An Inca Trail and The Sacred Valley- Peru - by Helena

One of our best times in Peru was following an old Inca Trail around the Inca Temple and fortress at Pisac.
It was great! There were watchtowers looking down the valley to where the River Amazon is only a 2 day walk away!

Our guide, Reuben, was an artist and he also played the flute!
We went just by ourselves with Reuben and there was hardly anyone around.
It was easy to imagine the Incas living there hundreds of years ago!

In the Inca time they would sacrifice virgins to their gods!
Apparently they would choose the prettiest and it was considered a great honour to be chosen!
They would give them a drug first so it wouldn’t hurt too much and then cut their spinal cord.
I’ll put a photo in this blog of Samuel lying on the sacrifice stone -
I don’t think he’s pretty enough to be chosen though!!

We also saw hundreds of holes in the mountain side which were used as burial tombs for the Inca dead.
There were thousands of them and they were very small.
The Incas buried their dead curled up in the same position they were before they were born.
They believed death was like a rebirth.

On the way up the mountain it was very steep and we went through a pitch black cave to get to the otherside.

It rained a bit, but this was quite refreshing. We had bought ponchos and wore them but actually they were just technically brightly coloured dustbin bags with a cut out hood!

On our way back to Cusco, we saw some children all dressed up in traditional clothes.
One had a parrot on his shoulder. It looked nice but it wasn’t. I know because it pecked me on the shoulder!
We took some photos and although they didn't ask, we gave them two soles each. I know that’s not much to us but they were delighted!

We then set off to see some lamas and on the way there were some fantastic views!
We fed the lamas - I like the small ones best - the others were quite aggressive!
I then saw people spinning, dyeing and knitting with the lama’s wool.

We also went to some ruins called Saxy Woman!
This actually meant “Satisfied Falcon" in Quecha which was the Inca language.

We learned how the Incas cut rocks to make walls and buildings as if they were a giant jigsaw puzzle.
They used no cement or mortar. They made a model of the shape of the rock they wanted and then quarried that rock from another mountain so as not to spoil the hill we were on!
It must have been a hard job to cut and transport the rock.
It took many thousands of men about 60 years I think.
But the walls have survived hundreds of years and earthquakes, which have destroyed much more modern buildings in the area.

I think the Incas were very clever people.

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