Chinchero

An early start our first stop was Saquesay Huaman (Pronounced near enough Sexywoman) a temple that sits high abobe Cusco. Pierro explained its likely meaning was sastisfied head, as Cusco was shaped like a Puma, the temple is placed where the head if the Puma would be. The site was used to study asrtonomy. It had stairs that aligned with the summer solstice, across from an alter with a llama shape in the wall. Gigantic stones formed its walls which must have taken hundreds of people to move. Most temples were built around natural stone formations, making them closer to Pacchamama.

Next stop half an hour outside Cusco was Chinchero where we were first shown into a weaving demonstration. The girls in traditional dress showed us how they treated alpaca and llama wool and then dyed it using natural compunds found around the village. Tying the threads to a frame it could take them 4 months to create a table runner, the pattern they created all from memory. I bought a lovely alpaca wool scarf here and they enjoyed dressing us up for a photo!

Continuing through the village we came to a temple. The temple itself was replaced by a church but its terraces still remained, and its thought it was used to experiment with plants, a massive Incan labaratory. Each terrace was 5 degrees temperature diffrence from the last. Here on the steps you could see old Inca symbols and swirls etched into rock.

The church built by the spanish in the 16th century was covered in beautiful art. A virgin Mary was surrounded by mountains, a tribute to Pachamamma. On the way back to the bus we grabbed a local snack choclo con queso, corn on the cob with cheese which was delicious.

We soon arrived in Zurite our room for the night in a homestay. Set within a quiet white courtyard we set our stuff in the dorms before sittting for lunch. It was a grand affair with three courses each as delicious as the last. The chef they revieled would be coming with us as we camped - amazing!

Fuelled up we were dropped two hour away to see an area with four natural temples that people still use today from the offerings we saw there. A cave opening was the temple of Pachamama, a rock shaoed like a condor another. A altar perfectly cut from the stone was temple of the moon and a waterfall with a frog shaped rock by the water was the temple of fertility. Our warm up walk back was gentle through andean flat roads arriving back in Zurite in good time. Another amazing meal from the chef including a vegetable soup and pudding made from purple corn and a local cocktail of Macho Te (herbal tea and pisco- we had a looot of Pisco) we headed for bed before the big trek the next day.Read more