Nice room. But I was not happy to see this tiny space heater. It eventually heated up my room.
Took a train (and then a bus) up to Machu Pichu. This was interesting because we completely stopped. Eventually we were told the train in front of us had engine trouble and there were 5 trains behind us.
There was nothing we could due but sit back and let Edgard worry for us.
We went to the bar car and were entertained by scary people in masks. Trish danced with the masked man, and eventually we ALL did a Congo line through the bar car. The train had windows at the top so we could see the tops of mountains.
They sereved us coca tea and a boxed snack meal to keep us occupied until we finally started to move and get to our destination.
At the halfway point a bunch of young, fit people with backpacks got off so they could WALK THE REST OF THE WAY to Machu Pichu. Sheesh!! That train has left the station for me. I don’t need to prove anything these days.
THEN we got on a bus for 1/2 hour. The joke was that from the bus I took a photo of a billboard of Machu Pichu. When I huffed and puffed and struggled to finally arrive there — THERE WAS THE EXACT VIEW I HAD SEEN FROM THE BUS!!
Of course now I can say I was actually at The Lost City of the Incas, and cross off #6 of the 7 wonders of the new world. (Only Christ the Redeemer in Rio is currently unseen by my eyes).
I wasn’t gasping for air on this hike to the top; but I sure didn’t have my normal stamina due to the altitude.
I know I never want to live in high altitudes!!
CLICK on this video. Tour Guides know the PERFECT shots!!
The Incas decided upon this spot to house the current leader and his extended family. They built it by hauling huge rocks and boulders from miles away. Experts still don’t know how they did it. And then they NEVER LIVED HERE!! There was only one spring and it could not support the 800 family members for which the leader planned to provide. As realtors always say: “It’s LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!” But this time they should have checked out the water sources better.
Construction began in 1420, but once the Spanish invaded it was unknown to civilization until 1911 when it was discovered by American historian and explorer Hiram Bingham,
It’s interesting since wikipedia seems to show it was actually inhabited. However our tour guide specifically said they would not have left a quarry on the property if they had finished building it. HMMM.
LLamas seem to be the only ones living here currently.
This was named Temple of the Three Windows. DUH — because it had 3 windows.
Fabulous views!
Bussed back to town for dinner. This is homage to my travel partner, Tom, who’s drink-of-choice is an orange Fanta. (Mine is always red wine, unless I’m trying not to drink.)
Now it was getting out of control!!
Jane, the coffee lover, ordered this — a latte?? Usually it comes with a heart or little design. Everyone at the table agreed that this was penis. I thought it looked like an old-fashioned candle holder.
I LOVED my meal. Mushrooms, avocado and broccoli!!! m-m-m-m!
This was the entrance to one of our hotels, Palacio Del Inka. It used to be a palace. It was so big, I never knew how to get to my room.
Joy discovered a llama in the courtyard and was thrilled.
Our breakfast buffet included ala carte ordering and I had a delicious avocado toast. This was a entire bee hive and the honey dripped off the wax onto the tray below into the jar. Ingenious!!
They do not call this man a shaman, but he represents the same thing. He WALKED from his home in the north, that still does things the way they did centuries ago, for days to get to the hotel to give us this blessing. He had about 20 things, including corn, gold, silver, quinoa, flowers, feathers, etc. that all had specific meanings and was laid out on a cloth in specific ways and in specific order.
Once he laid it all out we EACH came up and gave him our names and he intoned a blessing on us. Click. This was Jane’s blessing.
He gave us the best (and most basic) of the prayers for our life — to tell the people we know and love, thank you! And that’s what we did after everyone in our group received their blessing.
He would walk back home and burn the things he laid out for us, as a symbol of thanks to his higher power.
One of our group did not join this blessing; so when we saw her later that day and told her about the ‘shaman’, we showed her the most important part about what we learned and we all moved in toward her to hug her and told her thank you. I could see the panic in her eyes as we closed in, until she understood what we were doing.
Wes
We set off to a cemetery. We saw at least 15 little tents owned by women selling flowers outside that cemetery. It was another case of a person needing money, seeing a need, and providing flowers to people who needed to buy them.
This cemetery has glass-covered dioramas of the person’s life in front of the box in which they are interred. The family is shamed if there are not FRESH flowers inside that case every day.
Families come regularly to add fresh flowers, and I would suppose, to dust the tchotchkes inside, and polish the brass frames.
The contents were so interesting, I could have spent all day there.
This one was creepy. The name on this niche is not listed. But the flowers are fresh and well maintained. Note the black candle burnt to the bottom, while the white and red candles remain. In the back are a row of burned black candles also. It must be someone despised (or satanic), and the family is making sure it is not vandalized.
No one ever sees the family putting out the fresh flowers; so it must be done after dark. Spooky.
I found this amazing.
This is a HORRID photo of 3 boys, 18, 17 and 12 who roam the cemetery always available to help the families for a few Peruvian sols to add to their poor family’s budget. The oldest has been around for years and he was happy to see our tour guide. While we were there, the boys rubbed lemon on a brass frame and rubbed with a soft cloth until it was shining and made a decent tip from our tour guide.
OH! And now we get to the outside meat market. I WISH you could smell this. I’ve been in many markets, but these people use ALL the animal, right down to its most disgusting parts. The best meats get sold at a better market. If NOT sold, the food gets moved to this market. If not sold here, it moves to an even sketchier market.
I beleive this is a pig carcass, then slabs of beef and don’t forget the chickens — WITH their yellow feet!
Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, and more potatoes! The oca has some special traits — maybe extra healing qualities?
And one kind of potato is so bumpy it looks like a bunch of grapes. The story is that particular potato makes a daughter-in-law cry; because the mother-in-law gives those potatoes to her DIL and asks her to peel them!!
AND MORE MEAT! Look closely! The first is cow noses and mouths — NOT a cute little pastry roll. In that same photo is tripe — cow intestines with its original contents inside!
The middle picture is cow hooves, brains, and another nose. The third picture is more of the same. And note the cleanliness of the area!!
Pretty candies. We spent almost an hour at the middle photo buying chocolate bars, award-winning coffee and the coffee people pay $150/pound for in the US. — some ant-eater like creature eats the beans, poops them out and then the beans are gathered and sold to crazy Americans!!
The third photo is of the old marketplace building. It’s a UNESCO site (I believe) because it was built by the guy who built the Eiffel Tower. Oh yeah, I think the guy’s name was Eiffel.
We had a private cooking demonstration of one of their local meals of chickpea stew.
Peru’s answer to Coke is Inca cola. Apparently is tastes like American cream soda.
This was a trout roll — delish!! I had a lot of trout during the trip and I swear it was salmon. Very good, nonetheless.
The sauce was perfect — lemon sauce and polenta (ground corn).
This is Lynette and her sons. It was a joy to watch the family dynamics and the brotherly competition. One had more strength; the other the speed. They were from Miami.
