The Story of our trip to Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador & Galapagos Trip 31.7 to 15.8.10

[caramelo]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[caramelo]

 

 

The Dance of Toba is a figurative representation of the tribes of the Bolivian Chaco. From pre-colonial relationship between the Andean and Amazonian culture was of domination and resistance. In their raids, the army took prisoners silvicultural Quechua, called ch'unch'us. The arrival of these eastern to the western world in the Aymara inspired the creation of a dance named ch'unch'u precisely, it is not just a way of cultural appropriation.

 

 

 

 

We have seen that many of the dances mean something, such as the celebration in honor of a saint or a virgin or other naturopathic doctors were against evil beings and demonic character, and so are in many of their dance wear masks and disguise, etc.:

 

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We returned to the hotel after the show and we connected to the oxygen machine for about 10 minutes before going to bed ……. which was a great help …….. we went early to bed as we had another early start …… we had to be at the reception at 6:30 am for the airport shuttle.

 

TO BE CONTINUED ………. in CUSCO, PERU. ……………..

[land lover]

HI Caramelo..

 

Lori from the Xpedtion thread............

 

ONE word Fanastic......

Edited December 10, 2010 by land lover

[Christine Frances]

Can't wait for more:D

[caramelo]

Thanks so much for your nice comments. I´ll be back sooooooon with more! :)

[dan_and_joe]

Caramelo, thank you for your fascinating travelogue!!

Can't wait to see the Galapagos part!

[caramelo]

Thanks Dan & Joe, yes the Galapagos part will be worth the wait!

[caramelo]

Tuesday, 3rd of August.

After having had some in the hotel before going to bed we slept very well until 3 o'clock in the morning when suddenly the hotel alarm went off. There was no reason for the alarm and I think it just went off by mistake but it took us a long time to get back to sleep and I think that just when we'd gone to sleep our alarm clock went off!

We were collected for transfer to the airport at 6:30 am

The airport of La Paz:

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed seeing the airport full of local people and not only with tourists:

 

 

 

 

The flight from La Paz to Cuzco only lasted 45 minutes and again we had a one tour difference in the local time so we left La Paz at 9:25am and we arrived in Cuzco at 9:20am!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First images taken from the plane landing at the airport of Cuzco:

 

 

[caramelo]

When we left the airport somebody was waiting for us with our name on their sign to transfer us to our hotel.

 

Cuzco in Quechua (indigenous language spoken by the Andes spoken by between 8 and 10 million people) means "navel or belly-button of the world because the 4 main Inca Trails to N. S. E & W of the great Inca Civilization great leave from of this city.

 

It is a city in southeast Peru, at 3300 meters above sea level right in the Andes, and was the capital of the Inca Empire and today is considered the archaeological capital of America.

 

These were our first impressions of Cuzco on the way from the airport to the hotel:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the photo below the monument has the texto f the hymn of Cuzco:

 

 

 

 

The Hymn to Cusco is a composition of Musical cusqueños Luis Grandson Vantage point and Ojeda Robert Bell that the Provincial Municipality of the Cusco adopted in the years 1970s like hymn of the city. The letters of the hymn translated into English are the following:

 

 

Choir:

 

 

Cusco, Cusco is your name sagrado

 

like the sun of inkario inmortal

everybody takes in pecho

 

to you as song and flag triunfal.

 

 

 

Invincible bastion of your race,

 

greets the towns standing up to you;

and the mother country that honor in your estirpe

of places in the forehead laurel.

 

 

 

 

Verses:

 

 

eternal Cusco, your golden reliquias

 

worked goldsmiths of the Sol.

Your feats carved siglos

and your image the glory esculpió

 

 

 

 

That puts naciones

 

standing up that shoots to their song of estrellas

and that the world renders homenaje

to you inclining in your honor his pendon.

[caramelo]

More images of the typical streets on the way to the hotel:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And women dressed in their traditional clothing with llamas waiting for the tourists who pay to take a picture with her!

 

 

 

[caramelo]

We had some free time until our excursión at 1:30pm.

 

 

This break suited us wonderfully and we relaxed a bit and then we walked to the main square, Plaza de Armas, about 300m from our hotel (in our excursion I´ll go into more detail about this Square).

 

We eat something light at an Italian restaurant in the square. I did like the bottles placed on the ceiling of the restaurant:

 

 

 

 

 

But not respecting the rules to avoid problems with the altitude we did not take any alcohol, but only the local mineral water of Cuzco or in this case Cusco (you find it written both ways with a “z” or an “s”):

 

 

 

 

We also ate more peaceful knowing we were in a safe place in case of an earthquake!:

 

 

 

 

Joking aside it is said that in Cuzco they have big earthquakes every 3 centuries.

[caramelo]

We were collected at 1:30pm to start which today was with a group of about 25 people.

 

The first stop was already in La Plaza de Armas of Qosqo where the Cathedral and its two smaller churches (the Church of the Sagrada Familia & the church of Triumph) are located.

 

 

 

 

The Qosqo Cathedral is without doubt one of the most remarkable monuments of America Colonial, it´s renaissance structure is 86.80 meters long and 46.20 meters wide and 20.70 meters high. It is shaped like a Latin cross, a central nave and two aisles, twenty arches, supported by stout columns that end in simple awned cornices. Inside the cathedral there are ten chapels, including the vestry, all barred doors guarded by gold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The entrance ticket:

 

 

 

 

Today to visit the monument, you enter through the door of the "Church of Triumph" which is precisely the same place of the old cathedral made on "Sunturwasi," meaning that the place had been occupied in the Inca by Wirakocha Inca palace.

 

 

The Church of Triumph:

 

 

[caramelo]

The Church of the Sacred Family

 

 

 

 

The Cathedral is notable for the large variety and quantity of art treasures it holds.In the vestry are pictures of unquestionable merit suchas the famous Christ attributed to Van Dyck and portraits of the bishops of Cuzco.The entire temple is full of pictures, many of them of great artistic value, such as the Madonna placed on the Altar of Sorrows, the Virgin of Bethlehem "historical anecdotes depicting a scene, the" Virgen of Almudena "," The Death of Santa Catalina ","The Apotheosis of San Cristobal”, and many others.

 

It was forbidden to take pictures inside the cathedral but I scanned some postcards that we bought there:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My attention was drawn to the painting depicting Christ and his apostles in the "Last Supper" by Marcos Zapata from Cusco. The painting is arguably the most famous of the cathedral since the middle of the table can see a tray containing a roast guinea pig, a speciality dish in the Andes, inherited from the Inkas and consumed only on special occasions; also the artist put on the table Andean products such as papayas and peppers, or elements of their ancestral world:

 

 

 

 

The next visit was to the Convent of Santo Domingo which is another important building dating from the sixteenth century.It was built on the old sanctuary of the Temple of the Sun Qorikancha

 

 

 

 

 

 

[caramelo]

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a convent of the Order of Preachers.During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Convento de Santo Domingo became the way where the friars trying to reach Spain had to cross.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the earthquake of 1650, the structure of the Convent of Santo Domingo was seriously affected.Then they began the repair work which only finished in1680.

 

 

The inclination of 7 degrees impregnable walls made it survive earthquakes since the time of its construction until today. The following picture is from a postcard I bought.

 

 

[caramelo]

I was surprised to see so many police when we came out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the above photo they don´t seem to be so many but in the following photo you can see their workmates beside the wall and in total there are 13! :

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if I include their 10 friends who were in the Plaza de Armas, hahaha

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just outside you had the local women trying to get the tourists to pay for a photo with them and their baby llamas or they tried to sell some of their textiles:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this one with a client:

 

 

 

[caramelo]

Once we had finished in the center of Cuzco we move to the suburbs.

 

We noticed the radical change between the center and tourist area and the streets even just a few hundred meters from the center, similar to what we had seen in Lima and La Paz, humble and poor areas... ... ... so closebut so different.On the other hand we also saw great potential for future growth.

 

Our agency gave us another entrance ticket that would be needed for both the sites which would visit today and also for what we would see tomorrow:

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped a few miles from Cuzco to see the famous fortress of Sacsayhuaman, strategically built on a hill overlooking Cuzco.Its fame comes from its enormous carved stones joined with astounding precision, which formed the outer walls.Some of them exceeding 9m in height and weighing over 350 tonnes, one of the greatest architectural works of the Incas. The stones fit so perfectly that no blade of grass or steel can slide between them. There is no mortar. They often join in complex and irregular surfaces that would appear to be a nightmare for the stonemason

 

What is sad is that just 30% remains of what it was, because with the arrival of Spanish colonizers and their descendants and future, they used the stones and blocks to build the foundations of many buildings in Cuzco.

 

Sacsayhuaman was actually a Sun Temple and also was where the Incas performed their sacred rites and festivals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sun Temples were privileged complexes, much like small towns within the city of Cusco, where the general God or the Sun was worshiped, but where also lesser gods and individuals were worshiped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It still is surprising that for a culture so close in time, there is so little written about it and there are still so many unknown answers or information.

[caramelo]

These are the views from there ... ... ....in the background you can see the letters on the mountain "Long live the glorious BIM 9 Cusco Peru, I supposed it was to celebrate a battle won by the 9th Motorized Infantry Battalion Cusco:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was funny to see this woman take her llama in the same way that you take your dog for a walk:

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the llama didn´t want to go:

 

 

 

 

 

 

But she managed in the end:

 

 

 

 

 

We saw a group of sellers waiting for the tourists:

 

 

[caramelo]

In the surrounding area you can see a replica of the Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, but this one which was a gift from a Palestinian settlement is somewhat smaller.Interestingly it appears that the largest is in Bolivia but the Brazilian one is more famous and seems to be bigger because it is up on a hill.

 

 

 

 

 

When we left Sacsayhuaman we saw some nice landscape and countryside on the way:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some country houses:

 

 

 

 

 

[caramelo]

Then we went to Tambomachay, or Tampumachay (from Quechua: tanpu mach'ay, resting place) which is an archaeological site associated with the Inca Empire, located near Cusco, Peru. An alternate local name is the El Baño del Inca, "The Bath of the Inca".

It consists of a series of aqueducts, canals and waterfalls that run through the terraced rocks. The function of the site is uncertain: it may have served as a military outpost guarding the approaches to Cusco, as a spa resort for the Incan political elite, or both.

 

It lies at an altitude of 3700 meters above sea level and 7 km northwest of Cusco and 2 km. from Sacsayhuaman and occupies an area of 437 meters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have heard about the “black sheep” but what about “black llamas”? hahaha:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It also known as "Baño de la Ñusta" (Bath of the Ñusta) or "Balneario Inca" (Incan Watering Place). The monument is remarkable due to its architectonic excellence. We can appreciate four walls or graded terraces embedded to the hill, made of irregular carved-stone polyhedrons, brilliantly assembled, and which make up three parallel cultivation terraces. A thick wall (15 meters long and 4 meters high) decorated with four niches erects on the last polyhedron. The stones had been perfectly adjusted. It has four large trapezoidal niches of 2 meters on average. In front of the building there was a circular large fortified tower that must have had defense and communication aims.

The water itself was worshiped as the source of life.

 

Tambomachay has an extraordinary hydraulic system. Two aqueducts, artistically carved on the rock, transport and keep a constant flow of clean water during the whole year, which comes from a large puddle located at a higher level.

 

This network of underground channels pours its waters in a small stone puddle situated at the lowest level. This puddle had to be a liturgical spring, where the Inca worshiped the water with the noblemen of the Empire.

 

The "Baño de la Ñusta" is very similar to that of Ollantaytambo, made of stones perfectly assembled, with carved edge and drainage gutters. Even though it is now an opencast work, the foundations seem to indicate that it was a closed precinct originally. We enter through four trapezoid portal platforms with double jamb.

 

 

If you look the monument from the river you will be able to see two thick walls that cut the support wall. The wall that faces the river has two big niches and the other, almost perpendicular to the first one, has a door with double jamb. This kind of door was used by the Incas to stress the significance of a place. Through that door we get to a small room in which we can see the water that springs from the bowels of the Earth.

 

 

So far we haven't been able to discover the origin of the spring that supplies such clear and abundant water to the sources. Some people think that the slight slope in where the site is situated does not have the capacity to produce said water and that it can come from the opposite bank of the river. However, the one thing that cannot deny is the perfection of the channel carving. The sound of the water, the quietness and peace of the environment, as well as the closed and secluded form of the space in which it was constructed, give Tambomachay a peculiar atmosphere. Besides, it is a great sample of the skills of Andean architects to harmonize constructions and landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[caramelo]

 

 

Our last stop was the Temple of Quenco.

 

 

It is located on the hill Socorro, 3 km from the city of Cusco and one kilometer of Sacsayhuaman. Apparently this is a place of worship of water. We found many carved rocks among which a large monolith stood out and it is believed that this was used for magical rituals to worship the water.

 

 

 

 

[caramelo]

We returned to the hotel at 6:30 pm and after a shower we walked back to the Plaza of Armas which was very close to the hotel and we dined at the Makayla restaurant which offered typical Andean food and it was located on the 1st floor with nice views overlooking the square lit up at night.

 

 

This is their website:

 

 

http://www.makaylacusco.com/index_es.html

 

 

 

These were the views from our table:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got a fright as suddenly my husband jumped from the table and ran from the restaurant.He said something, but it all happened so quickly that I didn´t understand what he had said. I just knew something had happened ... ... ... it was not normal to go out running in this way without any explanation.The only thing I could think of was thatbefore dinner we went to a place to change money and I thought maybe he has forgotten his wallet and ran off to look for it ... ... ... could find no logical explanation to the situation ... ... I only knew that something had happened ....BUT WHAT ??????

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED…………………..

[caramelo]

It seemed a long time but may have only been a few minutes, but eventually my husband returned and what was my surprise ... ... ... .. to see that he was not alone but accompanied by 2 other people ……. And I knew them …. It was a couple from Malta who we had met a year ago on another trip in South Africa and during that holiday we shared several excursions together day after day and eventually built up a friendship with them – when we returned journey we exchanged several emails butasthe months passed, due to their very stressful job, they had no time and the contact died out. The last email was from last Christmas.

 

 

By chance we met up again in Cuzco. What an amazing coincidence!I understand that you can be in the same city as someone without knowing it, but to coincide in the same street, at the same time, and to be looking in the right direction to see one another is incredible.My husband had seen them from the 1st floor restaurant overlooking the square and ran to catch them, knowing that if he had waited to explain it to me then he wouldn´t have had time to catch them!

 

 

We were all so happy with the unexpected reunion and we celebrated by taking a "pisco sour".They had a reservation at another place for dinner and we had already eaten, but we've arranged to have dinner together the next night.Both they and we had booked the trip with different itineraries and different agencies but in general would be covering some of the same places ... ... ....and now I can tell you as an anecdote that over the entire trip we met by chance one night in Cuzco, again at the entrance of Machu Picchu, at the airport in Balta, even on an island in the Galapagos being in twodifferent ships and where normally two boats do not go to the same island at one time to avoid overcrowding, and even on the flight back to Baltra to Guayaquil, ie up to 5 times and by chance without having arranged to meet!So I think fate was trying to tell us something ... .. that we need to stay in touch.

 

 

Wednesday, 4th of August.

 

 

We went down for breakfast and on the elevator door was this sign again reminding us that we were in an active area for earthquakes:

 

 

 

 

 

For breakfast we replaced the coffee with coca leaf tea (Mate de Coca)

 

Mate de coca or coca tea (Quechua kuka) is a coca leaf tea popular and typical of the Andean regions of Bolivia, Peru, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina.

 

It is an ancient beverage consumed as both a stimulant and to treat altitude sickness or mountain sickness, not being harmful or toxic.It also has a symbolic value.The drink produces an energizing effect similar to coffee.The sale and consumption of coca leaf is legal in Peru and Bolivia.It is common in restaurants to end the meal offering a coca tea in bags or sachets to stimulate digestion.It can be sweetened with sugar or honey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone jokes about coca tea relating it to drugs but seemingly it has nothing to do with the same, as the drug is mixed with chemicals etc., and leaves alone only help to give some energy in the same way as if you were to drink a “red-bull. "The truth is that I did not notice any effect ... no extra energy ... or anything ... ... ....just as if I had taken a chamomile tea, for example!

 

 

After my coca tea we have collected at 8:30 pm for a private tour of the Sacred Valley.El Valle Sagrado of the Incas in the Andes is composed of many rivers flowing through gorges and valleys, has many archaeological monuments and indigenous peoples, among them are Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero

 

 

The valley was appreciated by the Incas due to its special geographical and climatic qualities.It was one of the main points of production because of the richness of their land and place where it produces the best maize in Peru.

 

 

We were lucky with today's guide, Juan Carlos, who was really great and explained everything extremely well.First we made the trip in reverse to get to the places before they got crowded with the bus tours.

 

 

Again we went through many of the narrow streets of downtown Cuzco:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[caramelo]

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went out of Cuzco towards the countryside where we saw a lot of scenes of everyday life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We could see from a distance where we had been the day before visiting the Incan ruins of Sacsayhuaman:

 

 

[caramelo]

More scenes of the daily life:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[caramelo]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the middle of the country miles from anywhere we found these local women trying to sell their products and textiles:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We carried on driving through the countryside: