Cusco
Inca Man, 1935
Cusco
Get shots:
Tetanus, Yellow Fever, Hepatitis A, and Typhoid, (Malaria shot is needed
for lowland jungles only). Insurance doesn't cover them because traveling
is a luxury.
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Cusco is high in the Andes at an altitude of 11,000 feet. Lima is at sea level. There is a road between them, but the trip takes about 30 hours by bus. Our flight took about an hour.
Technology
Modern archeologists excavating a 22,000 foot summit are bundled in high-performance gear (thinsulate, etc.). ...With the wind chill factor, temperatures were 35 degrees below zero. And there's a bunch of In Inca ruins there. Somebody built it the Incas. Were they wearing layered wool? How did they get on top of the mountain and build without freezing to death?
That's part of the phenomenal experience of being in Peru. There's all the elaborate infrastructure built during Inca times, like terraced farming. Look at all that has been abandoned. Farming the valley plus the mountainsides Who did all this? How did they accomplish this? They built precision stonework, goldwork, the finest weaving (which confounds people today). Evidence of aqueduct work seems almost lost. No written language. Knowledge was transferred via the social structure. The 16th century genocide by the Spanish destroyed much of the complex knowledge base. Conquest, of course, was the objective of the Spanish. And if the Incas had had the comparable war technology, they would probably have used it to destroy the Spanish.
From "Children of Inca Sacrifice Frozen in Time"
National Geographic, November 1999
www.nationalgeographic.com
Coricancha Temple complex reflects Inca architecture
blended with that of a Franciscan monastery built on its foundations. The
ancient buildings were so indestructible that the Spanish built on top of
them.Train to Machu Picchu
Up at 5 am to have some Peruvian coffee ( Nescafe instant with evaporated milk) and baguettes at our hotel. Armando, a Cusco ceramics artisan and our contact here, soon arrives with two taxis to take us to the train station. We speed through the narrow stone streets where only a few people are stirring. Dressed in the traditional costume with many layers of skirts and tall back hats, peddler women slowly carry colorful woven blankets of wares on their backs. At the train station we are plunged into a crowd trying to sell us film, and slices of corn cake.
Finally the gate opens,
and we can board. We have assigned seats and are nearly the first passengers
to board. Cameras ready, Ted and I sit next to the window to photograph.Climbing up into the Andes, the train abruptly stops and slowly backs up. There are four switchbacks to get up the mountain from Cusco. We go forward again and on to the next part of the zigzag track that allows the train to manage the steep grade. We look into the backyards of adobe houses which flank the train bed. Women are hanging washing, feeding animals and children, or carrying grasses and wood. Few men are visible --mostly women and children. Poverty. Life is basic. Some people carry pails of water to use throughout the day. On the dirt road are a few children wearing school uniforms and carrying books.
