Tour of Peru
June 15-28, 2010
I figure that the easiest way to document this trip is to start from
their itinerary and add my own comments, observations, and pictures. My
stuff is in black. Theirs is in blue.
Day 5/June 19: Meeting and seminar time with Gregg. Later visit and share in a prayer ceremony at the ancient ruins of Pisac, a superb Incan center high on the mountainside. Pisac covers an entire mountain and is located in a spectacular surrealistic mountain setting with a variegated green carpet of intact Incan terraces flowing up to the peaks. The temples here blend perfectly with their environment. The most sacred temple contains the famous "Intihuatana" stone, or "Hitching Post of the Sun." This is speculated to have been a solar clock and astronomical and astrological calendar as well as a prayer site. Visit and be up close to see first-hand, alpacas, vicunas and llamas at a local textile factory.
Before going to Pisac, we went to the textile “factory.” Basically a petting zoo and weaving center where they gave us barley to feed the critters. I got some yarn and a lovely, delicate, hand-knit scarf made from baby alpaca yarn.
There were two ways to get to Pisac – the high road and the low road. After Gregg described the high road as being up this mountain and then down a bit, with sections that are very narrow and have cliffs dropping off below and a tunnel that looks more like a cave as you enter because you can’t see the light at the other end, he also told us that there was a “low road” that was basically level but ended with a flight of about 300 steps up to the plateau of Pisac.
Gregg said that people could choose to go via high or low, but that everyone would be coming back by the low road because it would be dusk by then as he was planning a sunset ceremony at Pisac. I decided that the low road was the way to go, but on the way there, Gregg informed us that portions of the low road had been washed out in the rains that made Machu Picchu unreachable for a couple of months earlier in the year. They had not been restored yet, so everyone was going to have to both go and come back by the high road!
I went most of the way, but eventually got to a flight of stairs going down and decided that I definitely did not want to have to climb back up them. So sat by the side of the trail on my own while the rest of the group went on. I had a nice peaceful time watching the shadow of the mountain at my back creep up the slope across the valley and then returned to the bus when the others came back. (I will probably get to see photos of Pisac when Jerry sends his CD out!)
Day 5/June 19: Meeting and seminar time with Gregg. Later visit and share in a prayer ceremony at the ancient ruins of Pisac, a superb Incan center high on the mountainside. Pisac covers an entire mountain and is located in a spectacular surrealistic mountain setting with a variegated green carpet of intact Incan terraces flowing up to the peaks. The temples here blend perfectly with their environment. The most sacred temple contains the famous "Intihuatana" stone, or "Hitching Post of the Sun." This is speculated to have been a solar clock and astronomical and astrological calendar as well as a prayer site. Visit and be up close to see first-hand, alpacas, vicunas and llamas at a local textile factory.
Before going to Pisac, we went to the textile “factory.” Basically a petting zoo and weaving center where they gave us barley to feed the critters. I got some yarn and a lovely, delicate, hand-knit scarf made from baby alpaca yarn.
 | ||
| Alpaca (or llama...) Munching Barley. |
There were two ways to get to Pisac – the high road and the low road. After Gregg described the high road as being up this mountain and then down a bit, with sections that are very narrow and have cliffs dropping off below and a tunnel that looks more like a cave as you enter because you can’t see the light at the other end, he also told us that there was a “low road” that was basically level but ended with a flight of about 300 steps up to the plateau of Pisac.
Gregg said that people could choose to go via high or low, but that everyone would be coming back by the low road because it would be dusk by then as he was planning a sunset ceremony at Pisac. I decided that the low road was the way to go, but on the way there, Gregg informed us that portions of the low road had been washed out in the rains that made Machu Picchu unreachable for a couple of months earlier in the year. They had not been restored yet, so everyone was going to have to both go and come back by the high road!
I went most of the way, but eventually got to a flight of stairs going down and decided that I definitely did not want to have to climb back up them. So sat by the side of the trail on my own while the rest of the group went on. I had a nice peaceful time watching the shadow of the mountain at my back creep up the slope across the valley and then returned to the bus when the others came back. (I will probably get to see photos of Pisac when Jerry sends his CD out!)
No comments:
Post a Comment