Notchu Picchu, Machu Picchu! (I have no idea what that means)

Huzzah for Machu Picchu!  The day started with my alarm blaring at the unfriendly hour of 4:30 in the manana, followed by breakfast at 5, so that I could be standing in line to buy my bus ticket up to Machu Picchu by 5:30.  Now, the guidebook said there would be a line of people by about 5:15 since the buses start running at 5:30. However, the guidebook did NOT mention that that line would stretch down the street. Holy cow were there a lot of people. All told, I didn't actually walk through the gate of Machu Picchu until about 6:45 (and it's only a 20 minute bus ride up). Luckily, the sun didn't come up over the mountains until a little after 7, so I had time to climb up to the Gatekeeper's house for some prime sunrise viewing.

A llama decides to be postcard-scenic as the sun rises over Machu Picchu.

After the sunrise, I decided to do the hike up Machu Picchu Mountain that my slightly more expensive entrance ticket enabled me to. I had wanted to hike Huana Picchu, but that extra ticket was already sold out, so the Montana was kind of the consolation prize. An hour and fifteen minute hike up steep stone mountain steps consolation prize. After having done the Putucusi hike the day before, my muscles rebelled a little, but I eventually made it up to the top.

Stone doorway on the hike up Machu Picchu mountain

Machu Picchu looks so far away from the top of the mountain!

After enjoying the view from the top of the montana and hiking back down, I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and visiting the rest of the ruins.

A pensive view of Machu Picchu.

Aguas Calientes

In the afternoon I sprang for the expensive buffet lunch at the fancy schmancy nearby hotel, spent a bit more time at the ruins (it was kind of nice to just hang out on a rock and take in the city in the sun), and then headed back down to Aguas Calientes to catch my train back to Cusco. My train ride back was in a slightly more expensive car than the trip there (hey, it was all that was left in the time spot I wanted), and it was quite a different experience than the budget train. Instead of just a snack, I was served a full-ish meal, and then came some true randomness. A guy in a jester suit with a mask danced up and down the aisles for a while, and then the serving crew put on a fashion show of for-sale alpaca sweaters and such to the sounds of blaring Andean music. If this wasn't strange enough, yours truly got pulled by the weird jester guy to the back of the train where I was pressed into said fashion show, in which I (reluctantly, but with good humor) modeled a baby alpaca hair poncho. Yep. A poncho.

Cool street drain in Aguas Calientes

Sorry, no pictures of the fashion show. Just the train.

On the train ride both there and back I ended up sitting next to psychologists (apparently there was a big international conference in Lima this past week and they were all taking whirlwind tours to Machu Picchu). When I told this to my airbnb host Carlos, he laughed and told me I had taken the "crazy train." Heh.

The gabinete crew: Juan, Eliza, y Elva

And, lest you think I've only been bouncing around ruins, here's a picture of the amazing trio at the gabinete de antropologia fisica with whom I have shared office space for the past month. The last two weeks have involved 9 and 10 hour days of work and so have been a little exhausting - but great in terms of getting a lot of data! The wonderful Elva even arranged an extra trip last week to the deposit where the skeletal material is stored so that I would have more bones to study. It was definitely sad to say goodbye to everyone on Friday; Juanito gifted me with a Quechua name: Qorichaska, which means something along the lines of "gold star."

Newly renovated entrance hall at the Cusco Teatro Municipal

On Friday night, Eliza invited me to a concert at the Teatro Municipal, which was celebrating its grand re-opening after being shut down by a fire two years ago. We had a little comedy of errors to get in - we went early and waited in line, only to be told they had handed out all of the free tickets already. So, we headed off to dinner and had just sat down at the restaurant when we got a call from Elva telling us they were letting people in without tickets. We literally ran back to the theater, managed to get in, and found some seats just a short bit before the concert started.

The Orquesta Sinfonica del Cusco was performing, with guest soprano Sylvia Falcon. She sings in the style of Yma Sumac, with an upper range that basically imitates a flute - pretty amazing. After a lovely concert consisting mainly of orchestral arrangements of traditional Andean and Peruvian music (it is, after all, the Fiestas Patrias weekend - today [July 28] is the celebration of Peru's independence), Eliza and I headed back to the restaurant for sushi and cocktails. I then headed back to Casa Carlos, where I joined my airbnb hosts and a couple of other guests for a cozy evening of pisco sours that lasted into the wee hours. All in all, it was a great evening to top off a month of data collection here in Cusco. Can't believe my time here is drawing to a close - I head back to Lima on Tuesday!

Qorichaska out.

Machu Picchu?! Nope. Still not there yet.

Aaaaaand she's back!

I've been meaning to include a short digression on public transportation in Cusco (it also applies to el norte de Peru) for a while now, so I'm going to lead off with that before picking up yesterday's thread again. When I talk about "taking the bus" perhaps what pops into your mind is a typical, large American-style public bus. Oh no no no, my friends. Down here in Peru, buses - also known as combis - are an entirely different animal. We're basically talking about something along the line of a twenty year old 14-passenger van, with bars added onto the ceiling. Those bars are necessary because at any given time there are 25+ people crammed into a combi, not including the driver and the fare collector. The latter is someone who hangs out the sliding door to shout the route to waiting passengers in rapid fire repetition, usher them into the van ("sube, sube, sube!"), and then collect pasajes (fares).  They (generally) announce the upcoming stops, and if you want to get off you simply say "baja" and start oozing your way to the door. Amazingly, people seem to just accept the jam-packed-ness without complaint; people never seem annoyed or concerned to have someone's bag or baby or backside in their face. It's quite a contrast to the NYC subway where everyone gets all huffy and tense when the trains are crowded. The combis are dirt cheap, but I have yet to see another gringo on one here in Cusco, and I've been here for almost a month.  To be fair, taxis aren't that expensive here, and most tourists stick to the historic center and don't venture out into other parts of the city. It is a little intimidating at first to figure out which one to get on, but all you have to do is ask the fare collector the name of your stop, and he'll either wave you on up or shake his head. Plus, it's fairly straightforward once you know the routes of the differently named combis (they have great names like Batman and El Zorro - no boring old B35 here). Of course, if you're 5'9'', you end up standing with your neck craned at an impossibly uncomfortable angle until you're lucky enough to score a seat (at which point you will be wedged between a couple of school kids and a little old Quechua woman with a huge pack on her back).

Anyhoo. So, after a rather full day in and around Ollantaytambo last Sunday (did I mention it's two hours from Cusco? It made for a long day trip), I wended my weary way back to Cusco to crash before another week of data collection. Last week was particularly fun, however, because Alejandra came out for a few days for her own data collection! We managed to fit in a few touristy activities in the evenings, which was no mean feat considering most museums and such close by 6p. One night we hiked around the neighborhood of San Blas and found the famous 12-sided stone (a testament to the craftsmanship of the Inca) before heading to Ama-Lur for fondue. We also visited the Museo de Arte Precolombino - it wasn't high on our list because we're both pretty familiar with the traditional museum offerings of precolumbian art, but given that it was open til 10p we gave it a shot, and it actually ended up having a lot of very interesting pieces that were definitely not the typical run-of-the-mill displays. The building itself is also quite beautiful, with an open interior courtyard (complete with fancy restaurant).

Alejandra and I find the 12-angled stone! 

And finally....Machu Picchu! I took an early bus/train combo out of Cusco Saturday morning and arrived in Aguas Calientes around 11:30a. Aguas Calientes is the town at the base of Machu Picchu, and the only way to get there is via train. As one might expect of a small town at the base of a world-famous landmark, there isn't much to the place beyond a few streets of hotels, restaurants, and souvenir markets, but it actually has a really fun vibe. Since I essentially had a day to kill, I decided to do two of the few non-Machu Picchu tourist attractions the town has to offer: hike Putucusi and visit the thermal baths for which the town is named.

Now, Putucusi is a mountain that directly opposes Machu Picchu and was (supposedly) also sacred to the Inca (like pretty much every mountain. The Inca loved them some mountain spirits). If you hike up Putucusi, therefore, you are provided with a lovely view of Machu Picchu across the valley. My guidebook describes the climb up Putucusi as an "athletic" one that involves several tall wooden ladders.

Friends, climbing those ladders ranks as one of the most terrifying experiences of my entire life.

One of the Putucusi ladders. (Yep, I climbed this, Mom. Sorry.)

Another Putucusi ladder.

These aren't happy little stepladders. These are 100 foot high wooden ladders strapped onto the side of a mountain with rungs nearly two feet apart in places. I haven't had any issues with all of the cliff-hugging trails and am generally fine with heights, but man was my heart thumping (and my legs shaking) going up those ladders. And of course, after the ladders (seven, all told) there is still an hour long hike up steep stone steps cut into the mountain. So, coming back down, your legs are exhausted from all the hiking and then you have to descend the crazy ladders! Gah. Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.

But of course absolutely awesome views from the top of Putucusi to make it all thrilling and totally worth it.

My first view of Machu Picchu, from the summit of Putucusi.

View of Aguas Calientes from Putucusi

I had read a lot of very mixed reviews about the thermal baths in Aguas Calientes, ranging from complaints that the water wasn't hot to the water wasn't clean to the place was just gross, but Eliza from the gabinete recommended that I go, so I figured when in Rome. And honestly, after the exhausting three hour Putucusi hike, the thermal baths were awesome. I mean, this is definitely not your fancy natural hot springs experience, but there are several pools with (yes, mineral-heavy) wonderfully warm water where they will bring the alcoholic beverage of your choice directly to you in the water. For germaphobes it is not, but with a cerveza in hand I enjoyed it and ended up spending well over an hour in one of the pools, where I ended up making the acquaintance of a lovely high school math teacher from Argentina as well as a young college kid from Cusco.

After a (thorough) shower back at my hotel (I'm not a germaphobe, but I'm not an idiot, either), I followed another of Eliza's recommendations and went to Indio Feliz for dinner. It was delicious - they have a three course menu but with all of the extra included sides it ends up being a ton of food. After Putucusi, I of course devoured it all. The highlight was the passionfruit glazed trout. Mmm.

I had no problems turning in super early Saturday night, which worked out well because my plan was to be up at 4:30a to catch an early bus up to Machu Picchu for the sunrise! And, dear friends, I did...

Okay - next time, Machu Picchu! I promise!

Machu Picchu: been there, done that, bought the t-shirt

YESTERDAY I WENT TO MACHU PICCHU!!!

But all in good time, gentle reader. Machu Picchu is the end of today's story, not the beginning.

Yes, I know - it has been ages since I provided a travel update, and I apologize both for the lack and for the subsequent length of today's post. The good news is that data collection has been going well and I have been squeezing in as much touristy goodness as possible on the weekends!

So let's backtrack a bit, shall we? My last update occurred only a few days before mi cumpleanos - I celebrated my birthday with a tastily expensive (expensively tasty?) dinner at the Inka Grill on the Plaza de Armas: causa Peruana, aji de gallina, ponderaciones con manjar de yemas, y un pisco sour (por supuesto!). Yum. I figure spending one's birthday alone in a foreign country is just cause for a bit of a splurge.

Pikillacta

Last weekend, I blitzkrieged my way through a hefty chunk of the Valle Sagrada, visiting Pikillacta, Tipon, Moray, Maras, and Ollantaytambo. Pikillacta and Tipon are two sites east of Cusco, so I visited both on a single trip last Saturday. Finding the right place to catch the bus out of town was a bit of a trial (to be fair, there are multiple ways to get there), but I eventually found the spot where the large buses leave for Urcos (it's on Avenida de la Cultura, right near the paradero for the hospital in case you're wondering). There isn't a true stop for Pikillacta, so I asked the fare guy if the driver could drop me off near the entrance.

The "5th Ave" of Pikillacta,
according to Carlos

Pikillacta is one of the only large-scale pre-Inca set of ruins in the Sacred Valley; it was built by the Wari culture and shows a high degree of urban planning for the time period. I basically had the ruins to myself; a small tour group was leaving as I arrived, and a middle-aged German couple got there when I was just about done. After strolling around the site, I headed back out to the main road to flag down a bus returning from Urcos to take me back towards Cusco so I could stop off at Tipon. Funnily enough, I actually ended up catching the bus with the same driver/fare guy. They dropped me off a short ways down the road in the town of Tipon (famous for oven-baked guinea pig).

Tipon

Tipon - stone bridge path with water channel

Now, the ruins at Tipon are a good 3 mile (5 km) uphill hike from the city; most people hire a taxi to take them up to the site. Or, they rent a jeep to tour all the site like the German couple (they passed me on the road). Here's a piece of advice: if you're going to forego the taxi ride, make sure you have a more fortifying lunch than a cheese sandwich and a pack of galletas. Man was I tired and grouchy hiking up to Tipon! (btdubs, this was the day that prompted my FB rant about the Inca building everything on the top of hard-to-access mountains...). In any case, I eventually made it to the entrance and got to check out the site, which is famous for its ornamental waterfalls and huge agricultural terraces. The water channels run throughout the entire site on a scale not seen at any other Inca complex. After MORE stone steps and hiking around the site itself, I was pretty done for the day and decided to take a taxi down the mountain. Yes, yes, I realize I did that backwards. The driver - a kid barely old enough to drive, I swear - tried to charge me the coming-up-the-mountain price. When I laughed and told him walking was free, he cut the fare in half and took me back to the main road where I caught another bus back to Cusco.

Salineras de Maras

After sleep and a big breakfast I was ready to resume my adventures. I had initially planned to visit Ollantaytambo and Chinchero, but my new airbnb host, Carlos, convinced me that Moray was much more interesting than Chincero (Carlos and his wife Jackie are awesome - Carlos loves history and we've had many great Spanglish discussions about evolution, archaeology, and history), so I revamped my plans. I had read about Moray and it did sound cool, but I was a little iffy about getting there because it's pretty far off the beaten track. Basically, I got on a bus in Cusco bound for Urubamba and asked them to drop me off at the desvio a Maras (detour to Maras; props to my guidebook for telling me how to do this), and at this little crossroads luckily there were a couple of taxis waiting. The only way to get to Moray is via taxi and because it's in the middle of nowhere the taxi has to wait for you, so I haggled for a bit with a driver and we eventually settled on a price. He also suggested a visit to the Salineras de Maras (really cool salt mines), and I'm glad I took him up on it because they were very interesting! It's a working mine, and apparently the salt from here is now very trendy in Lima both in terms of cooking and bath salts.

The water running through
 the salt mines is warm!

Me @ Salineras de Maras

Moray

After the salt mines we continued on to Moray, which is thought to have been a place where the Inca conducted agricultural experiments. It has two large sets of round agricultural terraces, and instead of being built into the sides of mountains like the other terraces, these appear to have been deliberately dug down into the valley. There is a large temperature differential between the layers, and different crops do better at different levels. Kudos to Carlos for the recommendation!

Llama head post thingy!

Next it was back to the crossroads to catch a bus to Urubamba. I lucked out and caught one that was going all the way on to Ollantaytambo. Ollanta, as it is called by the locals, is the last stop via public transportation before people grab the train to Machu Picchu, so it's starting to get fairly built up. The large set of ruins at Ollantaytambo was quite bustling with tourists; from the site you can see another set of ruins across the city and I asked a guide if it was possible to hike up those. He said it was called Pinkyullana, and yes it was, so after checking out the Ollanta ruins, I did (much less crowded, and free!).

Ollantaytambo

More Ollanta

Ollanta mountain pass

Pinkyulluna

Well, with the risk of this post spiraling out of control (plus it's past my bedtime), I'm going to cut myself off here and make this one a two-part-er.

"But, Emily, you didn't even get to Machu Picchu yet!"

Okay, here's a teaser...

Tramites, ruinas, y soroche (or the lack thereof)

Greetings from Cusco!

I have now been at this high altitude (11,000+ feet/3,400 m - or as Jeff said, wow, that's twice as high as Denver) former capital of the Incan empire for over a week, and I impressed my airbnb hostess mightily by not suffering from altitude sickness (or, as the Peruvians call it, soroche). Many people spend their first day or two at high altitude feeling listless, nauseous, headachy, etc. I had two cups of coca tea and then went out for a huge slice of cake from the pasteleria. Kind of amazing considering my issues with motion sickness, but hey, I'll take it!

Convento de Santo Domingo / Qorikancha

Santo Domingo grounds

Last Sunday I strolled the historic part of Cusco, wandered through some markets, and visited the Convent of Santo Domingo, which the Spaniards built on top of the Incan temple of Qorikancha. Santo Domingo has a number of paintings from the Escuela Cusquena, or Cusco School, a Spanish-led art institute from the 16th century on that taught indigenous people to paint religious scenes in the European style.

Santo Domingo courtyard

Awesome ceiling tiles @ Santo Domingo

Monday I got down to business and visited no less than FOUR governmental offices trying to see if my application for research (i.e., tramite) was in order and if the permissions had come through. I only had to call Alejandra once to translate, so all in all not too bad. I finally ended up at the Gabinete de Antropologia Fisica (although almost not because the security guard didn't even realize it was in the building...), where the extremely amiable curator and her assistant made a few phone calls and told me I could (unofficially) begin work the next day. So, for the rest of the week I have been working at the gabinete studying the high altitude human remains. Fortunately, a good amount of the bones are in a decent state of preservation, and the collection is fairly large so I think I should be able to get the sample sizes I need here by the end of the month. Fingers crossed, anyway!

Inca Road

Yesterday I decided to put my free weekend to good use touristically, and I went and purchased a boleto touristico - a ticket that is the only way to gain admission to many of the ruins in and around Cusco. I started with one of the closest set of ruins, Sacsayhuaman, where the huge Inti Raymi festival is held in June. You can reach this site by picking up the old Inca road from the neighborhood of San Blas and then heading up for about a mile. From there I walked another mile or so outside of town to the site of Q'enqo. After touring the ruins (and meeting a couple of nice med students from U Florida), I headed back into town and visited a couple of the smaller museums that are also part of the boleto touristico. I also had a delicious dinner of aji de gallina con quinoa, which turned out to be a tasty variation of one my favorite Peruvian dishes, followed by a slice of cheesecake with maracuya (passion fruit) topping.

Ruins @ Sacsayhuaman

Sacsayhuaman is known for its megalithic walls

Sacsayhuaman amphitheater

The Sacsayhuaman slides!

Today I waffled about heading out to the town/ruins of Pisac, but eventually decided to go.  It's 45 minutes outside of Cusco by bus (on winding mountain roads - bleh). The town has a huge crafts market on Sunday, with a large set of ruins nearby. I'm glad I went because I ended up making the acquaintance of two ladies who teach in Toronto - one French and the other Quebecois. We strolled the market for a bit, had lunch, and then decided to tackle the three mile walk up to the ruins - the key word here is UP because the entire trail was a set of stone steps that curved up, up, and UP. After about ten minutes, Geraldine decided this steep and narrow trail was not for her and decided to return for more shopping in the market. Evelyne and I decided to soldier on and, after numerous stops for photos and water and general trying-to-keep-hearts-from-exploding, we made it to the main part of the ruins. The complex is extensive and quite spread out, and as the hour was growing a little late (and we had no desire to descend those narrow stone steps in the dark), we didn't ramble over the entire site, but we did see quite a bit. The location is amazing, with commanding views of the valleys below. Climbing up all those stone stairs you tend to think the Inca were freaking crazy to build their cities on mountain tops, but they are definitely impressive.

Hiking up Pisac

Yup - we started in that town. And this is the path.

Ruins @ Pisac

More ruins @ Pisac

Pisac

Oh yeah, and did I mention it's FREEZING in Cusco at night? I don't think I've ever woken up on the 4th of July to 35 degree weather. At least it warms up during the day. But still! Speaking of the 4th, I was a little bummed to not have any fireworks, but the restaurant I had dinner in last night was right on the Plaza de Armas next to the Catedral, and there were actually a few fireworks in the plaza after a wedding took place! Bonus!

Ciao til next time - this gringa is tired after two days of hiking around ruins!