Blogs from Sacred Valley, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 8

Geo: -12.6779, -72.3834After staying overnight at the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, we went back into the Lost Citadel for another look on our own. We wanted to stay at the Sanctuary Lodge so we would have ready access to the park all day. We were able to come and go on our tickets as we liked. We climbed up to the top so we could see the classic postcard view of Machu Picchu. We spent another several hours in the park on this second day here just to be sure we could soak up as much of it as possible. I was worried about walking up and down the steep stone steps, but we didn't have much trouble. (The elevation is about 8000 feet--much lower than Cusco.) As we toured, we wanted to stop and look ... read more

One week after the depths of the Amazon, we headed for the Sacred Valley of the Incas, the Urubamba River. The Urubamba starts above Cusco in the Altiplano and ends in the Amazon basin. Cusco, the seat of the Incan empire designed in the shape of a puma, sits just west and above the river valley. This area of Peru is similar to Rome, in that you can't walk a block, take a hike or bike ride without running into a remnant of the old civilization. Incans worshiped rocks. Any large rock formation was either turned into a huaca, temple, or incorporated into a building. No where is this more evident that in the sacred valley, and specifically along the Camino del Inca, or the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The Inca road network stretching from ... read more

Per Bus (wie Voegele Reisen, so wie wir es eigentlich nicht wollten) ging es von Cusco nach Chinchero. Dort besuchten wir eine lokale Weberei. Auf eindrueckliche Art wurde uns gezeigt, wie solche Stoffe von Hand auf natuerliche Basis gefaerbt und schliesslich weiter verarbeitet werden. Blut von kleinen Tieren die auf Kakteen leben werden zum Beispiel verwendet, um Rot herzustellen. Verschiedene andere Pflanzen werden fuer Gruen, Braun oder Blau verwendet. Jetzt wurde auch klar, dass ueber 90% aller Stoffe die man in Bolivien, Peru oder Ecuador kaufen kann, maschinell hergestellt sind. Ein Tischtuch normaler Groesse von Hand gefertigt nimmt ueber 40 Tage Arbeit in Anspruch. (und ist somit nicht fuer 30 Sol erhaeltlich! ) Weiter ging es nach Urubamba und nach Ollantaytambo wo wir weitere Ruinen besichtigten. In Ollantaytambo existiert noch der einzige funktionierende Brunnen der In ... read more

Hola, back again! Just thought that I would write a final note before the end of my time in Cusco. Its been a week or 2 since I last wrote and I´ve managed since then to learn some salsa, play the pan pipes, experience mountain biking for the first time (ouch!!) and gain a 40hour intensive spanish school certificate, hooray!! Last weekend we had a day out visiting various Inka ruins near to Cusco (Saqsaywaman, Q´enco, Tambomachay). Saqsaywaman on the saturday was most eventful. We got ourselves a guide on site who showed us around. All was going well until he asked us if we were up for an adventure...so we said yes of course! Big Mistake. He led us into a cave which was pitch black and narrow and suddenly dropped down so we were ... read more

Hola Chicos, I hope people are appreciating my spending hours (7 up to now, I´ve had to install active X twice!) writing and updating this blog. This is mainly aimed at my nephew (Ryan) and Neice´s (Natasha and Nakita) and no there is no russian link!. Today we took the sacred valley tour, with a bunch of Germans, one Ozi (has to be at least one) and a couple of girls form eastern europe ( and no they didn´t look like Camaron Diaz) but were a bit lazy climbing the terraces. OK, first stop some farm to see the different types of Llamas (see pics), then on to Pisaq, where the biggest market opens on Sundays. Next lunch, then Ollantaytambo another historic site for the incas. The Sacred Vallley is stunning, the views are great, it´s ... read more