Machupicchu

 

Hola!

So update on the lockout, still kicking it at the hotel, apparently that bar is effective in keeping people out, including the locksmith himself. It's all good though since we are going to power through and explore the city, day old clothes and all, lol. 

Going back to Machupicchu, oh my goodness, none of the photos or videos I could ever post would do it justice. In order to catch a bus over, we had to get up at 4 am to eat breakfast and leave for the bus line at 5. Even though we were there ridiculously early, there were still hundreds of people waiting for the bus! It took us an hour and a half to catch one, haha. Then we drove straight up the mountain and through the jungle (literally) to get there. I'm talking hairpin turns and roads that narrow down to one way even though busses are going both ways, good thing that after Bangladesh traffic nothing really phases me anymore. We kept going through the jungle and then out of nowhere, boom! we arrived in a huge city built into the mountain.

The first thing we did was climb Waynapicchu, and you've got everything from advanced hikers to novice tourists trying to hike it. They only let a certain number of people through for an hour and then they close it for the next four hours to allow all the hikers to come down before more people come up (this is really helpful because there's only one way up and down the mountain and there's definitely not enough room for two ways without someone falling off the cliff). Shout out to my boxing coach Anthony for kicking my butt every day, because while I wasn't the fastest going up, I was able to keep up the same pace without many stops so I started beating all the "real" hikers up. And if you wanna piss anyone off, especially the guys, just ask to pass them up the mountain. So yeah, I was one of the first ones in my group up!!! (Take that mean group of dudes who wouldn't let me pass for 20 minutes!)

After the hike we rested in one of the original casitas, before trekking onto Machupicchu. If you want to see national pride at its finest, put a Spaniard, a native Quechua (who is an Incan descendent), and an American in the same tour group, and boy, will everyone bristle. Quechua don't like the Spaniards because they conquered and destroyed a lot of their territory and killed most of their people. Spaniards are in denial of how terrible their Queen Isabella was, and how badly they affected their conquered areas. Then add to that the fact that it was an American historian Hiram Bingham who "re"discovered the area, showed the people it's historical value, and carted a lot of the relics back to Yale (which sponsored his trip), and you've got a lot of mixed opinions in one four hour tour, lol. Luckily I'm not  "rah rah 'Murica", so most of the passive aggressive sparring was between the Quechua and the Spaniard, and was highly amusing, I might add.

Going through the ruins I learned that there were three levels of quality of structure, and it all depended on what the building was used for. If it was a temple or a space for The Inca, the rocks were carved and fitted to each other so perfectly you couldn't slip a piece of paper between them, even after all these years of wear and tear. If it was a higher status noble or dignitary, a high quality rock was used and slightly carved. And, finally, if it was the area for commoners, then the rocks mostly were mildly adjusted to fit together, the steps are not uniform, and these parts usually require restoration. 

So apparently Inca translates to "President" and there was only ever one Inca, so the fact that we call everyone Incas is wrong, they were Quechuas and they had The Inca. The Quechuas had a highly advanced society because they pulled discoveries from all different societies. For example, they mummified some of their most important people in fetal position using a system very similar to the Egyptians. They would take them out and parade them during festivals as a symbol of memento mori. They believed that there are three levels, the underworld (which is represented by a serpent) think more Greek where souls just hang out, rather than eternal suffering in hell. Then there's the human world which we currently live in and is represented by the Puma. And finally there's the god's world, which is represented by the condor. You see these symbols carved all around and they even have a condor temple! What's even more fascinating was how they created stone crosses to perfectly align with north and how everything was so carefully constructed that shadows on rocks or in reflection pools would tell them exactly what day it was or where magnetic north vs latitude north is. They had reflection pools to observe the moon and stars, and the list goes on and on and on. It really is a shame that their society fell, and since they had no written language, much of the information was lost. I could have sat there hours just listening to all these stories. Definitely going to do more research when I get home! 

Off to adventure in Lima :) . 

Love and miss you all,

Carolyn