Posted 7:02 AM by MelanieandSteve
CUZCO AND THE SACRED VALLEY SURROUNDINGS, 25 June - 1 July

MORE TO LEARN / CATCHING MORE CECHUAN IN CUZCO AREA: With the Inti Raymi Festival over, we had a week in Cuzco to catch some Cechuan/Incan history and culture.

MUSEUM OF INCA: We went to the Incan museum and Melanie enjoyed a guided explanation of Cechuan astronomy, artisanry and history. Once the Incan empire was so large that if its geographic area were super-imposed on Europe, it would have covered Madrid to Moscow.

SURROUNDINGS OF THE CITY, TOUR:

INCAN SITES AROUND THE CITY: Numerous Incan historic sites surround Cuzco. We saw several including the Cathedral, the old temple of Qorikancha, ruins of Saqsaywaman, and several smaller ruins.

CATHEDRAL: Melanie had attended service at Cuzco's cathedral on Sunday. We revisited it Thursday with a guide. The Cathedral was built by Spanish on the location of formal Incan Palace. Spanish used many strong Incan stones taken from Saqsaywaman's walls. Inside, we saw various Christ figure representations, but our Cechuan guide did not refer to the man on the cross as Jesus, but rather "the Patron Saint of Earthquakes". The Jesus figure had dark Incan skin, though Mary his mother was still typically light skinned. Our guide insisted JesusÂ? dark skin was merely discoloration from the smoke of devotional candles. The fact that he was so evenly colored and that Mary, right next to him, remained fare lent credence to different guides who explained that Cechuans crafted Jesus with dark skin out of ethnic pride and resistance to the Spanish Imposed dominance. There were other examples of Native Americanization of religious iconography. Like with Jesus the "Patron Saint of Earthquakes," our guide referred to Mother Mary as "Pachamama", or the Cechuan mother earth. On one wall hung a large painting of "The Last Supper." Jesus and the disciples sat around a platter that was empty but for a single bony, ungarnished rodent carcass. This skeletal main course was a Peruvian specialty called Cuy, or roastedguineaa pig.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE AND RUINS: After revisiting Qorikancha and Saqsaywaman, familiar sites from the last week's festival of Inti Raymi, we saw three smaller ruins. Steve drank from the life-giving natural spring fountains at Marchay Tambu. Our guide said that thanks to those fertility and life giving waters, we should now expect to be blessed soon with twins or triplets. Marchay Tambu and Pucapuccara, the next site each had observation posts so Incans could communicate visually from several kilometers apart. And in Qenko, which means zigzag, we walked through a zigzag shaped cave and admired jagged carvings on the outer walls.

SUNRISE ON STEVE'S BIRTHDAY AND THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN: We returned to Qenko the next day and we hailed in Steve's birthday in a special way with an Incan Solstice Sunrise. In the days surrounding Winter Solstice, a boulder at Qenko casts a shadow in the shape of a puma on the ruin walls. After sunrise, but still in the tawny morning light, we headed deeper into the hills by dirt road to the less-visited Â?Temple of the Sun and MoonÂ?. Dark caverns had holes in the roofs were calculated to cast light on alter tables. Curvey red rock tunnels glowed a warm morning red. Shapes of animals were carved into the rock walls including an elephant, a condor, a snake and a human face. Near these ruins, modern day Cechuan workers freeze dried Peruvian potatoes on frost-covered fields so that they could be stored up to five years. And from the ruins, we could see archaeological workers excavating a site they believed to be an Incan burial ground.
SACRED VALLEY: We took one day to explore ruins in the Sacred Valley as far as seventy kilometers from Cuzco.

PISAQ: We hiked a steep trail to mountain-top Pisaq ruins and its iconic mountain-terraces used for agricultural production. Well-polished Incan walls of the religious and nobility sites topped the ruin and unpolished stone cubicles were built as common peoples' dwellings surrounding it.

OLLANTAYTAMBO: This significant site of Spanish-Cechuan battles was the furthest point that the Spanish went in the Sacred Valley. Incans destroyed evidence of their trails beyond this point to keep out the looting Spanish. So important ruins like Machu pichu only 50 km away remained undiscovered for 400 years to come. The huge boulders at this site were cut from a quarry opposite the river valley. To cross the river, Incans laid the monolithic rocks by the shore and diverted the whole river around them. A mountain face opposite the valley had two cliff-side carvings of Incan faces. The town below, still inhabited today, was built on still standing Incan wall foundations.

CHINCHERA: Chinchera, a less restored, but occupied ruins, rested on a cliff top with a spectacular view over high hills and a river valley, and it bustled with colorful artisan markets. In a small Spanish church with Cechuan and colonial artwork inundating the inner walls, the Jesus figure lay in a glass sepulcher more like a mausoleum, rather than hanging on an Iconic cross.

NEXT TIME, THE INCAN TRAIL: Starting where the Spanish Conquistadors left off, we walked for four days, 42 kilometers through woods and jungle, walls and ruins, trees and trails through the heart of the Sacred Valley leading to the Lost City of Machu Pichu.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO: Xurris M., Christophe B., Kim T., Emily W., Skip S., Maria B., Sabina, Alex W., Darryn K., Michael R., Alfred S., STEVE, Dori W., and Nyla.