Peru: Day Eight - Part One

This was our last day in Peru, and also Thanksgiving. We had some time before our flight back to Lima, so after a lovely breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and wandered around Cusco with our backpacks on, which was quite the adventure. We went to the center of town and walked around, looking for touristy things to do. The first place we wandered into was the monastery of La Merced, which had a gorgeous collection of painting of the life of St Peter (not the St Peter; this was one from the 15th century, I believe). They also had some really interesting Catholic artifacts. I tried to find a website so you could see pictures of the non-photographables, but apparently they're really serious about that. The pictures are gorgeous, the artifacts are gorgeous. The most amazing part was the hand painted cloister. It was really a sight to see. We were able to take pictures of the courtyard in the middle, though.

A tiny door in Cusco. This is fairly common in Peru.

After that lovely bit of history, we wandered into what was quite possibly the most horrifying museum I had ever been to. There were many terribly taxidermied animals displayed in a small room. I took a lot of pictures, but I no longer feel comfortable sharing all of them (let me know if you're interested in the scary ones, and I'll share them with you). There was also a wide variety of native potatoes, etc.

After the museum of terror, walked by the beautiful church, and found a lovely bench to sit and enjoy the warmth of the day. It had been fairly cool that week, so I was really enjoying one last taste of sunshine before heading back to winter. My team lead had told me before leaving that I needed to take a moment and just drink everything in, so we did and I'm really glad we took time for that. We watched people walking by, and I took an opportunity to do an Emperor's New Groove move, because Cusco.

Peru: Day Seven

Machu Picchu!!! This is the day I had been waiting for all week. There are so many interesting things about Machu Picchu, so I really recommend you read the Wikipedia article. There are also some cool long distance shots on the article, including one of the road the bus takes up to Machu Picchu.

We took a train to the town just outside Machu Picchu, as no roads are allowed through the canyon. It was a three hour ride, featuring some really cool zig-zag railroad technology to get through the canyon. At one point, the train went backwards and forwards to go lower in the canyon. It was really interesting, and a really pretty ride.

Once we arrived at the base town, if you will, we had buy our tickets, which were really expensive. About 150 American dollars, which was practically more than we had paid for the rest of the trip since landing. I believe we bought a ticket for Machu Picchu, and then a separate one for the bus (the blue picture below) Totally worth it, though. We took the bus up to Machu Picchu, which took about twenty minutes. This was also a gorgeous ride. Machu Picchu is located in a very rainforest-y area.

We arrived at Machu Picchu, and Bergs found us an English speaking guide to take us through. His name was Alain, and he was quite fantastic. He took us over to a table and stamped a Machu Picchu stamp in my passport, which I thought was pretty cool.

Before I go to the pictures, I'll just finish out the day. We were pretty exhausted, so we just went back to hotel and had a dinner of granola bars and crackers (we did that a lot on the trip), and I washed my hair, which was wonderful.

I know it's a ton of pictures, but it was all so fantastic.

 Dramatic llama looks out over his kingdom...

 Alain was really cool about taking pictures for us. He even pointed out all the great spots for photos.

 This is the embalming room. The Incas believed in rebirth, so they buried their bodies in the fetal position.

 They believe this to be a baptismal font, just below the temple.

 These were used to track the position of the sun.

 More embalming room...I think.

 The condor, which was the messenger to the upper world. The Incas also believed that the jaguar ruled the earth we live on, and that the snake was for the world below.

 I got a little artsy on a staircase going below the grass line.

 This is the temple on the very top of the mountain. There were three buildings with three walls.

 This is an example of the original rock left from carving Machu Picchu out of the mountainside.

 They call this "the quarry". It's what the whole mountain looked like before the city was built.

 A long way down...

These are the flowers at the train station.

Peru: Day Six - Part Two

After Ollantaytambo, we stopped for lunch at a mostly outdoor buffet. The food was in a building with open doors all around, and the tables were in gazebos. We had a good time chatting with the other members of the group. They all talked about how exhausted they'd been their first days in Peru because of the altitude. Bergs and I were pretty proud of ourselves for not being affected. We attributed this, of course, to Utah's high elevation.

After lunch, which also involved seeing a wild macaw in a tree (that was quite awesome), we moved on to Chinchero (Wikipedia's article was not really worth linking). The interesting thing about Chinchero is that the Spanish built their town right on top of the Inca city. The stone Inca walls all lean in, which made them more earthquake resistant, and the Spanish walls on top are straight and white.

There's not much else to say about Chinchero, so cue the pictures!

Those last two pictures are a passion fruit tree growing on top of a cherry tree, and some delicious Peruvian chocolate.

After Chinchero, we went down the road (probably still Chinchero, really) to see a silver jewelry making demonstration and a yarns dying demonstration. I didn't get any pictures from the silver place, but I did of the dying. The women who dye these yarns pass their knowledge down from generation to generation, as many of them cannot read or write. They know exactly how various additions to the dye will change the color. It really was amazing. Fun fact: their shoes are made of recycled tires.

After the demonstration, we headed back to Cusco, being entertained by a pan pipe player the tour bus picked up. Bergs and I bought his CD of various covers being played by a pan pipe with accompaniment.

We arrived at the hotel and checked into our room, and I ran around, all excited by the fanciness of the hotel. It was even fancy based on American standards. Tiny cookies on the nightstand between the beds, a space heater, fancy folded toilet paper, A TOILET SEAT! I topped the night off by taking a nice HOT shower. A pretty great day, all in all.