 19th, and they were preparing for a big celebration on June 24th. The sun plays a very prominent role in the Incan culture and worship, and June 24th is right around their winter solstice. It is called the Inca Sun Festival. To celebrate, the students all put on a dance with music and costumes around the square. They were practicing when we were there.

The Plaza de Armas felt very safe the entire time we were there. There were many tourists, even late into the night and many of the shops stayed open after dark. The shopping was great too - there were some beautiful alpaca stores where they sold sweaters, shawls, scarves, and yarn. I would have loved to stay a few more days to see some more of the markets. 

The host of the hotel we were staying at was talking to us about how most people who live in Cuzco can't find it in them to leave. The city is not without its share of problems. There is corruption in the government, and there is a lot of development happening around the area without a city planner, so many of the buildings look disjointed, and quite a few are left unfinished when the owner runs out of money. You cannot drink the water either. However, there is a strong sense of community among the residents and something very romantic about the area. I think it has to do with the mountains. Like the ocean, the mountains are very calming to look at. Despite the city's size, it is dwarved by having them in the landscape.