Peru, Colca Canyon and Machu Picchu

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Our visit to Peru was not in the plan but since we were in northern Chile we decided to head towards Peru and Bolivia before going to Argentina, this means our return is postponed by two months and we will be back in mid December...when will we have such an occasion again?!

Our first stop in Peru was Arequipa, a beautiful colonial city, called the "White City" for the volcanic stone "sillar" with which the buildings are built. The city is in a valley dominated by the volcano "El Misti", 5822 m. In another volcano near the city, Ampato, was found Juanita, the ice mummy, which we saw in the museum. She was an Inca girl of 12 or 13 years who lived 500 years ago and was sacrifed to the mountain God, who was thought to be angry with the human beings.

After acclimatising to 2500 m for a few days we spent two days trekking in Colca Canyon, about 3500 m. On the way to the canyon we visited Inca terraces used for agriculture with perfect irrigation channels. We saw vicuña, llama, alpaca wandering in the fields and on the edge of the canyon we observed the flight of the condors.

The first day of trekking was eight hours mostly downhill, from the top of the canyon towards the valley to a small village called Oasis - a green island in the middle of the river. On the trek there was us, two German guys and the guide. We slept in a bungalow and the following "morning" we woke up at 2:30 am to start the trek up to the canyon again, another five hours mostly in the dark, in the cold and at altitude. My enthusiam for trekking is ended here and I've decided to dedicate myself to more enjoyable activities for the rest of the journey!

The highlight of our visit to Peru was undoubtedly Machu Picchu which we reached by bus after being still exausted by the last trek and the altitude. We arrived the previous day from Cuzco to Aguas Caliente, the so called Machu Picchu pueblo, and the following morning we took a bus at 5:30 am to be early in Machu Picchu and enjoy it without too many people and with the sunrise. When we arrived the site was covered by early morning fog which made it even more atmospheric. It's a magical place and our expectations on this occasion have been exceeded.

We walked around the site for the first two hours with a guide and the next three on our own. The site, which dates back to Inca times, around 1460, is almost perfectly conserved thanks to the fact that it was hidden by the forest, a very similar story to the temples of Angkor Wat that we visited in Cambodia. The local poulation knew all along about its existence but an American historian, Hiram Bingham brought it to worldwide attention at the beginning of last century. The religious and astronomic buildings were the most striking for us, the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Condor, the Temple of the three windows and the astronomic instruments, all built with regular dry-stone walls, of an amazing precision. In Inca times the important buildings were covered with gold or silver but were then removed probably by the Spanish.

Our guide told us that the site was built in a condor shape, symbol of the other world, with together with the puma (present world), and the snake (underworld) forms the trilogy of the Inca beliefs.

From the site we trekked back down in the middle of the rainforest through an Inca trail to Aguas Calientes to be able to say we did the Inca trail!

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Comments

[Elisa]

WOW
CIao belli! Thank you so much for the postcard from SA. They are both on our fridge and Isabella plays with them. I think you made an impression because she keeps calling you, even when she is playing by herself with the dolls, she says "Paul, Lice, aereo"...so funny. ANyway, I am glad you decided to stay on the road longer. It is such an opportunity! We wish you all the best. Un abbraccio Elisa, Stefano e Isabella