Back in Cusco to Absorb the atmosphere
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Sat 3 Jul 2010 02:54
After 5 days in the Sacred Valley we took a taxi today to come up out of the
valley and back to Cusco, on the way exploring the salt pans and MORAY ruins
of the Incas, we planning to saty here absorb the atmosphere and explore for
5 days, as this town grows on you.
We spent yesterday exploring the fort ruins around the town of
Ollantaytambo, we had a great B & B, (see Photos) and the twon had a lot of
atmosphere. Again the tiers of the agriculture and irrigation aqua duct
systems are just amsing.
Today we climbed out of valley on a clear day, high peaks with snow
reflecting in the sun, and then arriving on the platuae above the Sacred
Valley, we turned off to visit the Salt Pans. This is an area or small gorge
which has a river/ creek running out from within the mountain, with a lot of
salt in the water, the Incas had initially set up salt pans to collect the
salt, and these have grown over the years and are still in use today.
Similar to the ones in Turkey.
>From there we went to Moray ruins which are concentric circles that were
used for agriculture and each tire had 2 degrees difference in temperature
and is where the Incas experiemented with diffent crops.
The thing that continues to impress me with the Incas is the extend of
landscaping and use of the natural forces to develop crops etc, the
retaining walls which hang off the cliff/ mountain sides and are still
strong after 1000s of years.
After getting stuck in major roadworks, we pulled into the hotel in Cusco,
in time for the afternoon soccer game, and boys to rest.
Looking out over the plains today and then the plateau just dropping off
into the velly and then rising so steeply on the hother side to 6000m with
snow caps, you are humbled at the magnitude of this scene, and everyone
getting on with their lives. We passed sheep herders, people running down
the hills with stacks of wood on their back, donkey's everywhere.
Yet so much history.
