Machu Picchu: The "Old Mountain"

I finally made it. And it was completely worth it.

We couldn't have timed this trip better. Jackie, a friend from high school, had some free time to travel in Latin America this summer and we both were itching to see Machu Picchu. It was a stunning day with plenty of sunshine, and none of those pesky low-hanging clouds. Not only did we go to Machu Picchu ON the winter solstice (which is pretty great for a site built around the sun's movements), but -- in a stroke of luck -- we also got to stick around Cusco for the Inti Raymi festival. I'll follow up with other posts about our exploration of the city and Sacred Valley, and just focus on Machu Picchu for now. As you'd expect, I have a lot of pictures to share.

We had some doubt we were going to make it. There was a landslide on the train tracks between Ollantaytambo (where we were staying in the Sacred Valley) and Aguascalientes (the town right below Machu Picchu). The whole day before the entire track was shut down, and we were a bit worried that we would have to take a 10 hour bus ride around the valley instead of a 90 minute train ride through it.

But they managed to fix the tracks, and by 4:45 the next morning, we were rolling out of bed for our 6am train.

Ollantaytambo train station @ 5:30am

The train trip was really stunning, as we followed the valley to Aguascalientes. There are a number of glaciers in the valley, as that's what originally cut the steep-sided peaks that are ubiquitous. The closer we get to Aguas Calientes, the more tropical it gets. As we follow the river, we start to see more and more bromeliads, orchids, and lilies. This change in climate means we are getting close!

Note: Macchu Picchu is actually at a lower elevation than Ollantaytambo. Cusco sits at 11,000 ft above sea level, and Ollantaytambo is a bit lower at 9,100 ft. Whereas Aguas Calientes is only at 6,700 ft, and Machu Picchu sits atop a ridge above AC at 7,900 ft.

AC is a cute enough town, sitting in lush green surroundings. It has some hot springs, but most people are really only there to see Machu Picchu.

Statue of Pachacutec in the middle of the town square.

After a short bus ride up the mountain, we are standing at the entrance by 8:30. Even the first glimpse you catch of the site as you follow the path from the entrance is stunning.

As a bit of history, Machu Picchu was built around 1450 and survived as a city for a little over 100 years before it was abandoned in 1572. Most of the city’s inhabitants are thought to have died of smallpox. The most important thing about the site, though, was that there is no evidence that the Spanish ever visited it in their conquest. Sacred rocks that were defaced by the Spanish in other sites remain untouched at Machu Picchu.

The setting of Machu Picchu suggests it was a sacred site primarily for ceremonial purposes. Not only does the stonework match that found at other religious sites, but also the top of Machupicchu Mountain (which the site is named after) has a platform built by the Inca and was most likely used for various ceremonies.
The site was mostly unknown to non-locals until 1911 when Hiram Bingham, a Yale lecturer who had worked in the region for years was brought to the site by an 11-year-old Quechua boy named Pablito Alvarez. He found some locals even living in the original buildings.

Bingham started excavations shortly thereafter, and the site shortly thereafter received a lot of publicity due to a spread in National Geographic in 1913. However, once accusations started to surface that Bingham was smuggling out artifacts through Bolivia, locals began to oppose the excavation being led by a foreigner. By the time Bingham left in 1915, local intellectuals and landowners had begun to organize and claim their ownership of the site and the objects found there (a fitting end for a site that was spared imperial conquest in the 16th century as well).

Hiram Bingham memorial plaque

We decided to hike up to the Sun Gate while it was early and still relatively cool. There were originally two entrances to the site when the Incas lived in it. One was the Sun Gate (Intipunku) from the east, and the other was the Inca Bridge from the west. Both were easy to defend in the case of invasion. The Sun Gate also serves as the entrance for those who arrive at Machu Picchu on the Inca Trail.

Intipunku from Machu Picchu (it's the low point of the ridge at the top)

Some ruins on the hike to Intipunku

Machu Picchu from Intipunku (the mountain behind it is Huaynapicchu)

A glimpse into the valley beyond Intipunku.

By the time we got back from Intipunku, we had to start the hike up Machupicchu Mountain.

Machupicchu Mountain over the terraces (the end of the hike is the pointy tip at the top there)

There are two mountains that sit on either site of Macchu Picchu. The most popular is Huaynapicchu, as it has a temple on the way and one at the top. It is a longer trail but not as steep. Machupicchu Mountain maybe be shorter at only 1.2 miles in length, but it is almost vertical. You go up about 2,100 ft in that time, almost entirely on steep stairs cut into the mountain.

The Incas loved stairs. Like the rest of the stone stairs throughout the site, the stone stairs that climbed the mountain were build by the Incas. I had to avoid looking over the edge of the stairs, but I managed to keep my fear of heights in check by concentrating on the ground. A grueling hour and a half later, I finally made it to the top.

 And, as my fellow hikers would say, "Vale la pena. Es bellisima."

The view from the narrow ridge at the top provided you not only with a stunning view of the site, but you could also see the entire valley around you.

Bromeliads! (And a view of the Urubamba river valley. Aguas Calientes is up the river to the right.)

By the time I got back down to meet Jackie by the entrance, it was already early afternoon, and it was time to start exploring Machu Picchu proper.

The city is divided into an agricultural and urban sector. The urban sector is further divided into an upper and lower city. The upper city housed the temples and upper class housing. The lower city held the warehouses and housed the 'commoners'.

The agricultural terraces in the agriculture sector.

After passing through the agricultural sector, we began to explore the upper city.

Yup, I'm pretty gross after my hike.

One of the coolest features is the aquaducts that were built into the stonework. These brought in fresh water from surrounding streams for the city’s population.

The noble houses sat at the top, along with the most important temple. The general rule was the higher up you were, the more important you were.

 Here is one of the most important temples in the city: the Temple of the Sun. If we had been there at sunrise, we would have seen sunlight shoot through the temple's windows to light up the room (which is supposed to only happen on the winter solstice).

The semicircle and the rectangular structure to the right of it make up the Temple of the Sun

We walked through all of the upper city, exploring its nooks and crannies:

Hi, Jackie!

Chinchillas just chinchillin' in stonework. Yeah, I made that joke while I was at Machu Picchu.

Then we started to make our way up to the Temple of the Three Windows, by the Intihuatana. The Intihuatana is a ceremonial stone that was meant to "tie to the sun", and the Incas thought this stone kept the sun tethered in the sky. On the winter (and summer) solstice (again, the DAY we decided to go), the shadow this casts is at its longest. On the spring and autumn equinox, there is not shadow at all. So the rock also served as an astronomical calendar.

I didn't get a good picture of it, so photo credit: http://www.hola.com/viajes/2011021850958/machu-pichu/peru/centenario/

From the Temple by the Intihuatana, you could see the main residential area of the site.

And Huaynapicchu overlooking it all.

Not only were there chinchillas, but a number of llamas wandering the grounds, serving as natural lawnmowers. Because they are domesticated, you could pet them without repercussions.

He was less than interested in the grass I was offering him.

Warrior pose seemed appropriate at the site of such a fearsome people.

Part of the site was restored and part was still under excavation and restoration. Supposedly you can tell the difference by the type of molding in between the stones, but another dead giveaway is the use of wood in any of the constructions.

The Inca-style stonework was just incredible. You can see how tightly the stones fit together. These stones were brought in from all over the area for use in construction. I couldn't find it, but there is one wall that has a stone that fits so well, it touches 13 other stones.

Just excuse me while I take a nap in this 600 year old house.

As you look down, you can see the agricultural terraces below the city as well. Because the terraces covered so many microclimates, some scholars think that it acted as an experimental agriculture station. There are not enough terraces for it to produce food on a large scale, and the terraces are dispersed, covering lots of different altitudes and orientations.

The site is also still being restored, so you sometimes find yourselves at the bottom of a staircase like this, where it just...ends.

One of the mid-level temples was the Temple of the Condor.

I found a cave in the temple, but I was promptly scolded by a guard when I tried to poke my head into it. This pose, however, was sanctioned with a thumbs up. The guards are notoriously dilligent and I'm glad my Spanish was good enough to know what they were yelling at me, unlike many of the other international tourists.

The llamas were quite popular, especially when a little white baby llama was involved...

More baby llamas!

A final shot as we leave for the day.

We managed to hop a train back to Ollantaytambo while it was still daylight to see the snow-capped mountains and some nearby ruins as we returned to the Sacred Valley.

This near perfect day was capped off with my first traditional Pisco Sour of the trip:

I'd say all-in-all, a huge success.

(If you want to see higher-quality photos, as well as tons of pictures I didn't post, you can access the album here.)

Generational Shifts

I just got back from Cusco (amazing!), and I can't wait to write up my posts and share some of my favorite pictures. But while I'm waiting to upload all 408 photos over my slow internet connection, I just had a version of a conversation that I've had many times since arriving in Lima.

Usually, when I start talking to them about why I am in Lima (to work for an environment and development org) and that I'm going to grad school for environmental management in the fall, people get REALLY excited and say something like, "Wow! You are really young to be interested in environmental and social issues!"

Then they all launch into a speech about how the young people in Peru don't have any social awareness and take their societal privileges for granted. Their argument is basically that, because they were born after the economic growth seen during the 90s, they have never seen what it's like for the state and its services not to function. In the 80s and early 90s, basic services were inconsistent at best in Lima. Electricity was only available a few hours a day, and clean water was unavailable through city water pipes. But over the course of the decade, Peru started to experience economic growth and services vastly improved to get us to the modern city that Lima is today. So because these kids grew up without having to struggle like the previous generations did, they are selfish and don't have any societal awareness.

In addition to complaining that the Peruvian youth don't have any drive to improve their country and environment (and that they just want to train to be in a career that will make them the most money), everyone has complained about the overconsumption of media among the youth. Justin Bieber was brought up by name by at least 4 people as an example of the "rot" that kids listen to. And almost everyone complained about the content of music and movies nowadays that "poisons" the minds of young people (songs and movies about violence and sex, instead of about community).

These comments have popped up over and over again. I've now had this strikingly similar conversation with at least 10 people over the course of the last month (coworkers, taxi drivers, friends), and plenty of others have make a throwaway reference to the downfall of young people. And these aren't just older adults who are lamenting. One of these conversations was with a 28 year old.

On the environmental side, this seems to be the opposite of the US, where the environmental movement is seen as largely youth-driven and facing resistence from the aging portion of the population.

But beyond that, it seems to be a struggle to maintain certain cultural and societal ideals as the country modernizes, and behaviors change. As I mentioned earlier, people are very generous with the poor here. The government is implicitly responsible for providing more services to help the poor and marginalized. Building on this higher sense of societal responsibility for the poor, you can see how people would be irked when younger people seem to be turning a blinder eye to those same groups of people. But really, it seems to be a reaction to modernization, and a drive to keep cultural continuity in the face of that modernization.

There is a bit of resentment of the US consumerism-laden capitalism for driving some of the change, but ultimately it seems like people are still dealing with who "Peruvians" will be as the country continues to change and are no longer defined by poverty nor consumerism.

Una Mariposa Social

I had a very social weekend. The highlights included:

My coworker had a baby shower on Saturday that was well attended with Peruvians and ex-pats alike (as well as stocked with delicious Belgian beer, since the hosts were Belgian!). The godmother had recommended a recycled toy store near my apartment for gift shopping, where I found an adorable stuffed book named "Don Cuadrado". I showed up an hour "late", which apparently was quite early. Most people started to show up about 3 hours after the time on the invitation. It's amazing how much more I feel like a type A personality here than I do in the US.

On Sunday, I was invited to a practice for the Peruvian Ultimate team. Which was a TON of fun, but also I am super out of shape (and, you know, recovering from my latest silly ankle injury). The lexicon is still really dominated with English, but I'm learning some relevant spanish words (mantiene la fuerza!). And it's taking me a while to get used to stalling in Spanish. They play twice a week, so I'm looking forward to having a regular activity to do here!

I also finally had time and was healthy enough to run on the bike path along the coast for the first time, which was breathtaking.

My coworker also says he might have an extra bike I can use for a month, so hopefully soon I can take coastal bike rides too!

Foggy skyscrapers

I also ran through the Parque del Amor, which is designed to mimic Gaudi's style.

A pic of me on my first visit to the park a week earlier!

It features huge statue of a couple kissing that is supposed to glow orange when the sun sets (at least in the summers when there is sun).

Like all parks here, it is a popular spot for couples. Peruvian couples LOVE parks. In Guatemala couples would escape to public parks because they could, ahem, express emotion without their families overseeing anything.

Yup, I'm a creeper...

Further down they had a park that had flower bed replicas of the Nasca Line designs.

Said park in the summer sunshine

Beyond the lush green and the sight of the cliffs, my favorite feature is the ubiquitous bougainvillea flowers that overhung the cliffs. You really can see why my neighborhood is called Miraflores (get it??? mira + flores??).

Look at them.

At the office this morning, I went through my first sizable Peruvian earthquake! It was a 4.5 that originated in Chile. So it was a lot weaker when it hit here, but you could definitely feel it and everyone made a run for the doorways as the shocks hit. Everyone spent most of lunch talking about the earthquake in 2007, in which one girl literally saw waves move down the major road she was standing on when it hit.

The biggest excitement (other than natural disasters) is that I leave for Cusco tomorrow! Namely, I am 3 days away from THIS:

(photo credit: http://www.peru-machu-picchu.com/)

I hope blogger can handle the impending slew of photos that are going to be posted upon my return.

A Plethora of Spiritual Riches

I got a tip to go out to the east end of Pueblo Libre to check out the anthropology museums. Convinced, I could walk to the Museum without really knowing where it was, I ended up covering a lot of ground by foot (like 5+ miles). But I finally found the Larco Museum.

Entering the museum

The first two rooms when you enter are dedicated to the museum's founding family. Rafael Larco Herrera was given a collection of archaeological artifacts from his brother-in-law, Victor, and left them all to his son, Larco Hoyle. Victor had already opened the first museum in Lima and he urged Larco to set up a new museum to house all of these pieces and begin to bring together a larger collection of artifacts. Larco was eager to create a monument in honor of his father, so he bought a number of private collections and in the 1920s, he opened his museum in an old Viceroyal building that had been built on top of a 7th century pre-Columbian pyramid.

The courtyard of the museum/house

As Larco begin to set up the museum and classify this acquired collection, he realized how few categories existed to classify Peruvian artifacts. Within a decade, he had documented a number of new Peruvian cultures, and developed the first Peruvian chronology of ancient cultures: a chronology that is still used today. Larco also developed new techniques to determine the age of artifacts based on their placement in ancient structures, as well as developed an early core sampling technique.

The museum is broadly divided into his own chronology. I am going to apologize now for not remembering which things belonged to which cultures specifically, but most of these things are from the coastal and mountain regions in the northern half of the country, with the final stuff being mostly Incan.

Given the dependence on agriculture by these ancient societies, the earth was seen to be composed of three "worlds": the sky (the source of rain), the land (which had to be worked), and the subterranean world (where the dead went to and where the fruits of the earth came from). Each of these were represented by an animal: the bird (often an owl), the feline, and the serpent (or also sometimes the spider), respectively. Representations of deities most often included these animals.

The three animals were often combined in pottery. For instance this shows the body of a bird combined with the feet of a feline and the tail of a serpent.

As early as 1000 BC, these societies were producing beautiful and complex pottery. These challenging shapes and constructions involved multiple laborious steps and often would take days to produce.

These two animals playing show how fluidly the movement of these deer were portrayed, as though you could see them moving (thought to be from 1-100 AD). Also, they are adorable.

In addition to portraying the three dominant animals, there was also a strong motif of the balance of good and evil, represented through darkness and light.

As you can see above, a number of pieces existed within this theme. Because there was no paint used at this point, these were done using the "negative" painting technique that I mentioned before (as opposed to a "positive" technique of painting or putting something on the finished piece). Again, they would cover the part they wanted to stay white with a heavy clay and bake the entire piece with the clay on it. This would preserve the parts under the clay as white, allowing shading without using any dyes or paint.

Another unique aspect was that there were also pots that portrayed real people. Rather than do portraits of powerful men (always men), they would create likenesses in pottery. Only if you were an elite, of course.

With the Spanish conquest, a lot of Andean art incorporated European influences such as using lead- and mineral-based glazes for the first time. Also, it was common for Pre-Colombian art to show a feline god attacking a deer, or a person carrying a subdued deer on their back to demonstrate their god-like strength. However, with the Spanish conquest, you began to see pieces that showed the feline figure subdued for the first time.

A subdued feline being carried by a powerful man. Doesn't take much to read into the meaning of this symbolism.

The three animals were also present in textiles. Can you find the feline, serpent and owl in this?

Human sacrifice was definitely also a big presence throughout the museum. Lots of ceremonial bowls and costumes for both the victims and overseeing priests. 

Ceremonial owl bowls made of silver

There were a ton of Incan gold and silver artifacts as well, as you can imagine. While silver and gold were used in pieces of art, it wasn't the minerals that were valued, so much as the effect. The only things in nature that are associated with light are valued resources such as water and sunlight. Therefore, artifacts that also reflected light were seen to be connected to Gods as well. The elites then had lots of shiny accessories to wear, because if shined like the sun or the river, you must hold God-like power.

It was common during the Incan empire for elites to be buried with miniatures like this, made out of silver, copper of gold.

Because it was really the effect of shiny-ness that was important and not the minerals themselves, they would make a mixture of metals with just enough gold or silver to shine brightly. So when you actually look at how much gold and silver are in a collection like this, it doesn't actually come to much. After the Spanish conquest, when the conquistadores began to melt down these pieces of art and jewelry for booty. In the end, they actually did not end up with that much gold and silver. The mineral riches that brought Spain the most wealth were actually acquired through extensive mining. So in the end, all of those Incan artifacts were destroyed for nothing...

Silver alloy necklace that would have been worn by an elite.

Similarly quartz was valued, and was used in jewelry.

These shells were very valuable as well and sometimes even used for currency in Incan societies. However, this practice faded away once the Spanish arrived and established a new currency that centered exclusively around minerals instead of shells.

This is the largest and most complete set worn by an elite that exists in Peru. In addition to the pieces above, elites would also wear large nose rings, often large enough to obscure the bottom half of their face.

My favorite part was honestly the storage area. You finish going through the museum and were like, WOW. That was quite the collection! And then you turn a corner and there is room after room after room with tons of art, categorize by subject. And most of them are in great condition. Suddenly the collection gets a whole lot more impressive.

I finished up the day checking out the Colonial surroundings.

Colonial-era town hall

A bust of Simón Bolivar in the town square. Bolivar is a figure you see pop up again and again. After all, he was THE emancipator of South America.

The old church in the center of Miraflores.