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Examples of local textiles at a small museum in Cuzco.
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Inca wall in Cuzco: you're supposed to notice that the
stones are fit together without mortar...
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Up on a hill above Cuzco is a ruin called Sacsayhuaman
(pronounced like "sexy woman")... Initially thought to be a
fortress, but more likely was a religious site.
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View down to the main square of Cuzco from up on that
hill.
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Zigzag walls at Sacsayhuaman, thought to represent
either lightning (worshiped as a god by the Incas) or the teeth of a
puma (king of the Andes)...
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Sacsayhuaman overlooking Cuzco. According to legend,
the first Inca had central Cuzco built in the shape of a puma, with
Sacsayhuaman as the head (hence the teeth...)
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Time for some fun with the camera in the streets of
Cuzco... this is nothing special, just windows that looked cool.
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more Cuzco
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The cathedral, across the main square.
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All the propane tanks around were labelled with this
name as well. Care to speculate about the collection facilities? :)
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Windows, also in the main square I think.
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I seem to have a strange fascination with arches and
columns and the like... the light was really nice on this one in the
main square of Cuzco.
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Archways again... At the Santa Catalina Monastery of
Arequipa, another town in southern Peru.
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In another cloister, this one attached to a different
church a couple blocks south of Arequipa's main square.
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The volcano El Misti behind one end of the cathedral of
Arequipa.
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Back in Cuzco. A Quechua woman in traditional dress
with her llama.
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Overlooking the Sacred Valley. This is a fertile
agricultural area along the Urubamba River. Yes, it really was that
green!
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Agricultural terraces, and housing for "important
people"... we're on a warm-up hike up to Intihuatana, another sun
temple/religious area just above Pisac (a town overlooking the Sacred
Valley)
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More terraces, along our hike back down to Pisac.
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Chinchero, a tiny town at around 12,500 ft, with a big
Inca wall and a Spanish church.
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Market area in Chinchero.
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We were invited in to a family's home to learn a little
about the process of dyeing wool for making textiles: here are some of
the plants that are used for color.
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Spinning...
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Examples of some of the colors...
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Weaving
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I can't get over the color on this one.
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Cat.
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Now on to the trek! We walked with horses for the first
four days, they carried our group equipment, etc. and a couple came
along with saddles in case anyone needed to ride. The little boy there
is Joel, the son of our head horseman.
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Early in day 2 we passed this village...
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Our campsite for the 2nd night. Do you think they
could've picked a more beautiful spot???
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Heading upward again on day 3 -- you can see John along
the trail here. The trail curves around to the left there and heads up
to our highest pass.
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Huayanay Glacier, surprisingly on Huayanay Mountain. We
seemed close enough to touch it at one point!
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Yup, here we are at our highest point on the trek,
15,776 ft according to our itinerary (though my altimeter and Pavel's
GPS had differing opinions...)
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We had some really beautiful views of these mountains
on our way down from the pass and into a long valley.
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Llamas!!!
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These kids were _so_ cute, just staring at us, very
curious...
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At the end of day 4 we found ourselves at relatively
low elevation, around 9,800 ft., so we got our first glimpses of some
of the "cloud forest" or "high jungle" flora... Here is a bromeliad!
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Our group with our horsemen -- this is in the morning
of day 5, when we said goodbye to these guys -- no horses on the Inca
Trail.
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Starting from that valley you see on the very left hand
side of the picture, it's 4000 ft up over 4.5 miles to Dead Woman's
Pass. Here's Rene checking out how far we've come already.
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Here's Magneto at Dead Woman's Pass!
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Porters at Dead Woman's Pass
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Inca checkpoint.
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Typical of our trail -- there were a _lot_ of stairs!!
(I would've been happier if I'd had ice for my knees every night...)
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Wildflowers.
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Orchids (we're starting to descend into the high
jungle, or cloud forest, so the vegetation was changing accordingly...)
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Wildflowers
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This is cane.
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If you wondered why they call it cloud forest...
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Andean bamboo.
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I think they said these were begonias? What do I know
about flowers...
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Salcantay Mountain, roughly 20,000ft... This is first
light on day 7, we found our campsite to be now above the clouds and
saw the most fantastic sunrise...
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There's our campsite.
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More scenery along our morning hike on day 7.
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First view of Machu Picchu, from the Sun Gate. I'd just
climbed up so many steep stairs, I can't believe I didn't think to take
a picture of them for you!
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I made it!
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Misty buildings
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In the agricultural sector.
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The temple to Pachamama (Mother Earth), constructed
within a natural cave...
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Mountains coming through behind the clouds... this
place was so beautiful!
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The Sun Temple, with the window through which the sun
shines in perfect alignment on the winter solstice. Very Indiana Jones.
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Looking from above at the Sun Temple.
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The one tree they left up as they dug this place out of
the jungle, just to show you how tall the vegetation was here!
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Temple of the Condor (see the beak on the ground, and
the two wings are the natural rock formations above).
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All the houses would've had thatched roofs like this.
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This one really needs no label. It's too bad it's a
little out of focus though!
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