Ollantayntambo

On the way to and from Machu Picchu we spent a few days in a town called Ollantayntabmo. It is a very quiant, charmimg little town. It was originally an Incan settlement, and all the original buildings, roads and irrigation systems are still in use today.

The red flag ousides means they have homebrewed corn liquor, called Chicha for sale inside.  Of course we tried some, in case you were wondering!  It's...ummmmm...an acquired taste.

We stopped to take a photo of this roof, covered in corn being dried in the sun.  We were very soon invited inside the yard for a closer look...and even sooner invited by the little girl to pay 'one Sole' for the service.  She has even been trained to ask for the payment in English!

We decided to unleash our inner rednecks and go ripping around the hills on quads!  It was a little easier for one of us to get in touch with this side of their personality...I'll let you guess who's who!

Post-quading I was left with a dirt uni-brow, cow poo on my shoe, and a big damn smile!

Peru's Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu

With much anticipation, we embarked on our adventure to the heart and soul of the Incan Empire, and the pride of their construction abilities - towards Machu Picchu.  On the way, we stopped at several towns and sights of other ruins. 

This church on the edge of Chinchero, north of Cusco, was built on the foundations of an Incan settlement in the 1600s.  It is very simple compared to many other colonial churches - no guilding or fancy tapestries or scultptures - very plain, but one of the most beautiful we've seen on the trip.  The very simple colours, the mosaic ceiling, the rural location all made for a beautiful and peaceful setting. 

Just outside the church, the misty morning made for a mystical Sacred Valley view.

This unique structure at Moray was an Incan farming laboratory where they experimented with different crops on different terraces and altitudes.  It was quite large, and quite a uniqe place.

Just outside of Urubamba, a small spring flows from the side of a mountain.  This spring is full of salts and minerals, and the Incas created the terraces below to farm the salt by creating hundreds of little waterways to fill the plots, and then divert the water elsewhere until the salt could be harvested before refilling the plots - incredible...

We reached Machu Picchu in the afternoon,  andeven after all of the build up from everyone saying how incredible it is, we were struck by the magnitude of the place.  The stone work, the terraces, the scenery - all just amazing.  It was just incredible that they built this massive city on such a precarious perch, but the view explains all the hard work that went into it - just amazing.

Around the corner, about a 1km walk from the main structure is this Inca Bridge, which was part of the Inca Trail in the old days.  Many beautiful flowers and views of the Urubamba River kept our attention as we meandered to this wooden bridge that was one of the few safeguards of the site.

Back at the main site, the Temple of the Sun - where most of the worship and sacrifices took place, was a unique structure where the priests ruled.

Peru! Lake Titicaca and Cusco

After a wonderful time in Bolivia, we took a bus ride from Copacabana, Bolivia across the border to Puno, Peru. 

The town of Puno was quite...simple...and not the cleanest place.  However, we did find some wonderful deals on souvenirs!  This town, however, is the place from which to explore the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, and we spent a morning on Isla de Uros - an island community where the islands are made entirely of reeds that grow in the lake.  They form a floating foundation from the roots, and pile fresh reeds on regularly.  People have been living here this way for hundreds of years, but mostly now it's a show for us gringos with songs, trinkets, solar panels and television sets.  Never the less, it was still interesting to see how a group of people lived on straw for many years.

Onward to the city of Cusco, which was the centre of the Incan Empire for several hundred years.  The downtown area is filled with Colonial era buildings that are built on foundations of Incan structures that were torn down by the Spaniard conquerors.  It's a beautiful city with an incredible $5 Indian buffett, a museum with a very unique collection of nativity scenes, one made of doilies, one of bent forks and spoons, one of animal bones, and so on.  The cathedral houses a very unique painting of the Last Supper, with the drink on the table being Chicha, a local corn-based moonshine, and the food on the table being a local rodent - Vizcacha - a member of the chincilla family that looks like a rabbit but has the tail of a squirrel - very entertaining. 

A fountain in Cusco's main square.

One Incan building that was partially preserved was the Temple of the Sun.  While a convent was built overtop of it, much of the structure remained and was restored - the stone work is incredible.

Two months ago, a chocolate museum was opened in Cusco to help educate and create a local market for the many cocao producers in Peru (which is the second largest producer of cocao beans in South America).  They also offer seminars on how chocolate is processed and made, so of course, we did the 2-hour session.  We roasted beans, crushed them, melted it down and ended up with some yummy yummy treats that lasted a few days :o)

Tail end of Bolivia...La Paz and Lake Titicaca

The city of La Paz.  A bustling, vibrant, hilly city!



A sample of goods at the Witche's Market.  This is what somebody would typically buy and burn as an offering to Pachamama (Mother Earth), a practice common among Andean cultures.  Yep...that's a llama fetus in there!



The Gate of the Sun, at Tiwanaku.  This is an important archeological sight outside of La Paz, built by a pre-Incan culture called the Tiwanakus.

The bustling town of Copacabana on Lake Titicaca.  It was a national holiday, so all the city folk were in town for the weekend...normally this beach was empty!

View from the top of Isla del Sol on Titicaca.  It was a hell of a hike up...@ 4100 meters above sea level.  Seriously...sea level, I miss you with your oxygen-rich air.

This marks the end of our time in Bolivia...three weeks in total.  It was my favourite country we've been to so far.  Some people I've told have been surprised by that...but it's a really special place.  The landscapes are so varied and unique.  The people, though some are devistatingly poor, are dignified and proud.  There is so much culture and history here, evident everywhere you go, it makes for a fascinating place to visit.

Bolivia - Part 2 - Potosi, Sucre and Samaipata

After the salt flats, we continued eastward to the town of Potosi. After silver was discovered here in the 1500s, the town became the wealthiest and largest in the world - even more important than Paris and London at the time.

Many people work in 3 shifts around the clock in this mine, closest to town - the typical worker earns between $4.50 to $10 per day with an average life expectancy of 35.  The local market closest to the mine supplies the employees with their daily needs of coca leaves, clothing, flashlights, and dynamite...the sale of which is completely unregulated in this town only - we could have bought it if we wanted!

The town of Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia, and birthplace of the Bolivian nation.  Many museums and lots of history - a very nice and relaxing town to have spent the Easter holidays.  The bonus to everything was the prices - we bought lunch for both of us for under $5!

One of the most incredible parts of the trip so far was the rock quarry where dinosaur footprints were discovered a few years ago.  The area is not under the constant study of palaeontologists and one can see - literally - thousands of dinosaur footprints from 60million years ago - mind boggling...

From Sucre we flew to the tropical east of Bolivia and ended up in Samaipata - one of the historical centers of the Incan empire, where the Incan empire traded with the tribes from the Amazon.

El Fuerte was carved by an Amazonian tribe that pre-dated the Incas - at least 700 years go.  The hill is sandstone, and the site was carved right into the mound.  It was later taken over by the Incas, and after that, the Spanish Conquistadors.

The following day we went for a hike up a considerable verticle incline to find a cave with some old, but unidentified paintings.

On the way down, we decided to take a picture with a very unique local cactus - ouch!

Bolivia - Part 1 - The Salt Flats

After a wonderful 3 weeks in Bolivia, we finally found some time to update the blog!  Our first stretch of Bolivia was crossing the border from Chile, crossing the Altiplano, going through the Salt Flats, and making our way towards the center of the country. 

The first taste of Bolivia was the border crossing - basically a dirt line with a 150 sqft shack as the control point.  It was an interesting, and very unique experience! 

As we continued on, we passed several lakes infused with various minerals that changed the colour of the water - red, green, blue, white - all very beautiful.

Our first non-photo-op stop was a natural hot-spring with a view of the snow-capped mountains in the background.  We stayed in until our fingers pruned - luckily our timing was good as about 2 dozen people showed up as we were getting dried off! 

After lunch, we stopped at the Red Lagoon which is home to thousands of pink flamingos. One of the most incredible parts of this area was that on our walk, we found fossilized coral, which was neat, until we realized that we were at 4,000+ meters above sea level - that just messed with our heads...incredible...

We stopped at Rock Valley for a goofy photo-op.

The next day, we visited the Uyuni Salt Lake - over 10,000 sq km and visible from outer space!  Becuase of the reflection, we both got quite the sun-tans, and were just amazed at the incredible sight.  The most difficult part of the trip was watching dozens of vehicles with people shovelling the salt into the open backs of trucks for transport back to the nearest town.  Here, they process the salt and sell it for about C$2 for 15kg...a very hard life...

We spent that evening in one of several salt hotels at the edge of the lake - the bricks, the floors, and most of the furniture - all made of salt...just amazing!