Saqsayhuaman was a temple on a hill above Cusco, with massive zig zag fortifications in front of it. The heaviest stone used in the construction of these walls weighed 120 tons, and so must have required some serious man power to move!
Q'enqo was a sacred stone, in the shape of either a frog, or puma depending on who you listen to. I can kind of see the frog, but can only assume it looked a lot more puma like with 500 years less weathering (it is limestone). There are niches around the stone, which our local guide Bruce explained were for mummies to stand in so they could take part in the ceremonies... Creepy.
Pukapukara was a sort of hill top checkpoint used to moderate access to the sacred valley, and which could also be used for shelter by anybody, and was also used for meditation during rights of passage to manhood.
The last ruin we visited was Tambomachay, which was a place with a lot of fountains. The water was used to purify yourself before entry to the scared valley, and in ceremonies at the small temple there. One interesting feature was that there was a protrusion of natural stone which interfered with the wall of the temple, but they just built around it, so as not to disturb nature.
Next up we hit a textiles factory. We didn't get to see people at work, but did get shown how to tell the difference between qualities of material (alpaca, fine alpaca, baby alpaca, vicuña). I got a nice baby alpaca scarf.
We also went to a place where we could feed llamas and alpacas, and see the materials that are used to make various dyes. A llama (I think) managed to sneak right up behind Alison, and made her jump a mile, which was very funny.
Pisac market, in the sacred valley was next. It is called the sacred valley because the sacred river runs through it, and because the soil is extremely fertile, which gives rise to some amazingly massive corn.
We got street food for lunch, enpinatas which are somewhat like a small calzone pizza, but with no tomato, and much nicer in my opinion, then some of the aforementioned massive corn. It cost 8 soles (£2) for 2 enpinatas and one ear of corn, so amazing value. We then got a little time to wander the market. One of the shops was the workshop of an artist, who has won an award for being Peru's best. I got a nice little painting from him, and otherwise we just had a bit of a skulk around.
On the way back to the hotel we visited a silver workshop. I saw one of these in Indonesia, and the techniques they use are very similar, but we also got to see all of the stones used in the jewellery in their raw and refined states. I found a pendant I liked, silver around obsidian in the shape of an inca cross, but I preferred the stone 'liquid silver', so they are custom making me a pendant exactly like the one I found with my preferred stone, and delivering it to my hotel with no extra charge for either service, we also got some chocolate, and a lift back to the hotel gratis, and apparently they won't even let people in off the street at all! So in other words it's a pretty classy place.
This will be my last blog for 4 days at least: tomorrow at 5.45am we are setting off for the Inca Trail, so it will be all tents and nature, and no wifi!
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