2014_09_15 Sacred Valley Day 2

Day two of the Sacred Valley.  Up for breakfast and then off with Helen from Mountain Lodges of Peru to visit 3 separate Inca ruins sights.

Waiting for the bus this morning at Tambo del Inca Hotel in Urubamba, Peru.  Shot of our travel friends (all but me) through the big stone fireplace in the lobby.

Water irrigation channel flowing through Ollantaytambo, Peru.  Considered the last living Inca city on Peru because current Inca families are living in homes made when the Inca were still in power.

At the bottom looking up at The Temple of the Sun.  Pretty steep walk up the inca stone wall terraces.

This structure is the only pre-Inca building left at this sight.  The construction technique is different from Inca stone block construction.

Headin' on up.

Note the trapezoid shape of the doorway.  This helps the rocks to sway but not collapse during earthquakes.  Inca structures survived the effects of earthquakes while Spanish colonial structures collapsed.  All portals, windows and doors have this trapezoid shape.

This double door was used only by Inca royalty on the way up to the Temple of the Sun.

Traditional Inca stone block construction.  Amazing!

Talking with our guide Helen at the top.  Temple of the Sun.

One of the panels at the Temple of the Sun depicts a puma head.  The holy trinity of Inca religion were the Puma, the Condor and the Snake.

View back over Ollantaytambo town.  There was supposed to be the profile of a lady in that hill but I am not quite sure I saw it.  Maybe.....

There is a storage structure just about in the center of the image.  Slightly off to the left (slightly above) may be the left facing profile of a Inca lady.  Click on image for larger look.

Richie Steingart admiring the view at the top.

Rich Rediker - Heading down from the Temple of the Sun.

Almost down!

Local people wash using one of these natural showers.

Had not seen these traditional clothes before.  Turned on camera a snapped as fast as I could.  Bobi's are is in window!

Next stop.  Parking lot at Moray.  Nice ice covered mountain in background.

Inca terraces at Morays, Peru.  It is thought that the Inca conducted agricultural experiments in the lowest level of the circular terraces.  We walked down into the depression and then back up.  This place was massive.

You can see steps anchored into the terrace walls.

 At the bottom.

The group is climbing up the steps in the terrace walls.  Harder than it looks.

Rich and Richie at the top.  High five!

We drove to the town square of Morays where we ate a provided boxed lunch.  Check out the scenery!

The local dogs were all around eyeballing our lunches as well.  Sarah, take a look at the lunch box (click on the image).  Just missing an h!  We are both missing you all.....

Statue in the town square.

Started our two hour hike from Morays to Maras salt flats.  Wide open terrain with snow-capped mountains in the background.  This was our first long walk - getting our legs ready for the trek to Machu Picchu in two days.

Along the trail.  We got to use our walking poles for the first time.  Connie is holding my poles so I can take this image.

Some of the group is walking along the ridge on the left. 

We met this guy leading his burros up the way we had jeu come from.  Chio fed one of them her apple from lunch and the man was really appreciative.

Chio and Connie - Our first look at the Maras salt flats in the distance.

Massive!

The hot salt laden water comes out from the mountain.  You can see salt deposits on each side of the stream.

  Pre-Incan salt pools in Peru. Each family in the village owns 1 pool and it takes 2 months to produce 110 pounds of salt. Thanks, Rich Rediker for listening to what our guide Helen was saying!  When the rainy season comes, all of the contents of the ponds are washed away and they must start the process anew when the rains end.  It is hard to see but there are different colors in the ponds.  When the process has just started the pond is more brown and gets whiter as it nears becoming salt.

Closeup of one of the salt ponds.

Urumbamba panorama from overlook.

Stopped on a ridge over Urubamba.  The Urubamba River flows through the Sacred Valley.  Our hotel (Tambo del Inca) is the brown buildings on the right side of the river in the center of this image.

Home!  Huge stone fireplace in the lobby of the hotel.

We walked for about 4 hours total yesterday at 3 different Inca sites.  I attempted to start and stop my Garmin GPS watch each time we were actually walking/climbing.  I may have forgotten to stop the watch a bit so time was added while we were sitting or listening to our guide Helen.  The watch said we went a total of 3.56 miles.  I guess that is a good warmup in preparation for the trek.