The Inca Trail

Today was beautiful, mostly sunny with occasional cloud cover...but no rain!

It is quite something to be in a city surrounded by beautiful mountains! There are so many shades of green from almost black to teal, and they are always changing depending on how the sun is highlighting parts of the mountain and emphasizing shadows in other areas, a real study in tones and shading.

We had a late start today, 8 AM, ha ha! You need to be a morning person for sure. 

We headed out to a social project where they have the various camelids of Peru, Vicunya, llama, and alpaca, and all varieties of these.

Then we get to the area where we learn about natural dying, and spinning of the yarn. In this area they use a combination of things to create different shades.

Then to the ladies weaving these beautiful yarns into blankets, scarves etc... Mostly backstrap.and they do this with their very young children with them from infant to age 3.

Then of course the store with the finished projects, WOW, what beautiful things. I found myself some beautiful teal gloves of alpaca hide.

Now for some exercise, off to an archeological site in Pisaq. Here the Pre Inca's then the Inca's lived, there is a communal living space, a military area and an area for the church.

It is really amazing how they brought up huge blocks of granite to build walls of some buildings and other boulders for some buildings and walls. All the walls lean inwards, the windows are trapezoid shape and the boulders fit together perfectly like a flower or like a hexagon patterned quilt.

To get to see all these marvelous things we walked for about 2 hours along an Inca trail, that was challenging to say the least. Narrow paths along the ciffs edge, no railings and very uneven ground, multiple stairs up and down that are rocks along a well worn trail, no regular spacing or size, occassionally there was a railing, and of course very narrow tunnels to walk through- the Inca were definitely not large people! But the scenery along the way made everything worthwhile! We had great views of terraces and tombs,mountains all around us and the town of Pisaq below. Pisaq was actually created by a landslide that occurred ?millions of years ago, and you can visualize the path it must of taken when you look down from near the start of the trail.

Then time for a rest, cold drink and lunch. So into the town for fresh and delicious empanadas, cold lemonade and the bano.

Then over to the very large market to look at all the textiles, jewelry, art, food and people.

A quiet evening, a 645 start tomorrow. Buenas Noches!