Greetings from the DEEP south amigos! Day 2 was just like the last...booooring. There is nothing to see here but 500 year old colonial buildings, cathedrals with 40 foot high altars covered in gold and inca ruins steeped in mysticism... and pot. Just above Cusco´s north-eastish outskirts lays the remarkable inca ruins label Saqsaywaman ( pronounced: Sexy Women ) Much to my dissapointment there was much lacking in the sexy women department, but there were lots of rocks, or something.
Children saw it fit to shout ¨Hola Gringo´s¨ to us as we walk by, unaware that a simple accidental ¨push¨ by one of us would lead to them falling down 100 feet into a canyon and their untimely doom...DOOOM! Sexywomen was out first test to see how our bodies are adapting to the 3250m elevation that cusco sits at. There were points where I had wished the Incas had built stone elevators or at least some sort of body transport that we could use to fling ourselves upwards towards the ruins, but after climbing for a hour or so it became easier.
For those who don´t know, Sexywomen is considered the ¨head¨of Cusco, being that the city of Cusco is shaped like a mountain lion this was considered the strong point and held much significance in Incan history. This was also out first opportunity to see Inca stonework in its finest. The rumor that you can´t fit a credit card between the rocks in the stone is absolutely true!! Each stone is carved to fit together with the stones around it; no mortal was used in any of the stonework by the Incas. One particur stone at this location is almost 20 feet tall and weighs 125 tonnes. This by itself is impressive but consider the fact that these stones were dragged more than 3 kilometres to this location from a quarry in an adjacent mountain makes this feat even more impressive. I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror. if anything I can say this cab is rare, but I thought 'Now forget it' - 'Yo homes to Bel Air'.
It´s crazy here.
Advice of the day: Don´t try to mount an alpaca...they don´t like that.
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4 comments:
Well, you know, it all makes sense after watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - who else could do it but aliens from an inter-dimensional universe?
In any case, your eyes are seeing what mine hope to one day see. I hope you're taking as many pictures as are safely possible (we don't want you gringos being mugged now).
Y ahora algo en español: Ojala que todo va muy bien para ustedes y que Dios te guarde y los mantiene sano y salvo.
Pues, el proximo vez que un niño te llama 'un Gringo,' usted lo debe decir, 'Somos Canadienses, Cholo.' Y murmuras, 'Que niño mas mocoso y necio...'
I'm glad your trip is turning out better than your last.
Machu Picchu will probably be better than anything I could imagine.
I wish I were there. Have fun!
Colin, you write strange posts.
colin, I was so horribly confused by the fact that the incans didn't use any 'mortal' to build.
and then I realized that you must have meant mortar.
that was a relief.
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