Mountain Town and Traditional Markets
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Mon 28 Jun 2010 01:20
direction to Chinchero 30 km away with further ruins and markets. It was a
lot less dramatic than yesterday's valleys, but the valleys opened up into a
brown/ yellow plateau with these rising temples of mountains in snow at the
far end, We were at 3700 M and the mountain which looked at the end of the
valley/ plateau were 6000+ M, the agriculture played out in front of us. We
were early this morning beating the tor busses so on arrival at this town on
the edge of the plateau we walked up some steep cobble streets made out of
river pebbles. Opening onto a Plaza and old church which are built on the
old Inca ruins. Off the to side heading to the sacred valley there was a
huge amount of terracing, some of them twice the size of a soccer field. I
sat and just tried to comprehend the earth moving and excavation needed
today to make this real little lone 1000 years ago, and it is on the hill
side.(See photos)
We then wandered down to a traditional market where it was laid out with the
fruit and veggies and cheese etc, which the locals surrounding where coming
in for, and then the hand crafts. It was less touristy and nice to wander,
we picked up some good sweaters for the boys, as Tracy and I have already
got ours on this trip.
The thing that you absorb and enjoy is the color of the people the mountain
people all over the world seem to ware bright colors and this is no
different. So the color of the markets was great, I remember this in the
Atlas mountains and the bright color with the smiles and happy faces of
people seams to make the whole place so much more fun and welcoming.
It was a nice day as we were back in Cusco by 1 pm for the boys to sleep,
and me to watch the soccer, and we could relax feeling like we had covered a
lot in the morning. Dinner we went to Irish pub to fill up, and boys enjoyed
it with the owners son the same age as Alex.
Tomorrow we go up the valley by train.
Stay Tuned.
