Huaca Pucllana

Our last day in Lima and we walked from our hotel to the Kennedy Park, which is a lovely green oasis amongst the busy streets. However, it is probably better known for it's cat accommodation and the many friendly cats that live there.

If I was a cat I would definitely want to live in one of these luxury houses.

There was also a nice statue of a bull which is supposed to be a symbol of fertility, but I think that I have left that a bit late.

Then on to the Huaca Pucllana which is a huge pyramid shaped temple site a couple of kilometres from the coast.

It was built about 1,600 years ago but was abandoned after 500 years and then gradually covered with sand and soil and forgotten.

In the 1970s it was just thought of as a large hill and was used as a cyclo-cross venue, but then in 1981 plans were made for a road through the middle of it.

Totally unexpectedly when building work began they uncovered the site, and in the 43 years since archeologists have discovered an amazing place.

These aren't actors but are life sized models of workmen from that time. The pyramid is made of millions of adobe bricks and here the workers are mixing mud, straw, seashells and water to make bricks by hand that are left to dry.

The bricks are then stacked vertically with gaps between them and mud on top so that it looks like a library.

This method of building is fantastic as we are in an active earthquake area, and the vertical bricks and gaps between them cushion the blow of any movement.

I noticed this brick on one corner that hand a 1,600 year old handprint on it.

We carried on walking and headed up to the top of the pyramid. It is about 14 metres high nowadays, but originally they think it was about twice that height and would have had views to the sea.

Nowadays large buildings mean that the sea is hidden, but apparently the whole purpose of the temple was to worship the sea. It was built set back from the ocean because after an earthquake there is often a tsunami, and this location would be high enough to avoid being affected.

Very sadly the original builders seem to have practiced human sacrifices and the skeletons of many girls between the ages of 16 and 25 have been found beneath a courtyard.

Finally, it appears that the original builders of the pyramid disappeared and in about the year 900 another tribe used the site for their worship.

This is a reconstruction of a grave of a noble person. Their bodies were curled up and covered with materials until they resemble a barrel shape with a false head on the top to show that they are important.

There are lots of these sites on the pyramid and in all of them is also the body of a small child and usually two almost new born babies wrapped up in a bundle.

How very sad and strange, and tribe too left the site, probably because they were fleeing from the Incas.

Wow, that's a lot of facts for today. Later tonight we catch a flight to Madrid and then on to Heathrow before arriving back home.

Day in Lima

Great start to the day with a quick jog along the seafront. I had hoped that after a week living at high altitude that I would suddenly be super fit and set a few personal best times.

Alas no, I struggled along behind Darren breathing deeply but getting nowhere fast. I needed the frequent stops for photos, and all thoughts of speed records gone forever.

Great views of the coast on a quiet Sunday morning, and we came across a lovely Chinese garden along the way.

Back at the hotel to recover and then out for a bus tour of the city. The traffic is terrible and the drivers crazy, with horns blaring and drivers squeezing into impossible gaps.

The main city square is impressive and houses the bishop, the president and the mayor of Lima. Peru gained it's independence after the Spanish left in 1821 and the Peruvians started building in any style except Spanish, so there are some lovely French style mansions, amongst others.

This is the presidential palace, with Mickey and Minnie mouse walking past it. We watched the changing of the palace guard from a distance and it was nothing like in London where crowds gather to watch.

No one seemed interested so it was just us and a few other tourists and I don't think that Mickey or Minnie even gave it a second glance.

Onwards to a huge convent which still houses about 40 monks. In Peru monks live in convents and nuns in monasteries. Our guide didn't say why, just that they do. However, it was a very impressive place.

I won't say that it was peaceful as over the courtyard wall a huge outdoor party was taking place, and we could hear the loud music and cheers from the crowds.

Our final stop was an amazing place called the Larco Museum. 

We haven't been to one yet, but Peru has many pyramids that are around 1,400 years old and built of adobe. Lima is the second driest capital city in the world after Cairo and gets hardly any rainfall.

This point is crucial because adobe bricks are basically made of mud and they would have disintegrated in a wetter climate. 

The old royal families of Peru were buried at the top of the pyramids, along with many treasures that were discovered in the early 1900s by Mr Larco.

Personally I think that the nose decoration is a bit over the top.

In total he found over 48,000 artifacts and they are all stacked up on shelves in the museum. That sounds very worrying to me as on average they have a huge earthquake every 100 years, so I am imagining a massive pile of broken pots, but I guess they know what they are doing.

Star of the show is a massive solid gold headdress, giant earrings and necklace, and breast plate weighing over two kilos.

Cusco to Lima

Our last morning in Cusco, and this is our view from the hotel restaurant.

There are very few high rise buildings in Cusco because it is an earthquake zone, so we got a brilliant 360 degree view.

After a leisurely breakfast we got a flight to Lima which is back at sea level.

We are staying in Miraflores, which is a very nice seaside area of Lima.

We only managed one short walk in the afternoon and that was to see the Paddington statue on the seafront.

There are cliffs all of the way along the seafront and all of the buildings are set back, so we didn't actually go down to the water, but just looked at it from the distance.

Then we went out for a final dinner with our tour group. I will only remember all of their names for a few days, but we really enjoyed the company of,  and laughs with Dante, Aaron, Warren, Betty, Diana, Jonathan, Sandra, Patrick, Lisa, James, Sandy and Charlie.

Cusco

Our hotel is in the city of Cusco, and today we walked to the historical centre.

There was a lot lovely churches and open squares with markets and lots of trees. Today was a public holiday called All Saints Day of the Living, so there was lots of local people about and some unusual sights.

This display was a mystery to us, but there was lots of people watching the preparations, but we didn't wait to see what happened to the giant ladies head.

Just round the corner was a market with all of the stalls on one side selling cakes and bread, and every stall on the other side selling roasted pigs heads and lots of other bits of roast pork. Darren was keen to try something but we didn't want to accidentally buy a whole head and then not know what to do with it.

Instead we started walking uphill and passed some great murals and flower filled streets.

Up and up we went to the highest possible point where a Christ the Redeemer statue was located.

He was quite small, but the views were amazing and I think that at last I am getting acclimatised to the altitude.

Slightly late however, as tomorrow morning we get a flight back to Lima which is on the coast.

Machu Picchu

The bus picked us up at 4.25am from Cusco for the two hour drive to the train station. We waited at the station and were then walked down to the carriage by singers and dancers in traditional dress.

Once we had settled in to our lovely train with panoramic windows, we set off on the 90 minute journey to the little town in the valley below Machu Picchu. 

After a few minutes the dancers appeared and mimed and danced along the carriage where after a few false starts they eventually fell in love. Not long after that they reappeared and served coffee and tea. You don't get that from British Rail.

Then we got another bus up hair pin bends to the entrance to the city, and at 10am we arrived exactly in time for our visit.

The city was the capital of the Inca civilisation, but was abandoned and lost for nearly 400 years, before it was rediscovered in 1911.

In total around 6,000 people are allowed to visit each day, and tickets sell out months in advance. There is a choice of three different routes and we had route two. I think that they are roughly the same, but it spreads the visitors out across the whole area.

Ours took a direct route straight to the top of the city, and we took lots of photos from the terraces on the way.

Higher and higher we went. The weather was gorgeous, but we had been warned that the sun was very strong at this altitude and the mosquitos very bitey, so I covered up almost every inch of skin.

Finally we reached a flat open area that was just outside of the city and where they used to grow crops. From there was an amazing view of all of the surrounding mountains and the city spread out below.

There are no written records to show why this particular very inaccessible place was chosen to build a city, but it was right alongside of the main Inca trail that led from the high Andes to one side and the lower jungle areas to the other. So at that time it was probably a very convenient place next to a busy trail.

The city was made from the existing granite rocks and it was so well made that when it was rediscovered, a lot of it was still exactly as it was left, and all that was needed was to remove the huge blanket of vegetation.

Many rocks were shaped to fit exactly, and were built like Lego blocks with lumps in one block and tightly fitting holes in another, so that it all clicked together. Mostly it has not moved despite being in an earthquake area.

Llamas were domesticated by the Incas and there are a few happy looking ones living in the city today.

We walked gradually down through the city and eventually got back to our starting point.

Then it was just the small task of re-tracing our journey back down the mountain on the bus, on the train and then the bus back to our hotel.

One final question, why was such a wonderful place abandoned?

Our guide explained that it was built from around 1420 and the Spanish arrived in 1532. They went around conquering the country and in 1536 the local people gathered together to make an army to try to resist them.

They all left the city to join the resistance and they destroyed the ancient pathways in the hope that the Spanish would not find the city.

The Spanish never did find the city, but they killed most of the Incas and they never returned.  

Down the centuries rumours of a fantastic lost city became well known, and eventually it was rediscovered in 1911.

Gradually it was cleared and renovated and today it is known as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

Puno to Cusco

 A long bus ride today starting from Puno on the shore of Lake Titicaca. 

We drove through a high mountain pass in the Andes and stopped at the highest point of over 4,300 metres.

It was beautiful, but very headachy, and then we travelled quickly downhill and my headache soon disappeared.

We then stopped Raqchi which has a very big Inca settlement dating from 1440.

It is on the route of the ancient Inca trails which run across most of south America, and total  more than 24,000 kilometres of paved paths.

Here is Darren standing on a few metres it.

Next we visited a richly decorated Catholic church which had been built on top of the ruins of an old Inca temple. This was built by the Spanish conquerors and missionaries who were trying to convert the local people to Christianity. 

A few months ago the town was hit by an earthquake, and the church tower is now held together with beams and is in a dangerous condition. The same could be said of this street just around the corner.

To be honest, today was more of a long transfer with lots of beautiful scenery, and not the most exciting of stops.

However, we drank some excellent coffee, we are still eating lots of chocolate and Peru is an amazing country to admire from the comfort of a bus.