Huacachina Desert and Wine

Ok so after Nazca, Erin and I and our new british friends Lucy and Rose headed to Hucachina, a small town surrounded by sand dunes, built around a little oasis of trees and a pond. Not a ton to do there but relax by the pool, drink tropical fruit drinks, and go dune buggying, sandboarding, and wine tasting, all of which we did! Sandboarding and dune buggying were a blast, and we got to see a beautiful desert sunset. Wine tours took us to a botique winery where we stomped on grapes (they really still process it that way), and to a bigger winery with the more high tech equiptment! Very fun and relaxing escape from reality!

Nazca Lines, Peru

Ok, where do i start? After leaving Cusco, erin and i took a plesant 14 hour bus ride to a desert town called Nazca. This town is in the middle of a dry, windless, rainless vast desert known for its extremely large weird drawings etched in the desert floor.
These lines were't discovered until the 1920's when someone took a flight over the desert and realized there were these huge (talking the size of football fields here) ancient figures. They are believed to have been made sometime in 600BC by the Nazca people. Different theories exist as to why they were made, anything from mimicking star patterns, commincation with ailens, to religous practices. No definante conclusins hav been made yet. We took a tiny plane up and flew over the lines. We were shown things like simple strait lines and triangles (maybe an ancient landing strip?) to much more complex symbols like spiders, monkey's, whales, flowers, birds, and something that is either an alien or a man waving on the side of a mountain.
Either way, it was pretty weird. There are over 300 of these images throughout the desert. The lines were made by pushing rock and sand apart to make the lines. It has been well perserved because of lack of wind or rain. All in all very cool, and very weird.

Pic 1: alien man
pic 2: called hands, i think it looks like a baby chick.
pic 3: triangles? arrows? directions? who knows!
pic 4: monkey!

The Sacred Valley- Pisac Ruins

Another cultural site we visited was the town of Pisac, also in the sacred valley. Known best for its colorful market (of which i was forced to by many many fun things), it also contains some pretty awesome ruins. Another rainy day in the valley, but that wasn´t stopping us from checking the ruins out. I won´t go into too much detail, as i´m sure you´re getting the picture about the Incas by now...

Pic 1: Pisac Ruins, terraces for agriculture
Pic 2: Inca Graveyard, buried in the small caves
Pic 3: Ruins
Pic 4: Us in the ruins, in the rain...

Sacred Valley- Ruins of Ollantaytambo

Ok, so after the amazing, tiring Machu Picchu, Erin and I made our way through the Sacred Valley. An area filled, to the brim, with Inca Ruins. We stopped in a few small towns for meals, sight seeing and resting. Our first stop was the town of Ollantaytambo (say that 5 times fast!). We dropped our bags, and headed to the ruins. Who do we think we are! We´ve been hiking up stairs for 2 days strait! OUCH! is all i had to say when i looked up at the ruins of Ollantaytambo. But seeing this amazing Inca ruin, and the fact that the sun was shining, and my legs basically felt dead anyways, i had no problem exploring the ruins, which were a smaller outpost for Machu Picchu, and also a military stronghold.

Pic 1: Ruins
Pic 2: Me alive, on the Ruins (shockingly not dead from more stair climbing)
Pic 3: Sad, seeing more stairs to climb
Pic 4: Inca Terraces

Machu Picchu, Part 2

Part 2: Crazy town.

After so much hiking, and no food being allowed in the complex, i was def. going a little bananas! But either way, it was still amazing!

The Inca Bridge, thankfully closed! so scary!!!

Inspired by my favorite south american bus movie, Wild Hogs, crazy twin cassidy2 decides to play slap the llama.... great idea.

Irrigation in Machu

Machu Picchu, Part 1

Machu Picchu, literaly translated to Old Mountain, was a large settlement built by the Inca culture around 1430, only 100 years before the spanish conquerers discovered this area.
The area is believed to be built as an agricultural center which then surrounded an urban center, repleate with ceremonial and religous cites. Also this citadel was created to be a mausoleum for the most powerful inca ruler Pachakutec. Following the usual grandure that can be found in many other cultures (egyptian, indian ect.).
After slowly taking over the cusco region, a large battle left Pachakutec in complete control of the inca empire starting around 1420, which is when the construction of Machu Picchu began.
This amazing place did not have long to prosper before the nervous spanish delcared it a scarificial site, had it dismantled, and passed the land off to various important people.

Waynu Picchu, part 2, down

Ok, so after our unbelievably long climb up Waynu Picchu, we made our way down (accidentally the long way of course) to the Temple of the Moon, believed to be a cermonial burial area. It is believed that the small caves housed the remains of high preists and important figures, though no bodies were found due to looting. The carvings are astounding. How they put all of this together i don't know. Little niches and alters fill the area. truely amazing.

Nothing like a little mountain hanging over the walk way in a country known for its earthquakes... deep, deep breaths.

Temple of the Moon

Probably a cemermonial throne, or sacrificial area, now becomes my nap and snack rock.

gasp! the clouds clear! oh no! i can actually see down the ledge i´m walking on! help help! quick get some clouds back up here! SERIOUSLY!

Waynu Picchu Part 1, UP

Ok, so we made our way to Machu Picchu at 5:00am, the first bus up. Take a few pics before all the tourists arrive, then head to the entrance of Waynu Picchu (new mountain), the mountain next to Macchu Picchu (old mountain), that has recently opened up some amazing trails. The trails open to visitors at 7am, and only allow 400 people on them per day, i am happy to report myself and erin as number 1 and 2 in the visitors entrance log! First we headed up (yay a million stairs) Wayny Picchu to take in the view... on the rainy cloudy day....

mossy, wet, tiny stairs (right side), my butt better look good after this!

mor fun climbing, and views...

finally made it! yay! altitude 2600 meters! you do the math!

Aguas Calientes, Chutes and Ladders

Ok, so from Cusco, you have to take a train to get to Aguas Calientes, the small town that acts as the launching point for Machu Picchu. We took a nice, super early train to Aguas, checked into our hostel, grabbed som grubb, and bought our tickets for Machu for the following day. With intentions to take it easy and relax before Machu, we visited the tourist office, where a number of hour to hour and a half hikes in the surrounding areas were suggested.

I thought, great, lets get these legs a moving already! a good warm up for Machu... WRONG. We picked a nice 1 1/2 hour hike up Putucusi. A "hill" that gives you a nice view of Machu from a distance. Let the games begin! The hike turned out to be a death defying, stair climbing, muddy, slip and slidey rock, 3 story ladder from hell, hike. Which in the end, i´ll admit was well worth it, but geez! it was freaking tough, and really really scary! I was certainly tired afterwards, and for Machu, but the views were great, and i´m glad i can say i made it all the way to the top without dying.





Pic 1:Ladder from hell, that never ended.
Pic 2: View of Machu
Pic 3: Some very tired, very hungry, very happy girls