We started the morning by driving up to 12,000 feet to check out some inca and pre-Incan sites on the outskirts of the city. On the way up the mountain we saw some adobe houses and dad, being the architect that he is, asked many questions about the various structures. We also learned that the inca created artificial lakes on the mountains for irrigation and we had the chance to see one of the only ones still in use.
Tambomachay was our first stop. It was an Incan holy place and there is still water running through it as it never stopped from Incan times.
After that we headed to Qenco. This was a religious center as well and they discovered several burials. The Inca liked to mummify the dead and then keep they close by, in case they need to consult them. There also use to be a pool there and there's a huge stone (picture below) that is suppose to look like a puma.... It doesn't our guide (Vidal, who was with us the whole week and was awesome!) told us that many people came and looked at the stone to try and see the puma, with no luck. Then, one day someone came by and saw the puma... It was the shadows of the huge stone cast upon a flat piece of rock behind it.
Last site, Sacsayhuaman (kind of pronounced like "sexy woman")' which was HUGE. It is an Inca site, but archaeologists have uncovered evidence of pre-Incan work as well. Here we went into a small labyrinth that was pitch black and pretty tiny ( I had my right hand on my head to watch for short ceilings and my left hand on the wall to follow along. Pretty cool. Vidal showed us another labyrinth that has been closed off because people have gone in and not come out. It starts at one path and then forks. Then, at the end of each of those paths, it forks again, and so on and so on. Nobody is quite sure how long/deep it is! We also saw an area that use to be one of their man made lakes as some volcanic rock that was being utilized like one of those huge slides at amusement parks that use burlap sacks. Then we saw the main structure.... It was insane!! It's suppose to be the head of a puma (Cusco is laid out in the shape of a puma) and the rocks were ridiculously large and fit together so well!!
After that we headed back to the hotel, then to the craft market.
We had a group dinner in the evening since we're all heading in different directions tomorrow. Dad and I head back to Lima tomorrow morning for a couple of days.
Former lake, now place for llama and alpaca to do some speed dating.
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