Thursday, September 26, 2019

Day 8: Ollantaytambo & Chinchero

Today we started at Ollantaytambo.  This town is one of the few in Peru that remains in the same layout from Inca times.  The walls of the city are astounding.


Inca doorways were also prominent.


This is what a street looked like during the Inca rule.  


There has been water running through this town from mountain streams since the Incas.  Again their engineering skills were amazing.


There are a number of waterfalls that have run at the bottom of their unfinished temple since they were built.

This fortress on the mountaintop was built by the Kilke people.


On the right side is the unfinished Inca temple that was being built during the time of the Spanish conquest. It was never finished.


On the opposite side of the valley there were also tons of terraces and food storage facilities.




Apparently there were two types of disasters that affected the ancient people of Peru.  The first was earthquakes, which I knew.  The second was el Nino and/or la Nina.  These ocean currents affected rainfall and temperature.  As the result, the Inca build tons of food storage facilities all over the place.  It's astounding to see all of the terraces for growing and storehouses for storing.  We drove to Chincero (12,500 feet) to see more terraces and a weaving community.







There is a great young chef that moved to Maras and opened a restaurant in her home.  Awesome.



Tomorrow on to Machu Picchu.



Day 14: Cooking Class and Leaving Cusco

Today is my last day in Peru.  It has been a wonderful trip.  I started at the San Pedro Market today.  The design was from Eifel in France....