Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley

Bit of a long post but no apologies as it was all incredible. We began with the big one, Machu Picchu, then worked our way back up the Sacred Valley, the magnificence of Ollantaytambo followed by the little visited Tipón (not in the Sacred Valley) then the market and ruins of Pisac before the weird and wonderful salt mine at Maras and the sink holes of Moray...

There are many theories as to why Machu Picchu was built, what it was used for and why it was abandoned.

During his life time, Hiram Bingham (a man often given rather too much credit) postulated that it was both the birthplace of Inca society and then the legendary 'lost city' of Vilcabamba, where the last Inca rulers waged a length battle against Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.

Wrong it turns out on both counts. And for the record, the Spanish conquistadors never discovered MP, fortunately, which is why it is in such good nick.

Bingham also speculated that it was a holy nunnery, a temple devoted to the virgins of the sun, based on finding many 'small' skeletons that were thought to be nearly all females. This was also proved false when modern analysis techniques in 2000 showed that actually the skeletons included about equal numbers of males and females. It seems that Bingham mis-attributed their 'diminutive size' to be lady nuns of a holy order ready for sacrificial acts when in fact they were simply Andean. 

Ooops - well done Mr Bing!

Another theory is that it was an agricultural testing station where different types of crops could be assessed in the many different micro-climates afforded by the location and the terraces; these were not large enough to grow food on a large scale, but may have been used to determine what could grow where.

This is also the thinking applied to Tipón (more below), which for both sites appears far too prosaic and unimaginative an explanation to do either place justice.

Yet another asserts that it may have been built as a prison for a select few who had committed heinous crimes against Inca society.  Really? I would have been one of many in that case queuing for the menu of heinous crimes to entitle me to spend some time here on full board...

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More recently (1980's) a most popular idea was seeded that it was the royal retreat of the 15-century Inca emperor Pachacuti, a place the emperor and his court to relax, hunt and entertain - seems far closer to a possible reality.

And then we move up a layer or two into the more spiritual; another theory suggests that the city was built as an abode for the deities, or for the coronation of kings.

Another insists that Machu Picchu occupied a special place in the "sacred landscape" of the Inca, built atop a mountain that is almost completely encircled by the Urubamba River, which the Inca named the Vilcamayo, or Sacred River.

Our thoughts? Mostly yadda yadda yadda / every archaeologist clearly needs a theory for the research grant / stop with the blah blah and enjoy the view!

And the best place for the view is Huayna Picchu,the mountain at the end of most photos, which Mum was determined to climb and did so with great gusto, which was commented upon by most of the other people on the climb and descent! 

After two days of clambering around MP we made our way back to Ollantaytambo, which was definitely a ceremonial centre and royal estate and is one of several amazing places in the Sacred Valley that most of us just rush through without really appreciating its full splendour.

Which is still celebrated today...

And the town itself, below the terraces of the palace and temples, has apparently hardly changed in the last 500 years in terms of layout and how the inhabitants live within it. So if you want the full Incan experience this is probably as close as you can get today, with some pizza and trinket sellers thrown into the mix.

At the other end of the Sacred Valley is Pisac and its famous market.

If you ever visit this part of the world Pisac market will be on your itinerary, every tour operator will make it so. 

What most people don't do is appreciate the full extent of the ruins on the hill above the town, only a small amount of which you can see without climbing.

Top tip - get to the market at about 10am (partly to avoid the bus loads of tourists), scoot around the market to your hearts content, and then start climbing the hill behind the town with 2 hours to spare and lunch in your rucksack. You will not be disappointed at what you find up the hill, the views to the valley below and the whole aspect of Pisac town and ruins.

Just over 20 kms on the other side of Cusco is Tipón, a beautiful, highly underrated and severely under visited site. There is little written about it, other than that it was an Incan agricultural experimentation station, the various terraces being utilized for their micro climate qualities to test varied crops and conditions.

Perhaps you need to go there to really appreciate this place, but as mentioned above this explanation seems wholly inadequate, if that is all it is purported to be.

The lower section which is the one normally visited is an incredible series of neat terraces, irrigated by stone lined channels, all extremely well preserved. Towards the back of this section is a beautifully finished stone faced 'mouth' around the spring, probably, it is suggested supplied by a subterranean aqueduct. One gets the impression that it hasn't run dry since it was built.

The upper section of the site goes on for miles, way up the hill.  Starting with a big ol reservoir, a stone aqueduct crosses a gully before continuing up the hill to a huge zone of unexcavated terraces and dwellings, beyond which over the lip of another hill is the upper valley literally covered in Inca terracing, homes and storehouses many of which are still used by locals.

For a region where a significant proportion of the visitors are oh so keen to write up some fantastically fanciful tale about the spiritually symbiotic harmony between the heightened energies of the landscape, all pointing to some deified mummified religious overtones focused on a sacrificial career of pure essence of otherworldly incredibleness all representing a Puma....An agricultural testing station? Really? Is that the best the imaginative archaeologists can come up with?

What is wonderful is that the Tipón site receives so little attention and is still used by local farmers as it must have been for the last 600 years. As we were there this time a traditionally dressed lady was cutting the grass with a scythe as her kids ran around playing with the cut grass among this intricate network of beautifully engineered water channels and terracing  - a timeless scene that for once was not a contrived show for the tourists. Long may that continue.

Back towards the Sacred Valley are the famous salt terraces of Maras, where salt has been produced since pre-inca times. Salt from Maras is the finest in Peru (probably South America) and sells at a premium in the deli's of Lima.

It's an extraordinary sight as the highland dirt track traversing fields of wheat begins to drop and the white and brown of the drying pools appear in the valley beneath.

Pam and I were here last year in July, which is when the photos below were taken, when production was in full flight. This time (March) all we saw was the brown of the disused out of season muck.

Sorry Mum! This is what it should have looked like!

The process (courtesy of wikipedia) - salt is obtained b evaporating salty water from a local subterranean stream. The highly salty water emerges at a spring, a natural outlet of the underground stream.

The flow is directed into an intricate system of tiny channels constructed so that the water runs gradually down onto the several hundred ancient terraced ponds.

Almost all the ponds are less than four meters square in area, and none exceeds thirty centimeters in depth. All are necessarily shaped into polygons with the flow of water carefully controlled and monitored by the workers.

 

The altitude of the ponds slowly decreases, so that the water may flow through the myriad branches of the water-supply channels and be introduced slowly through a notch in one sidewall of each pond.

The proper maintenance of the adjacent feeder channel, the side walls and the water-entry notch, the pond's bottom surface, the quantity of water, and the removal of accumulated salt deposits requires close cooperation among the community of users.

It is agreed among local residents and pond workers that the cooperative system was established during the time of the Incas, if not earlier. As water evaporates from the sun-warmed ponds, the water becomes supersaturated and salt precipitates as various size crystals onto the inner surfaces of a pond's earthen walls and on the pond's earthen floor. The pond's keeper then closes the water-feeder notch and allows the pond to go dry.

 

Within a few days the keeper carefully scrapes the dry salt from the sides and bottom, puts it into a suitable vessel, reopens the water-supply notch, and carries away the salt. Color of the salt varies from white to a light reddish or brownish tan, depending on the skill of an individual worker. Some salt is sold at a gift store nearby.

The salt mines traditionally have been available to any person wishing to harvest salt. Usually there are many unused salt pools available to be farmed. Any prospective salt farmer need only locate an empty currently unmaintained pond, consult with the local informal cooperative, learn how to keep a pond properly within the accepted communal system, and start working.

Another 30 kms or so further along the highland road, taking in more of the spectacular scenery, are the natural depressions of Moray.

Apparently they are sink holes caused by rains eroding the calcium rich soil. At 150 metres deep and with their perfect terracing they appear at first glance to be a Greek style amphitheater, but the highly considered explanation is that, with such a variety of micro climates due to gradations of sun and shade and altitude changes between terraces, they are a giant agricultural testing centre.

Well I'll be jiggered, not heard that explanation before!

This time it seems that the experts are probably on the right track. But that doesn't stop the odd group of tourists hiring their very own Shaman to light some incense...

...do some chanting and take them even deeper into the Incan consciousness....

maybe...

Andahuaylas to Ollantaytambo

And then the fun really began...

The day started off innocently enough, we left Andahuaylas early, prepared for any eventuality as always, first heading for the  Chanca fort (approx 1000 AD) at Sondor which affords incredible views of the valley thousands of feet below.

But not every morning.

And then on to Abancay where are trusty route (3S) joins up with the main road to Cusco from Lima. Once again it started out as a wonderful twisty mountain climb on a brand new perfectly surfaced tarmac road. But then became a muddy, dusty (both are eminently possible here) pot holy track waiting for justification of development.

The scenery however, was breathtakingly staggeringly beautiful...

So we bumped and thumped our way to Abanacay and joined the main road thinking that all tracks and mud slides and minor glitches were behind us, right on schedule to get to Cusco that night and meet a friend for lunch the following day, the only pre-booked appointment on the entire trip...

And then as we dropped down once more into another gorgeous valley we started to pass trucks that were parked at the side of the road. Looks ominous I thought, could there be another road block? 

After passing some 30 trucks and tourist buses it was obvious something of a more serious delay had occurred, oh I thought, maybe the bridge is out, this doesn't look too good, but I carried on overtaking the parked vehicles as no one stopped us...

Once we had gone past approx 200 vehicles of all shapes and sizes we ground to a halt, to what turned out to be our resting place for the night.

You see this time the landslide had been a major moment of mud and rock and violence and destruction, known here as a 'huaico' - fortunately during the night before we arrived. But the road had been well and truly blocked ever since, hence the tail back of a few kilometers and many many vehicles.

So along with the crowd we watched three earth moving diggers attempt to move the large rocks obstructing the way forward.

They did manage to move the one rock, and almost got it out of the way, but not quite. The machinery was just simply not man enough to shift these boulders.

But never fear we thought, this is Peru, this is the rainy season, this is the main route between Lima and Cusco, they are used to dealing with such issues and with hundreds of vehicles of economic interest (goods and tourists) being blocked it won't be long before it is cleared.

So we retreated to the car, made ourselves as comfortable as one could and settled in for the night.

Next morning all that had changed was that the not so heavy machinery had disappeared. As I had done the previous evening I started chatting to members of the onlooking crowd, asking what they intended to do, how long they were prepared to wait etc One chap suggested, as we had a 4x4, that we take go back 5k and take the 'other road' that winds its way over the hills.

We checked the map and sure enough there was another road, up to the point where it met the river (a raging torrent of raging torrentness) where it promptly stopped, only to start again several hundred meters up the other side. It didn't seem like a good idea to lose our position in the queue on the off chance that the river crossing was passable. The other alternative was a 10hr detour, on secondary roads (tracks), again this didn't appeal.

And then a policeman appeared (the first we had seen since arrival) and he confidently stated that we would be through the problem by 2pm. I asked how that could be when there was no machinery working on the issue, no problem he said they were on their way.

So we settled back and watched the various small enterprises that had sprung into existence since the block occurred 1) the ferrying of people too and fro - anyone without a vehicle was clambering across the rocks/river/detritus of the landslide, with all their belongings/children/animals to then be taken by bus or taxi to wherever they were going and 2) food and drink 'shops' were providing all the essentials to the waiting crowd. Never let it be said that in Peru an opportunity for a sale is ever missed!

By 10am when no machinery had arrived we were beginning to wonder if the mountain track should be attempted. Our lunch appointment was being threatened, but we also had Machu Pichu entrance and train tickets (not inexpensive/unchangeable/should be booked at least a week in advance) booked for the following day, we absolutely needed to get through! 

No one had a clue as to what was going on with regards to municipal assistance, but there was plenty of activity around the rocks, where members of the crowd had taken it upon themselves to get things sorted.

By 1pm, after much chipping away with hammers and any implements available in the assembled truck and van tool kits, a gap wide enough for a car with wing mirrors pulled in had been created between the boulders. I ran back and we pushed our way into the queue of revving engines :)

And a few minutes later we had crept through the mud, through the gap and through the still flowing tributary of the river that had caused the mud/landslide in the first place as the crowd cheered with each successful passing. Of course we paid a respectfully  plentiful tip to the stone mason posse as we were guided with almost nothing to spare either side.

Goodness knows how long the buses and lorries had to wait before the road was properly cleared, we had been there for 21 hours.

But through we were, so we hightailed it to Ollantaytambo about 100kms away, the last stop before Machu Pichu in the Sacred Valley and the beautiful El Albergue hotel which has been built in the old train station. If ever you are in the area, this is the place to stay.

Ayacucho to Andahuaylas

Next morning we set off early for Andahuaylas. Reinforced rules of the road trip after our last leg - Leave early with a brim full tank of fuel, plenty of food and water, 4 well inflated tyres, so if for whatever reason the journey takes a little longer than planned, so be it...

Predictions for this leg = Carlos, our friendly garagist, with whom many a map was studied in great depth, stated that he could do it in 6 hours in the dry season. Google maps thought the distance of 240 kms could be covered in just over 3 hours (clearly not accounting for lack of tarmac) and insisted on directing us the more direct route, which was quite possibly impassable at this time of year.

Anyone doing this trip - make sure you stick to the '3S' route rather than the more direct lower road (descends into the river within the first 10k).

So off we set, the 3S climbed in all its tarmacadam wonderfulness out of Ayacucho winding its way through incredible scenery up to 4,200 metres before striking out across the altiplano.

After a couple of hours as we were bombing along the clear road we rounded a bend to be faced with waving hands, and our first road block of the day was upon us.

We were told there had been a landslide but it would be clear within an hour and a half, so we waited...

Sure enough, 1 hour and 25 minutes later engines fired up and we were allowed through, dropping down into the valley along with a gaggle of minibuses driven by local wannabee racing drivers, 'Angel' being the most feisty of the group, on what was now a gravel track.

There followed 3 hours of brutal gravel track conditions and competition with the minibuses, Angel in particular, for any available gaps on the hair-pinned descent (gravity and no fear to their advantage). During that time we passed evidence of at least 4 major landslides, being held up frequently as heavy machinery was still clearing the detritus caused by the previous night's heavy rains.

And then the road began to climb again, tarmac covered the winding road and our turbo assist (cue demonic laughter) left The Angel and his groupies behind...

all the way to sunny Andahuaylas...

the car no longer (finally!!) looking like a Limeño shopping trolley...

Total driving time had indeed been 6 hours, but total trip time with road blocks and everything was 8.5 hours - all part of the rainy season fun fun fun.

Andahuaylas is not the most beauticious of destinations and most travelers are only here because it is half way between Ayacucho and Cusco.

The 'best restaurant in town' is Pico Rico which serves one dish only, chicken and chips, which it does very well. So that is what we ate.

And we treated ourselves and stayed in the 'luxury hotel' - El Encanto de Oro - for the princely sum of $14. As you can see no expense has been spared on this trip with mother...

Huancayo to Ayacucho and the people of Ayacucho

Any journey off the beaten track needs a little bit of research, planning and preparation to avoid mishaps along the way, especially when one is with ones mother who has never been to Peru let alone the highlands before. So once again we set off out of Huancayo with a full tank of fuel and plenty of snacks and water, just in case.

And of course I had the paper maps and google maps on the phone and I had asked the lady in the hotel in Huancayo how long the trip to Ayacucho normally takes. She reported faithfully 'a maximum of 5 hours' (google maps estimated it at 3.5) she also said it was a good road and we knew it was only just over 200 kilometers, what could possibly go wrong?

Clearly the important questions I omitted to ask her were, have you ever been to Ayacucho? and have you ever been on that road?

Said road, initially a quite fabulous example of a tarmacadam route, magnificently rises out of the Huancayo valley climbing once more to 4,500 metres...

before dropping into lush valleys...

then climbing and dropping to more lushness before climbing again.

At this point the landscape started to get more barren, the marvelous asphalted road was a long way behind us and it felt like we were a very long way from anywhere and of course sunset was approaching, but there was no other option than to continue.

As we climbed further the mist rolled in, the dirt track became narrower and every now and again there was a choice of direction as new tracks branched off, but of course there was no one to ask directions, google maps thought we were in a very very large field where roads don't exist and the paper maps had no record of any such choice. So we repeatedly took a punt and carried on until the track was obviously not going the right way (at least the compass was still operational but it takes a while to know which way you are actually heading when hairpin follows hairpin) - all the while it got darker, it started raining and Ayacucho refused to appear.

To add to the excitement on several occasions some reasonably serious 4x4 action was required as the track became mud, and then what turned out to be about an hour before arrival in Ayacucho a warning light fired up to indicate that at least one tyre had just rapidly deflated, but we eventually climbed into Ayacucho 8.5 hours after departure having well and truly broken the golden rules with regards to travelling in this part of the world, i.e. know exactly where you are going and do not travel on these crazy mountain passes after dark, but hey, we made it safe and sound and everyone (including the 3 sets of policemen) we met on the way had been very helpful and quietly reassuring.

Ayacucho is a beautiful city, the 'hidden jewel of Peru's southern andes' with a big colonial centre, baroque and renaissance churches around every corner and Quechua is spoken everywhere.

Apparently though there are no more than 500 tourists that visit Ayacucho each month (other than during Semana Santa) which compared to the 45,000 or so that visit Cusco is a stark contrast. And it does feel remote, more cut off and certainly less affected by outside influences, which is fantastic on the one hand but a shame when we see all the benefits that tourism has brought to Cusco, for example, in terms of jobs and a hugely positive change since I was first there in 1999.

Fortunately Ayacucho looks busy enough, the locals are super friendly, the food is fantastic and there are loads of artisan shops and studios to visit as well as the churches, casonas (big ol colonial houses) a bustling market and of course the Plaza de Armas with its stone arcades enveloping 3 sides.

Next morning after the puncture repair and some good advice for the next leg of the journey we visited Quinua, a quiet village about 35kms out of the city. 

It is when visiting villages like Quinua that the lasting effects of Peru's civil war in the 1980's and 90's really sink in, especially in this part of the highlands around Ayacucho which was the centre of so much of the fighting and loss.

To describe the village as quiet is only one way of looking at it, deserted is another. Many many people left their highland villages like this one for the relative safety of Lima and never returned.

But then we walked down one more street and discovered the weekly market was on, bustling away in all its glory as only markets can. Of course everyone was here, why should they be in the main square waiting for tourists to take pictures of them, stupid tourist!!

One v interesting additional visitation was to the studio of the Sulca family in the Santa Ana district of Ayacucho. Alfonso Sucla and his wife design and make rugs and mats and textily things, their inspiration being the civil war and the extreme violence that Ayacuchonians in particular suffered.

This sounds horrific but the oeuvres are beautiful (unfortunately no photos) where they have woven every day objects into particular symbolic contexts. The tour that his wife gave us was very moving and a real insight into how the violence affected them at the time and is viewed today - highly recommend when you visit...

After 3 nights in Ayacucho we prepared to leave, a little sad as the city, its surroundings and particularly the people are truly special. There is a graceful resolve in their demeanour, they have had to fight to survive in every way for generations of struggle, not least in the last 25 years, but their spirit was clearly never broken. Hopefully as Peru continues to boom economically they too will benefit more and more.

Lima to Huancayo y Concepción

For anyone that hasn't traveled in Peru before the Central Highway out of Lima could be described as a baptism of fire and hopefully not too violent of a crash course in what is possible.

Within 134 kilometers of leaving our sea level Lima apartment we had climbed to 4,818 metres (15,807 feet) above sea level, which took just over 2 hours on excellent (obviously winding) roads as we followed the route of the Lima to Huancayo railway (built in the 19th century) with its incredible scenery, bridges, gorges and long long drops to the river below.

Preparation for the trip - full tank of fuel, 3 maps, in flight nibbles and 2 x oxygen in a can to avoid headaches, nausea and crabbiness, one of which was tested at full height but had no discernible effect whatsoever, but neither of us were particularly crabby so maybe it did help...

We then dropped down the other side across the rich green puna and arrived in Jauja not far from Lake Paca where we had lunch.

It rained solidly as we munched on delicious lake trout, so no boat trip this time, so we continued to our first nights destination - Huancayo at 3,240 metres.

Not a great deal to report about Huancayo other than that despite it being only 5 hours from Lima you are very much in the highlands, a completely different environment in every way. The people, landscape, buildings, food, air everything is different - much more to follow...

Next morning we made our way back along the Lima road to Concepción, the silver market and Santa Rosa de Ocopa. We stopped to ask directions (the traditional version of google maps) and the lady we spoke to insisted on showing us where to go, so she, her friend, many skirts and an inquisitive nature jumped into the car - our first of many encounters with the super friendly highlanders. 

Santa Rosa de Ocopa is a Franciscan convent (still a little confused as to why its a convent when there have only ever been monk inhabitants) founded in 1723. Today only 7 monks remain but the history of the place is fascinating. Since its conception monks have been educated here and set off as missionaries to proselytize in the Amazon, 86 of whom were killed, or so the plaque describes.

Top tip - visit this place in the morning if you can. We arrived quite accidentally at exactly the right time at 11.30, which turned out to be just before the tour office (one older lady clearly in need of some food and our tour guide) went for lunch. This meant that we were the only two punters in the building and we were whisked from room to room and explanation to explanation with exactly the right amount of haste and information.

Rosa, our guide was fabulous. The tour includes a museum stuffed with jungle animals, lots of old religious clothes, paintings from the Cusco school and many a representation of missionaries being hung drawn and quartered by slightly off message natives.

But the highlights for us were the library and refectory. The library contains upwards of 30,000 volumes from the 15th century onwards. Rosa described it as the best library in South America, no small claim, there is no doubt that it is hugely important - and the oldest book in there was published in 1497, St Augustine's reflections on the bible.

Due to the value of the contents, a 2002 armed robbery!! - the convent used to have a 1454 catechism in Aymara, Quechua and Spanish but it was stolen along with a painting from the Flemish school - and good practice, photos are strictly forbidden in both the library and refectory.

As we entered the library Rosa whispered to me to pass her my camera, she then snapped and tour guided away, whispering all the time...:)

The refectory was painted with the most amazing mural in 2010 by a local artist. The pictory describes the missionaries journey into the jungle, with all the imagery and colour that they would have encountered. It is breathtaking. Once again Rosa whispered her command, the camera was handed over and the illicit snaps taken.

With Rosa's generosity of spirit and the surprises of the convent still very much with us we set off for the next major leg of the trip to Ayacucho...an adventure all of its own...

Peruvian road trip with Mum

Mum has never been to South America before, let alone Peru, so my mission was to show her as much of this extraordinary country as possible in the time available but maintain a level of comfort that she rightly deserves, which meant driving rather than busing or planing our way around.

What follows is a brief written and photographic account of our 3 week road trip where we covered 4000 km, regularly climbed to over 4,500 metres and due to it being the rainy season encountered several landslides which on one occasion meant a night in the car due to the road being completely blocked by mud and boulders.

Our journey began by heading east out of Lima up the central highway to Huancayo, then south east through the Andean valleys and up and over mountain passes to Ayacucho, Andahuaylas then across to Abancay to Cusco and the Sacred Valley, then Puno and Lake Titicaca before dropping down to Arequipa and the Colca Canyon then the final descent to the coast, Nazca and back to Lima.

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