Thursday May 29th 2019 - trip to Aguas Calientes

Today was the beginning of our trip to Machu Picchu. We had to be ready by 9.30 am with cases prepared for storage and duffle bag and day rucksack ready for the trip. My ill health has continued with about 2 hours sleep. Breakfast was at 8am and we were all ready well before the time. The minibus picked us up at the hotel and Jim sat at the back because his seatbelt in the seat beside me wouldn't work. I was so tired I fell asleep. We travelled along the Urubamba river and then had about a half hour's delay as workmen were causing a landslide on the road in order to avoid a natural landslide. 

Finally we got to Ollantaytambo train station where we waited for our train. We were in carriage B and had numbered seats. We had to show our tickets and passports. 

The train was bound for Aguas Calientes, now more commonly known as Macchu Picchu Pueblo, where we would have a late lunch and then a 20 minute uphill walk .  The train journey brought us through some very scenic countryside. We could see Mount Veronica and its glacier. We also saw some Andean terraces along the Urubamba river. The guardsman was very good at pointing out things we should photo

When we got to Aguas Calientes we went to a restaurant where I chose fettucine with vegetables - a bit of a bad choice as the pasta was doused in soy sauce and was inedible. However, Sarah and Jim each gave me a slice of their pizza so I didn't starve!

The centre of Aguas Calientes - Aguas Calientes means hot waters in Spanish because of its thermal baths. The centre is full of souvenir shops and restaurants as the town exists solely for tourism with people arriving by train every day overnighting in the village and visiting Machu Picchu the next day.

This gives you an idea of the street we had to walk up - 20 minutes or more - to get to our Luna Muna Eco Hotel. Needless to say everyone else got there much faster than breathless me! After settling in to our rooms - fortunately we were on the first floor - we did a bit of a walkabout around the area, and then had coffee and shared a huge shortbread biscuit sandwiched with dulce da leche.

We explored the area in the vicinity of our hotel and discovered a series of sculptures carved into the same granite rock in which the hot springs are set. Seemingly these sculptures were part of the "Pachamama Rimac" contest that was organised in the village in September 2017 - so a relatively new exhibition. They were sculpted by renowned Cusco artists and artisans from Aguas Calientes and present the contemporary view of Andean man towards the worldview of the ancient men who created Machu Picchu. I found them fascinating.

This was the area in which we saw all the sculptures

Some of these sculptures speak of Pachamama or Mother Earth - the one that gives us its fruits to be able to feed us, the one that gives life, usually represented as a woman with long hair and Andean features. She is sometimes represented as naked or as pregnant

The large ears of corn are a symbol of abundance.

This is not a great photo but in the upper part of it  there are two silhouettes of a man and a woman, the complementary opposites that speak to us of Andean duality. In between them, in the upper recess, is a baby wrapped in a woven belt - wrapped in that way it is called waltado and it represents the affection of the parents for their child. It is a tradition in the Andes to protect children from the cold and to help them grow strong bones.

This is The Family - father, mother and child.

This is a sculpture of the Apus or mountain god holding a baby in his hands. The baby wears the traditional chullo, Andean knitted cap, According to the story of this sculpture it represents the protection of the Apus given to the children of Aguas Calientes many years ago during a huayco - Andean term for a mudslide and flash flood caused by torrential rains high in the mountains.

 This is called Cusi Qoyllor's Ecstasy

Origin, Time and Movement

This is entitled Forbidden Love. It is a beautiful sculpture of an Inca man embracing a woman. Both are semi-nude and it reflects erotic love. According to the history of this sculpture, Pachamama must always be with the Apus, the masculine energy of Andean man, and that both the earth and the mountains represent Andean duality. In this case, however, the god of wind, Wayra, is the one that falls in love with Pachamama. The artist wanted to represent in this sculpture the hidden love of two beings who can never be together.

This is a sculpture of Wiracocha - the creator god who lived in the divine world. The myths of the Inca consider him the creator of the sun, the moon, the stars and everything in nature.

This is a sculpture of Mamacocha, the Andean divinity of water.

I found all these sculptures fascinating and a great example of how Andean people are immersed in their culture.

It was early to bed for us - Jim in bed by 6.45 pm - as we had to be up for breakfast at 4.40 am in order to be ready to leave for Machu Picchu at 5.20 am to be there for sunrise. It was a bit noisy but I had to remember that it was only early evening!

Tuesday May 28th 2019 - Cusco

Today was a free day in Cusco. I had a very bad night as even when lying down I was breathless.  I wasn't very pleased when Jim got up early for breakfast and woke me up. I gave breakfast a miss and we met up with Charlotte at 9.30am. Sarah was going to a cookery course with Pauline so we headed to the Plaza where we sat for a while. Then we started to make our way downhill past Coricancha to a textile market where I was hoping to get a blanket for Carol. It was quite a walk but we stopped on the way for coffee. The loo was basically a broom cupboard under the stairs but the only way of flushing was using a bucket for water that was in a big barrel - interesting experience!

At the junction of Avenida del Sol and Avenida Tullamayo is the Paccha de Pumaqchupan fountain. This name means "source of water in the tail of the puma". It is said that the city of Cusco had the shape of a puma and in this place in the past two rivers were joined - the Saphi and the Tullamayo. This pacha has a corridor where you can walk behind the water. Behind the fountain is a very impressive mosaic

Figures that stand out and have significance are: the puma, the symbol of the city of Cusco, representing the existence of force, courage and intelligence; the sun of Echenique representing the divine origin of the Incas; circles representing the vital energy of the world constantly in motion; elliptical shapes representing the earth, a deity in the Inca empire; six steps (the chacana) representing the interconnectedness of the 3 realms - Hanan Pacha, Kay Pacha and Uku Pacha (a bit like Catholic notion of Heaven, Earth and Hell); the coca leaf , a symbol of cultural identity; the lightning, an important divinity to the Incas and a symbol of power.

Inside in the Centro Artesanal on Avenida Tullumayo there were interesting things to see. Many were of religious significance.

Walking round the market was exhausting but I got a blanket and a few keyrings. We got a taxi back to the Plaza for 5 soles - very cheap.

The ubiquitous Irish pub!

We sat there a while and then went to Inka Grill for lunch where Sarah joined us after a very disappointing cookery experience.

After lunch we did our tour of the Cathedral which filled us with awe - or was it disgust - at its opulence. The fact that, sitting on the ground, outside the Cathedral was a beggarwoman, only increased the experience.

Cusco Cathedral was built on the site of an ancient Inca temple called Kiswarkancha. The temple was the site of Viracocha's  palace. Viracocha was a 15th century emperor named after the creator deity worshipped by the Incas. Taking stone from Sacsayhuaman citadel on the hill above Cusco the spaniards forced the Incas to construct the cathedral. Their aim was to destroy the Inca religion and replace it with Catholicism.

Taking photos was not allowed in the Cathedral so Jim had to buy some postcards to capture one of its most remarkable features - a painting of the Last Supper featuring Jesus and his disciples feasting on traditional Peruvian dishes. The central dish is guinea pig (though some people say it is a wild Andean chinchilla) lying paws up on a platter. Bread and wine are usually associated with the last supper but this painting has corn and potatoes, both typically peruvian food. The painting also shows Judas as the traitor he was. He is the only only of the disciples not caught up with reverence for Jesus but is painted as looking at the viewer, with his hand below the table, clutching a money purse.

The choir stalls are made of pure cedar and have carvings of former bishops of Cusco.










One of the main altars is visually striking and quite unusual. It is embossed in silver but was originally wood.

This is the main altar in the Church of the Holy Family.

The Altar of the Holy Trinity.

The Altar of the Agony of Christ.

Painting of the Lord of the Earthquake. The Lord of the Earthquake's power was shown in 1650 when there was an earthquake and the people paraded the figure of Christ in the streets and the worst of the earthquake was averted.

This is called the Black Jesus (also Lord of the Earthquakes) . It is said that the Spanish conquerors, having the mission to evangelise Peru, created this figure of Christ dark in colour and with indigenous features in order to make the people feel more identified with the figure of Christ.





Following our visit to the Cathedral we then went to the Machu Picchu museum which was very good. It is set in a huge colonial mansion called Casa Concha. It is a beautiful example of Andean residential architecture during the early years of the Spanish conquest. Like many colonial buildings in Peru it was built on the foundations of an Inca palace, in this case that of Tupac Yupanqui, the son and successor of Pachacutec, the founder of Machu Picchu.The museum is dedicated to the history of Machu Picchu and the people who lived there and exhibits hundreds of artefacts taken by the American explorer Hiram Bingham in 1911 and only returned in 2011 by Yale University. The exhibition rooms open off the first floor baroque-style balconies that surround a central courtyard.

Sarah approaching the glass-covered excavation pit revealing the Inca floor 6 feet below the present surface.

Model of the archaelogical site of Machu Picchu

The Quipu is a fascinating way of keeping records and conveying information used by the Inca in place of a numerical or alphabetical system. They are often called talking knots or threads that speak.

The exhibition includes ceramic objects, metals, rocks, Inca stonework, cloth and silverwork as well as relics excavated from the ruins of the site of the museum. Most of the objects are ceramic and were used by the people of Machu Picchu till the end of the fifteenth century.

Features of Casa Concha.













En route back to the square we passed these colorful features:

That evening we dined in Paprika across the road from our hotel where I ate a little of my pollo relleno - not because it wasn't good (it was very good!) but because my appetite was affected by the altitude sickness.