Our last day in Cusco, and our last in the Sacred Valley, came all too quickly. We were with Percy for our last day. He had a great itinerary planned out.
We always met him in front of the cathedral at the main square. We toured the cathedral when we stopped over in Cusco on our way to Puno (the detour due to the strike), but photos were forbidden and they actually watched people. They did have the cathedral doors open that morning, however, so I snagged a few shots. This is just one of the altars and the three churches combined had several. They were all very ornate like this one.
We piled into Percy's car and headed out towards Chinchero. On the way we stopped to take some photos of the beautiful mountains.
At Chinchero, we first had a weaving lesson. The ladies showed us all the natural dye ingredients and demonstrated how to clean the alpaca fur and prepare it to be woven into blankets and more.
On to the site itself... Chinchero served as a palace for one of the Inca royalty.
We came across a bunch of potatoes laying in the grass. Percy said a local was drying them out to store for winter.
The Spanish came and did their usual - built a church on top of the Inca temple. The church is from the 16th century and still has its original paintings.
Look at this awesome rock - there are steps carved into it! There is speculation around whether this rock was used as a ceremonial site.
The site has been mostly excavated. You can see many rooms at different levels.
Those are original paintings. They are able to keep them in tact mostly because the weather is very dry. One of Michelangelo's students formed the Cusquenean school of art. Each student learned only one part of the body (head, hands, etc) so no one person ever signed the paintings.
There were vendors, of course. Look closely at this chess set. It's Incas versus Spanish Conquistadors. Classic.
Next we headed to Maras, a valley full of salt pans. If you eat salt in Peru, it most likely came from here.
Different families own groupings of salt pans and work them in the dry season to supplement their income. 5 kilograms of salt amounts to about $9.00 USD. That's about $40 per pan.
Percy led us straight onto the pans and had us try some salt.
A spring coming from the mountain forming the valley is naturally warm and salty. Geologists can't quite explain why. There's evidence the Incas used the same area for salt mining as well.
Our next destination was Moray. On the way we saw more beautiful countryside.
Moray is amazing. If you go to Peru and are in the Sacred Valley and don't have time to see all the sites, don't skip this one.
As you drive up to the site, all you see is the hill you are walking up. Once you reach the top and look down, you see the terraces. They believe this site was used to genetically select crops to be used at higher altitudes over time. The Inca (or a pre-Inca culture) put in some sort of drainage system (as yet undiscovered). They know because the lowest section never holds water.
You can climb all the way down, but you have to go via Inca stairs. AKA rocks balanced in a stone wall.
I mostly conquered my fear of falling off the stairs.
Apparently some people believe the very center holds some sort of good karma or magical properties. We saw plenty of people meditating and doing other interesting things there.
A said he didn't feel anything special.
What goes down much come up... and this was the best route.
Sometimes there are big gaps between the steps - not good for short-legged people!
On our way back to Cusco, Percy stopped at a reputable location for chicha (corn beer). This woman has been brewing it for a long time, as you can tell by the flowers marking her property instead of the modern tarp "flags".
We paid 1 sole which bought us a giant glass. Percy instructed A to first give some to Mother Earth.
The next instruction was to not drink very much. Apparently tourists (or anyone not accustomed to drinking chicha) can get kinda sick off it. No problems here (though we barely drank any!).
Back in Cusco we watched a few street performances at the Festival de Arte Total. Between the two of us we could only catch certain phrases, but the acting was funny.
The kids' performance was really cute.
We had made reservations the night before for one of the "fancy" restaurants in Cusco. It's appropriately called Chicha.
The food was very tasty and also very artsy.
A had beef cheek which he said was delicious.
I had Pachamanca. It's a stew of chicken, lamb, pork, fava beans and potatoes topped with Andean cheese and baked in the oven. (Traditionally baked in an earthen oven.) Yum!
Coming Up: Why Lima has been called the "strangest, saddest city", a restaurant with three names and catacombs!
