Day 14: 14/7/12. It's a long one!!
Had a tour of the sacred valley around cusco today. We passed lots of houses with bulls on top if them again- apparently they are to being fertility, love and happiness. Some of them have crosses aswell to show they ate catholic. We found out why some houses aren't finished around puno- they dont want to pay the taxes! In Cusco though they are mostly finished. The bus driver was a bit crazy- they all overtake round corners and everything- a few times we were saying "oh the cross of Christ about us"
Stop 1: corao. It was a tiny village with stalls set up, really they just want you to buy stuff. It's the same type of stuff they have in every tourist shop and market!
Stop 2: lookout over the whole valley, class views of mountains, with a snow- capped mountain behind and a river and little villages in front- camera on overload!!
Stop 3: Pisac- inca site. Another central site marking the way between Cusco and the jungle. Huge inca terraces and buildings for the administrators on the right, the astronomers on the top an the engineers on the left. all the royal incas lived in sites like these and the poor commoners lived outside on the hills somewhere. Inca actually means king and the people in the Inca civilisation were actually Quechas. Only ever one Inca. There were holes in the hills around which were actually tombs for the local people. They have two seasons- dry season and wet season, marked by the summer and winter solstices and the astronomers could tell which season it was by the star constellations over the hills. The locals would have walked to Cusco which took 2days for them. They have an extra litre of blood in their bodies, they have bigger hearts and lungs so that they can take in more oxygen up at the high altitude.
Stop 4: Pisac village. More stalls to look around in another plaza de armas! Held a baby alpaca- very cute!
Stop 5: lunch- sat with two canadian girls who were teachers and had done practically the same trip as us. An American girl was with us too, she was volunteering in a school in Cusco.
Stop 6: Ollantayambo- another Incan centre- this one between Cusco and Maccu Pichu. This site was never finished because the Spanish came!! They brought big massive rocks from one mountain to another- they broke off rocks, rolled them down the hill to the river, they then diverted the river so the rock was on the other side. They brought it up a ramp then to build a temple at the top- clever weren't they!! There were little windows in the stone where they put idols or heads from the people they took over! on the hill opposite there were buildings high up that they used as storage houses. There was a face carved in the centre of the hill which was of the Wiracocha god and a face at the left side that they used as a sun dial. The whole place had terraces and lots of steps!! No bother to us today though. I'll be fit as a fiddle running up and down steps so that Muireann can take a photo of me!
Stop 7: Chinchero. Here they showed us how to turn the sheep and alpaca wool into thread and how they make their clothes. They have a plant that grows in the mountains and they grate it and sieve it with water. It makes a soapy substance that they washed the wool in to clean it. Apparently the plant is great for stopping grey hair. We had noticed that all the women have mostly really black hair. But if you already have grey hair it's too late. Then they spin the wool by hand. Then they use different plants to get the colours. Coca leaves make green anyway. They use some kind of flower to make yellow and apparently thats good for preventing wrinkles! A bit of a cactus makes red or purple, you can change the colour by adding salt or lime. The red colour in the cactus is also used as natural lipstick! They boil the plants in water and dip the wool into it and it changed colour instantly! They use a weave Made with planks of wood to make the scarves and things. An Australian couple bought a complete loom with a half finished scarf on it- they wanted to hang it on their wall. We reckoned if they were in Ireland they would bring half an Aran sweater- needles and all!!
On the bus there was an extremely entertaining yank. She was over 50 i reckon, but dolled up to the bibes with tan, fake nails (that had to be put on three times during the day), lots of make up and boob job (muireann suspects!). She was very loud and kept talking. Everyone on the bus was throwing their eyes up to heaven, twenty minutes in! She was with a guy who we later figured out was just a roommate (very suspect!). As I said, he was no oil painting himself, but he deserved huge credit for purtting up with her. Here are some of her highlights!
Out if nowhere she announces out loud to her roommate "wasn't that shower just great- the water pressure!"
Later, while looking out at the hillside she comments "I wonder how the cows don't fall down!"
Every corner we went round had great views and all we could hear was "Wow, wow, wow, wow.... In that really annoying American way!!
For lunch, we all ate in the same town but in different restaurants. Her comment was "Everyone eats in the same place but not the same place"!
Later as we were driving through a village she said "It's like a miniature world- the people are small, the doors are small but it's not because the mountains are huge."
On Ollantambayo our guide was ages explaining about the rocks from he other mountain. Three minutes latet she says "What rock- I'm not buying it!"
As we were climbing up, a good 100m from the ground, she decided to go shouting down to her roommate who hadn't ventured up. He was so far away he looked like a midget and had no chance of hearing an aeroplane not to mind this one screeching and waving both her hands while nearly falling off the side of the mountain!
When we got back in the bus he gave me her business card so I could add her on Facebook because apparently she got great photos (meaning that she demanded the roommate take some)! I think I'll go and add her this minute!!
There was a huge traffic jam coming down from that site. So Out she went to sort it out! Walking ten steps in front of the bus, waving him on- as of he couldn't see all the traffic in front of us.
Her roommate was from lima an she Kept asking him a million Questions about the area. When he said the Spanish came, she said "The spanish.....like the spaniards...,... From Spain??"
She kept yawning out loud, Lying down across the seats and wondering were we home yet- like a bold child!!
She saw the word inca and said "I thought inca was I N K A...... It's not???"
Finally her star moment of the day came when we were at the weaving place and they were showing us how to make the different colours. The girl that was explaining to us picked a bit of a cactus that was about the size of a lentil and showed it to us (she was telling us they use it for colour) and the yank at the top of her voice goes "Is it an animal???"
As you can see the whole bus was laughing for the day!! Don't think she realised everyone found her so amusing!! A memorable character!
After this we returned to Cusco. We got out at the square and had dinner. When we came back out we realised there was some kind of procession going to start. There were girls in their school uniform carrying a thing with a flame inside- there were candles, anchors, hearts, doves, stars and lambs. Then we noticed girls in communion dresses with baskets of flowers. Next thing we turned around and at the same time the two of us went, " well would you look it out!". They had a big statue of Mary and we guess it was Jesus a a child beside her. She was on a big white box with about eight women carrying her. There was a Toyota hiace van behind with speakers with people singing songs. There was a man with a guitar wedged in beside the children- it looked like a scene from Father Ted! They processed round the square stopping at various points. There were a few posters around which looked like they might have something to do with the gifts of the holy spirit. We presume it was a holy day, so maybe ye can enlighten us as to what it was! It was like a huge version of corpus christi but that was on ages ago! Muireann is convinced there was a Peru flag and an Irish flag at the start. It was all a little surreal!
As you can guess there were numerous outbursts of giggles today and a lot of uncontrollable laughter!! Muireann just starts crying when the laughter gets that bad- she doesn't know whether she's crying or laughing!!
Back to the hostel then to sort out our stuff for tomorrow- Maccu Pichu here we come!!
At the moment it doesn't look like well get much sleep as there is a Hooligan below in the bar, which is underneath us, roaring and sawing at a guitar!! The same set list he had last night!!