He was our guide for the Sacred Valley tour. He was a very nice man and full of information, like the reason these are on almost every roof in Peru. Turns out they are for good luck. People are given two toros to place on their roof when they move into a home. Often they will put one bottle of Chicha (a sacred Incan drink) on one side of the toros and a bottle of holy water on the other.
While on our tour we stopped at Ollantaytambo (Spanish word pronounced: oˈʎantaiˈtambo). It was beautiful. While there Pedo told us that the Inca's were in the middle of constructing several temples at Ollantaytambo when the Spanish attacked, and so the temples were never finished. As a person who loves history this trip just made me despise the Spanish explorers more and more with each passing day. Also as a wife I must say that nothing is as irritating as unfinished honey-do lists, can you imagine having a temple just sitting there waiting to be finished?! Anyway the view from Ollantaytambo was spectacular...
The skinny stones were placed between the larger stones so that if there was an earthquake the small stones would take the most friction and if they broke they were a lot easier to replace than the larger ones. I tell ya the Inca's were incredibly smart!!!
Pedo, in the unfinished moon temple.The moon temple was made of red granite that was brought from a mountain across the river. They diverted the river twice to get the stone up to the site of the temple. The stone strip behind Pedo is a calendar, similar to a sun dial, but based on the moon.
Red granite at the moon temple.After I whispered a few choice words to Greg about the Spanish explorers, we were on our way again.
Potatoes in the process of being freeze dried.We arrived at our last stop on the tour Chinchero, after sunset so we were not able to get too many pictures. However, one really neat thing is that the people that live in Chinchero still use the farming terraces to freeze dry their potatoes during the winter.
Greg and I went up to the Church courtyard in Chinchero, and found a market, where I bought a scarf.
Once back in Cusco, Greg and I dined at Chez Maggy. We drank a Pisco Sour, Sangria and ate...
Alpaca pizza.Not my favorite, but not too bad.
It was a great last night in Cusco before setting out the next day on a four day backpacking adventure to...Machu Picchu!
