Blogs from Moray, Cusco, Peru, South America

Today there was an optional extra tour and I initially thought we might skip it and have a rest after our big day at Machu Picchu, but then we saw a model of Moray at the Inca Museum and I didn't want to miss the real thing. We definitely made the right choice and anyway we are not at all tired. Our tour days typically start early (between 6am and 8am) but usually finish by 1 or 2pm so we can rest (or blog) in the afternoons. Moray is extraordinary. looks like a massive amphitheatre of terraces but was actually a kind of agricultural laboratory which the Incas used as a food development and production centre. The terraces enabled 15 microclimates and they brought species from different elevations and bred them at Moray. As a result, ... read more

PERU...Soaring with Condors. Shooting the breeze, carried by the wind, catching a cloud...soaring...up, up, up. Then gently like a feather...floating. The mountain air crisp and clean...the massive valleys parting like the Red Sea before us...the condors soaring around us. So my spirit lifts to join them. Gliding, swooping, banking, hovering. Then like a leaf...spinning back to earth. To rest. Then like a butterfly...I'm off again. ****** Daniel met us at Casa de Wow and offered to take us through the Inca ruins...to weave tapestries...to meet a shaman in the mountains...to taste cavy and sup corn beer. But I've let my figure go to pot...once buff bod long gone...so no dancing naked 'round a fire searching through peyote haze for my inner spirit this trip. No Sirree...not this trip. So we take Option Two...searching for Pachamama. *** ... read more

On our last night in Cusco we caught up with Matt and Tasha, an English couple we met in La Paz about a month ago, and introduced them to Paddy's Shepherds Pie. They are a nice couple, similar age to us, and we shared recent travel stories and lamented over the fact that most of the date of births registered on our recent tour groups are in the 90's. It was nice to catch up with them, and we will probably do so again in a few weeks when our paths cross again. The next day, we had 12 hours to kill before our overnight bus to Arequipa, so we thought we would kill some of the time by visiting the Moray Inca ruins and the Salinas de Maras (Maras Salt Mines) around an hour out ... read more

Today we hiked through the Salineras, or the salt mines of Mara. The mines were other worldly. They seemed to grow out of the mountains, like a multi-colored rectangular honey comb. We had summited a small mountain looking for them before they appeared before our feet. When we looked down, 1,500 salt pans met our gaze. Las Salineras produces the majority of the salt consumed in the Cusco region. Still, they seemed to blend in with nature so well, we had almost missed it. How could something so productive and industrial be so beautiful and worthy of tourism? The salt extraction from the mountain seemed not only effortless, but naturally beautiful as well. The rock walls connecting the pans were indistinct from the mountain itself. The only sign of input energy was a stream that seemed ... read more

Well it has been an interesting week since eoghan arrived. The start of the week i showed him round the town a bit. The markets are good here but you cant buy everything you want, not enough room in luggage!! We went out for dinner on Eoghan’s first day, alpaca tastes good, but the americans we were with were a bit intense!! We moved into our wee flat on Tuesday, so comfortable. On Wednesday we went out with the girls from newcastle, it was Heather’s birthday. The club was a bit dodgy from the start, with some pervert wains at the door. I got very drunk as the drinks seemed to get stronger in the club! But it was a grand night as far as I could tell! Thursday was a lazy day, mostly because of ... read more