June 13 - 24, 2013
This trip included the Lares 3-day trek. My lovely two daughters, Jeanette & Chelsey and I had another amazing adventure together.
After a bumpy start with me frantically searching for my passport at home and finally finding it stuck between some mail in my daughter's room and then both of us falling asleep at the airport in Houston Texas and almost missing the plane, we landed in Lima safe & sound.
We met Jeanette later at the hotel, after Chelsey & I wandered over to the sea. She'd flown in from Sweden. I was a bit disappointed in Lima. It did not seem much different than America. But that changed once we got to Cusco.
Locals advised us to visit the main square or Plaza Mayor. This is the archbishop's palace. It was built in 1924.
Not the clearest photo but I just couldn't stop laughing. One of the boys from this group of students gathered up the nerve to ask Chelsey if he could get his photo taken with her. Next thing you know, the whole flock of them came.
Lima Cathedral and museum of religious art.
Architect Francisco Becerra started contstruction in 1584. When he died in 1605, Juan Martinez de Arrona took over and completed the main body of the cathedral in 1622.
A security guard let us in on a little secret: He showed us how to get into the catacombs under the church. There were mass pits filled with bones.
And there were a few individual burial sites.
After having dinner with our group the night before, we flew to Cusco the next day. As soon as we arrived at 3400m, I noticed a change in my breathing.
Jet lag and thinner air made us more tired.
Our guide, Jose led us through the town. June 24 was the festival to the Sun god. Our longests day is their shortest. All of the previous week's events led up to this day. Unfortunately we missed it by 1 day.
Students from all different universities in Peru came here to dance and play music round the main square.
This lady got mad at me when I took her picture on the sly.
This was the group we did our sightseeing with. We had a different group for the 3-day trek.
At the highest point overlooking Cusco this statue of Jesus stands. Roman Catholicism was introduced by the Spaniards when they invaded in the mid 1500s.
Saqsaywamang grounds where the Incas offered the King's virgin daughters or living lama hearts to the Sun god as early as 900BC.
We left the city of half a million for the mountains. Here in the villages they showed us how they weave and color garments with a mixture of ground beetle and plants. They still cook with fire in clay stoves and grow almost 4000 varieties of potatoes.
Guineau pigs are a delicacy there.
This was one of two strategic towns in the 82 km long Sacred Valley through which the Willcamayo River runs. This river hooks up to the Amazon which is the longest in the world.
Over 2000 commoners were buried in these cliffs. But when the Spaniards invaded in 1545 they looted the Inca graves in which many treasures were also buried.
These upper buildings were storage houses for crops. The terraced slopes were cultivated by hand growing mostly potatoes, barley, wheat and quinoa. They also grow the largest corn in the world here.
The second strategic town was Ollantaytambo.
These massive earthquake proof rocks were moved on logs, some of them weighing over 100 tons!
What are we doing? This wall was built to carry sound.
Lares 3-day Trek
Trekking day 1: 3.5 hours / 600m gain / 2:00pm - 5:30pm.
How did we start our hiking trip? By taking a soak in these natural hot baths. The sulfur brown water left us feeling lethargic.
The lamas were friendly and liked to follow us. We climbed gradually in the mist.
Our guide took us shopping ahead of time for these children. We were not allowed to buy sweets for them because of the lack of availability of dental care in the mountainus regions.
We spent the night in the mountain village of Hyuacahuast at 3825m.
Trekking Day 2: 3 hrs up & 1.5 hrs down / 800m gain / 4580m
We gave the children school supplies. The mountain children often do not go to school but have to help work on the farm.
At the pass - 4700m.
On the other side of the pass the skies cleared up.
The highest forest in the world.
We spent the second night in this meadow at 4100m. There were ice crystals coating our tents and the moon made the glaciers glow.
We said goodbyes to our group and then took the bus and then train for 2 hours to our next hotel.
We were up at 5:00am to catch the bus to Machu Picchu. We beat the rush of tourists and saw the sunrise. 9 months of the year it rains so we were very fortunate to have good weather.
The reason Maccu Pichu is one of the world's 7 wonders is because the Spanish never found it, therefore never looted it. It was mostly buried and found in 1911, 5 years after the railroad was built down in the valley.
Religion and astronomy were one.
The original Inca trail.
Back in Cusco.
We flew back to Lima and met up with the first group and compared notes. They'd done the more popular classic Inca trail. I'm glad we did the Lares trek because they had rain the whole time and had to climb stone steps with not much view. They did have more ruins on their route. But we got to experience the culture of the mountain people, had good weather after the pass and great views of the mountains and lakes.
Pachacamac, a temple on the coast for pilgrims. This reconstructed building was for the women dedicated to the Sun god cult. After the fall of the Tawantinsuyu who reined over 1500 years, the Wari held power from 650 - 1400AD. Then the Incas did till 1533AD.
Those Pisco Sours were sooo good.
Chelsey just had to try out the Guineau pig.
Checking out the largest water fountain compound in the world.
Awesome write up, great pictures.....