Amat victoria curam!

The Sacred Rock

Entrance Gate

Way high in the mountains

Classic Money Shot...

One of the last "wonders of the world" still on my bucket list: Machu Picchu - finally!
The day began quite foggy, as we started early our journey back in time. It was nice to be on of the first visitors - so we had the place almost on our own with our guide. As this is hard core raining season, we were already very lucky that it did not rain, even better - later that morning the sun broke trough the clouds. We ended up doing the tour two rounds. This is a truly dramatic city situated high in the mountains, with terraces between two prominent peaks. From every angle the view is different and more enchanting it seems. The (Sun) temples in really good condition with the famous Inca walls. Luckily for us the Spaniards did discover it and only in 1911 it was "rediscovered" by Hiram Bingham, from Yale university. No wonder that Yale still has more then 36.000 artifacts of MP (and that the Peruvian Government want them back by 2012).
Funny thing is that the whole thing reminds you a little bit of the pyramids of Egypt, although they were more then 4.000 years earlier. You think the Inca are an ancient tribe, but in fact we are talking about around 1500 - the time Gutenberg invented the book printing and Europeans were conquering the world. The Incas did not know the wheel or even a writing language. So they were pretty behind... Which is nice, because that's why we have MP! :-)))

The only way to Machu Picchu is by walking (Inca Trail - which takes at least 4 days) or by train, which has a route almost as spectacular as the trail - but takes "only" 3 1/2 hours. Last year parts of the track was destroyed by the wild river next to it and Machu Picchu was isolated from the rest of the world for 66 days...
It is a truly scenic trip, especially with the special "Vista Dome" train, which has a sort of glass ceiling. No wonder this counts as one of the best train journeys of the world. We enjoyed every minute of it.

Inca washing machine

Alpaca lama (on the right)

Oxygen everywhere - but not necessary - even on 4000 meters altitude

Ancient Inca wall

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It is Christmas eve - the most important day of the year, so everyone comes to Cusco and the town has turned into one big bustling place. Of course there is a huge market, where you can do your last minute X-mas shopping and lots of jugglers, strongman, lama's and such.

Not a lot tourists are still here - which makes the place even more magical it seems and everyone is dressed up (Except two stupid guys from Amsterdam that is...) As everywhere in Peru the people are very friendly, warm and helpful. Sure especially if you buy something ;-) But they are in no way pushy. There is respect both ways, and that's nice.

The famous Alpaca wool is dyed in all kinds of bright colors using natural ingredients like leafs, insects, corn or what you have. It is a very soft wool - much softer then sheep wool and even as cashmere when you compare the latter with "baby alpaca". Sure there is a even more expensive, even more softer sort wool: Vicuña. Made of the vicuñas which have only a tiny amount of wool, which can only be shorn every 3 years... Its more expensive then gold (well with the rising gold prizes nowadays you never know :-) )

We did a tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, in the high Andes along the river Vilcanotes which flows into the jungle to mix with the Amazon later on. Along it lay many Inca ancient (holy) cities like Pisac and Ollantaytambo which perch very high on the mountains and from which you have a magnificent view of the valley. It where Inca strongholds, fortresses with temples and lots of agricultural terraces. The way the Incas build their temples is still astonishing - the way the stones fit like a puzzle is amazing. This is a preview of what we will see in Machu Picchu I hope.

coca tea

A short flight from Lima took us to Cusco - in the heart of the Andes. We were prepared for the worst of altitude sickness, but things turned out fine. Sure the first hours we had to adjust - almost exhausted from a couple of stairs and dizzy when raising to fast. But after a while we got used to the lack of oxygen and our bodies adjusted. Coca leaf tea (which tastes like any other green tea) seems to help, zo we drank lots of it. As in Lima there are many, many, many (and even more) people and markets with artisan products for sale. Some just hideous, some more traditional. We couldn't refuse all offers, so bought some stuff. I really like the patterns and designs of the textile we see here.