Peruvian Adventure Day 7

Day 7- Lares Trek Day 1 Cusco/Chinchero/Moray/Maras/Lamay

Our guides met us bright and early at the hotel for a 1 1/2 hr ride to the town of Chinchero.  It took a while to get out of Cusco due to the early morning traffic Cusco is a city of about 3 million with quite a bit of sprawl.  Within the city, you are able to see the glaciers atop the 20,000 foot mountains nearby.

Outskirts of Cusco

Once outside of the city the landscape changes abruptly and there is quite a lot of farmland. We stopped here for a photo op.

We finally arrived in the town of Chinchero.  Chinchero is at an elevation of 12,500' (air's getting even thinner, 12.9%).  It was once a great Incan city, and now remains a beautiful, traditional Andean Indian village.  Sadly, Molly started having ill effects from the altitude, and Beto, one of our 3 guides took her to our lodge at a much lower altitude (9600').
We stopped at a weaving cooperative owned by 5 families.  Our greeter was this darling 5 year old weaving  (or possibly modeling) apprentice.

Chinchero-Weaving Cooperative

We were given a demonstration of traditional weaving techniques,

Chinchero-Weaving Cooperative

and alpaca wool production and dyeing.

Chinchero-Weaving Cooperative

Chinchero-Weaving Cooperative

Afterwards there was plenty of time for buying.

Chinchero-Weaving Cooperative

After the weaving lesson,  we walked through the town to the main square passing formidable near vertical side streets. The thought of walking up one of these makes it difficult to breathe.

Chinchero

As we approached the main square, I was taking pictures through this arch and

Chinchero

our Aussie friend, Steve, from the Amazon walked into the picture!  He was on a tour and our paths just happened to cross.

Chinchero-Ran into Steve the Aussie from the Amazon

This old woman was sitting in the square in front of the 17th century church which had been built over the foundation of an Incan temple.  The Spaniards often built churches on Incan temples thinking that this would encourage the conquered Incans to convert.  Go figure.

Chinchero-Abuela

Chinchero

Chinchero 17th century church

Here we also got our first view of Incan ruins built by Inca Tupac Yapanqui son of Pachacutec of Cusco fame.  There are remains of buildings which nicely demonstrate some interesting construction details.  The Incas were able to make stone walls whose elements fit so well that they did not require any mortar.   In fact, many of the Spanish buildings built one these walls collapsed during earthquakes while the Incan walls were never effected.

Chinchero

Chinchero

The walls also slanted upwards giving it more stability with height.

Chinchero- Our guide, Raoul, explaining the terraces

There were also beautiful terraces, some for farming, some for flood control.

Chinchero

Our next stop was Moray, a vast array of concentric ringed terraces.  The site is believed to be an agricultural experimental station.  The Inca farmers were able to create micro climes based on sun exposure, soil type, temperature, and moisture to experiment with different types of crops.

Moray Archeological Site

Moray Archeological Site

After an exciting van ride on very steep, very windy gravel roads (Toby and Marty- think Titus Canyo, Death Valley), we arrived at the Maras Salt Ponds.  There is a salt water river that runs through the village of Maras that the villagers have harnessed for salt production.  Each person in the community is given a small parcel on which to harvest salt.  Each produces about 250 kilos of salt a year.  It is quite labor intensive, requiring chopping the salt with a wooden mallet, bagging it and carrying up out of the mine in 50 kilo (that's 110lb) bags (remember thin air).  Not my idea of a good time.

Maras Salt Ponds

Maras Salt Ponds

Maras Salt Ponds- 110 lbs of salt

By now our heads were spinning with all the information we received today (or maybe lack of oxygen), so our mountain lodge in Lamay was a sight for sore eyes.  We were the only 16 guests in the lodge, and it was quite beautiful.

Lamar Mountain Lodge

Lamar Mountain Lodge

They have resident llamas, and three of the women who work here were nice enough to pose with one of them for me.

Lamar Mountain Lodge

There was a special Mother's Day celebration this evening. Mother's day is tomorrow, but we got a jump on it.

Lamar Mountain Lodge

Lamar Mountain Lodge

All but Dave Wood (Android 1) decided not to take the hike tomorrow, but to get another day of altitude acclimatization under our belts.  Molly was beginning to feel much better.  She apparently gets severe headaches from sulfa drugs and the acetazolamide is sulfa based med.  No more acetazolamide for her!