PERU, Cusco & Sacred Valley, Friday 2nd November

Machu Picchu - Old Mountain. The only town not to be discovered and destroyed by the Spanish during their destructive ransacking of the Incas and their culture. Set on a mountain at about 2350 it is set high on a mountain and was surrounded and concealed by dense jungle. The Spanish arrived in Peru during a time of Civil War within the Incas. Consequently there were many betrayals and the last Inca strong-hold Cota Coca was destroyed. They never found Machu Picchu, however because it is possible that it had already been deserted. No signs of life were discovered, such as ceramic pottery or other day to day articles so perhaps it had been evacuated.
Hiram Bingham was the lucky guy to stumble upon Machu Picchu in 1911 while looking for other Inca settlements in the jungle. Since then it sprang to world wide fame as a mystical city in the clouds and I dread to think how many flock there per year now.

We were due to start our Inca Trail, following the ancient paths and stone steps built by the Incas for means of travel for (Incas only) to Machu Picchu, on Monday but we warmed up with the Sacred Valley on Sunday to get us in the mood. We visited Sacsay Huaman (pronounced Sexy Woman), a holy sight over looking Cusco. What remains, after the Spanish went to work, is the vast boulders (slotted together using the same means as the Egyptians) that formed the base of the temples. The structure is set on 3 levels representing the 3 tires of existence in which they believed: The middle world (this life and depicted as a Puma), the under world (the after life represented by a snake) and the plane of enlightenment represented by a condor. Animal shapes such as llamas (representing fertility and prosperity) can be found in the shapes of the rocks. People, including the ancestors of the Incas, if such a thing exists, are still baffled by how they managed to move these huge rocks into position from the neighbouring mountain.
From there we stopped off at a llama and alpaca farm to see these curious animals with their long, shaggy dread locks and comical human-like expressions of complacent good-humour. That is until they spit at you... There was, of course, plenty of opportunities to buy the hand woven fabrics dyed using natural dies which for once as apposed to the vibrant synthetic ones of which they are so fond.
Within the Sacred Valley is the little town of Pisac with a large bustling market selling tourist souvenirs and local produce. Before settling there for lunch, we drove up the mountain to the ancient farming terraces that offered a spectacular view of the valley below. The valleys are usually a sharp V-shape, leaving little room for farming and forcing the inhabitants to utilise the steep slopes for extra farm land.
We finished the day at Ollatambo (a small Inca town of mud brick houses, some with straw roofs) where we had a little warm up walk to the remains of the temple set on the mountain above the town. Across from the ruins, a huge human face juts out from the mountainside resembling a bearded white man said to be the protector of the Incas. They worshiped a long time before the Spanish ever set foot on the scene and, needless to say, they took shameless advantage of this fortunate coincidence in their likeness. From our vantage point we could also make out the shape of a llama in which the town was built. The Incas often built towns in the shape of an animal they held to be important. Cusco is built in the shape of a puma and Machu Picchu in the shape of a condor.
Ollatambo was celebrating its anniversary and the main plaza was filled with music and people dancing in traditional costumes. Tempting as it was to partake in the festivities, I was rather tired from the Fetish party the night before and we all went early to bed in anticipation of the start of our Inca Trail the following morning.