Our Lives: 2nd day of ruins

There are four ruins just outside of Cuzco that we visited today. We took a taxi to the furthest one, which was 8 km outside of the city and worked our way back into Cuzco.

Tampumachay

This was a very small site that was centered around this ceremonial bath.

Puca Pucara

Across the road from the bathes was Puca Pucara, which was used as a "check point" for travelers.

It is hard to see, but this was a "blue print" of Machu Picchu that was located in Puca Pucara.

Qenko

This site was small also, but it was very interesting. In the last site we met a guide that the Canadian gir,l that was seeing the sites with us, paid to tell us about all the sites. We found the extra information interesting, but sometimes a little subjective. It seems some of the meanings of things are based on interuption of the person. The guide informed us this rock was significant because the shadow looks like a puma. That was a stretch for us to see, but okay.

He also said these little niches in the wall were for the dead. I did not understand the whole story behind it but something about placing the dead in these niches in the fetal position and them becoming part of the plants.

This is Nick acting like a dumbass. He is ready to be sacrificed.

Inside the huge rock on this site is a little cave with rock tables where they sacrificed llamas. If you look closely you can see the rut in the floor to channel the blood.

This is a higher table where they sacrificed things.

This is the other side of the whole site. At one time tourists could climb on top of the huge rock where there are carvings of animals and a circle where they placed the blood of the llama. They had a channel going from the circle down a zig zag and then it splits in two directions. The Incas would place the blood in the circle, watch it go through the zig zagging channels and then if it split to the right it was going to be a good year and to the left it was going to be a bad year. Tourists cannot climb up there now because someone fell off.

Sacsayhuaman

The last site we visited was the biggest and only 2km outside Cuzco. The travel book says only 20% of the site remains today after the Spaniards destroyed most of it to use the rocks to build their homes, but our guide says it is 50%. When the Spaniards did arrive they killed a lot of Incas at this site!! So many that Andean Condors flew in to eat all the bodies. The way the name of the site is pronounced by the Spaniards means "satisified falcons." The Perivans now have 8 Andean Condors in their Coat of Arms in honor of this battle.

I tell you a lot of things are in the interuption. This is a llama the Incas purposefully meant to make while building this rock. Can you see the llama?

This is a view across an area they used for festivals. The rock on the other side is naturally formed like that. It is volcanic rock.

This is a snake made out of rock in the wall. Nick thinks it looks more like sperm.

"Traditional" dancers making a commerical or something.

This is another stretch to me. The guide said these seven niches were made in the rock to represent the three worlds they believe in and the four different classes of Incas. I do not understand why they would carve out seven niches in a random place to represent this, but okay.

The volcanic rock made a natural slide for the Inca children to play on. Nick is resting on it right now.

Nick, Marie, and the guide sliding down. It acutally worked really well.

This was an area where the leader spoke to the people. There is a rock chair for the leader to set in over there in that mass of rocks.

Here is a zoomed in picture on the chair.

This is a tunnel that leads from that arena all the way to Cuzco. Tourists are not allowed to go in very far anymore because someone died in the tunnel...oops.