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Published: September 25th 2008
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Pisac
Pisac Terraces On this morning, after a quiet slumber, the tour van collects me at ten to 9 a.m. for a Sacred Valley tour. Eduard Herrara, guide to our Cuzco City tour, bright and chipper this a.m., tells us we will visit the Inca sites (and corresponding towns) of Pisac, Ollaytantambo, and Chincero. The Sacred Valley is northeast of Cuzco, 25 km, over a pass.
Pisac village, with the ruin high above, is 30 km north into the Sacred Valley. It is typically the first stop on a one-day Sacred Valley tour, and the site calls for half a day for any interested in exploring on 500 year old trails to 500 year old adobe and cut stone finished stone works.
On the way to Pisac we stop in a village where there's a large open air market. Here I walk toward a dirt lane, and after a short way, I see a man and his one cow plow preparing a field for the next crop of maize. Spring is near, and if crops aren't already planted, seeds will soon be cast. Even at 12,000 feet, we see fields of maize, potato, and quinoa. We stop for a photo at a
Sacred Valley
From the Mirador C'orao high point of the pass between Cuzco and the Sacred Valley. From here we see the Sacred Valley unfold from narrows on the southeast to the northwest. There are larger farm operations on the valley floor, much larger in than the stone walled field where a poor farmer worked with his one cow plow.
We exit the bus and walk 45 minutes up the hill to the royal Inca area of the site. (sun, moon, nice home). But first a group of Andegina's sing us one of their local songs, and we can purchase small woven items such as caps and wristbands. Every tour group through means an incremental improvement to a precarious livelihood.
The day is bright and sunny, the humidity low. You can see a long way through the sky. Up we go to the most prized ruins, and Eduard asks about our training at altitude. Finally, at the top we find finished stone buildings, with four walls, and the roof of thatch long removed. We hear that the "moon" and "sun" temples may simply have been the residences of the highest of Inca society in Pisac. The sun dial consisting of an upright dial carved from a single large stone with stepped gradients reflecting, possibly, times of the day, and representing the Inca Cross, or Chicana, in six sides. This is in basalt stone and all in all there is a priestly astronomical sense to the location. These were more than mere homes, or if homes, they did double duty as timekeeping facilities and astronomical observatories. The patter continues at Ollaytantambo, which we see after lunch.
The group agrees with Eduard: we'd love to live in Pisac, though some wondered how many underlings it may have taken to keep it functioning and to build it. Machu Picchu, which we see many days later seems busy in comparison, crowded Pisac has a harmony of proportion.
The stone in Pisac is reddish sandstone complemented by red mortared adobe. This rock isn't as hard as the white granite at machu picchu nor the grey basalt in cusco. It is maleable, flexible, and curvy. As we gaze over the site, various trails and paths come in to view. Then we have to walk down. As we do so, the agricultural section of Pisac comes full into view. We see the curves, like the convex shape of some humanmade dames (Hoover, Glenn Canyon). They look natural but serve an architectural and urban purpose, and that is to hold the soil and rock of the mountainside. The steps, in this area they are tall steps, partition the ellipses, almost radii to the center. These Inca were smart says Owen from Australia, and there must be a few amoung us in the modern worlds, or we would not feel such a fascination he says.
Eduard tells us about the role terracing served in the Inca cities. First, they reduced soil erosion to enable cultivation on steep hillsides. They significantly increased the arable land near where people lived, and they led to a new microclimate by the increasing the soil temperature to an extent that crops from the high jungle could flourish at alpine elevations.
Lunch at the Urubamba buffet:
From Pisa we descend in the bus to the valley floor and follow the highway to Urubamba town. There we have a buffet lunch of Peruvian dishes. Julie from Zimbabwe joins me at the table, along with Denise her cousin Elizabeth, from Australia, along with Owen of Australia. In our group we have Canadians from Quebec, a French couple, Germans, Dutch, and Finns. Elizabeth's sister, she explains, has started an organization named Peru's Challenge. The dishes are unremarkable, but Peruvian, and filling. Unremarkable because I forgot to ask about and note the names of the dishes. The guide claims that he has secured an astronomical discount for us. There's a Peruvian string band playing and after they're done, they pitch the CDs. If you don't buy one, out comes the hand for a tip.
Ollaytantambo sits at the north west end of the valley. It is here that the porters are secured for the Machu Picchu expedition. But today are destination is the Ollaytantambo Inca site. The site size here is similar to Pisac, though the larger stonework is monumental in size. The red granite quarried in blocks of several to 60 ton, come from a quarry across the valley floor and up the other side. The remnants of the ramp are visible. Eduard, points out a small portion of evidence that the Inca stone workers were artists. There's a large mantel stone over a door way through which the walkway continues, and chiseled into this mantel is a small offset of some precise measures, and it fits like a jigsaw piece. The point of the stone work is to hold the stone in place, though the offset is such a delicate proportion you can't see how this could work ... and remain in place for 500 years. Other areas of the site show that it wasn't finished; larger stone blocks reside nearby positioned stones, though on their sides, as if they'd been hauled up the ramps but work on the project had ceased. And it had by 1532 or thereabouts when the Inca had first, civil war, then visitors from Spain, who stayed a long time.
Chinchero and the weaving guild:
After Ollaytantambo, the bus takes us to Chinchero, which is at the high point of the pass on the direct road from a point between Urubamba and Ollaytantambo. The ruin of this town is smaller, though no less elegant. Here we see the unprotected remnants of Inca tile work, laid over stone, uncovered in 1968. Then we proceed to the Weaving Guild. Today the presenter is Martina Marlina Carlina, or that's how I heard it. She explains the dye techniques, the symbols expressed in the weaving patterns, and the spinning method. The room, open to the air, is smokey from a wood fire used to heat the water used in cleaning and dyeing the alpaca wool. I make a purchase hear for the house from a two merchant woman. I buy first from a shy lady whose partner explains that I'm getting a very good price; then from the presenter, who asks as I move toward the door why I haven't purchased from her. While there's always a pitch to buy, this feels right. Later I see prices in Cuzco that suggest I was buying at a fair price, having cut out the Cuzco shopkeepers, among others, but providing income to a villager.
The alpaca fabrics in the guild shop in this town famous for its weavers are vivid. Even the earth tones of green and brown are bright in the late summer evening light. Kids are flying kites out on the ruin site.
We pass farm fields at 12,000 feet on the way to and out of Chinchero before the descent to Cuzco. I'm at Los Ninos Hotel by 7:30. Sleepy from the day, I have a sandwich in the hotel cafe and call it an evening.
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