Something new

For those of you wondering what we're up to on our summer vacation, here's a little bit. Unfortunately, we can't download pictures off of our camera, so it's just from Michele's phone.

There and back again

On our descent from Choquequirao, we stopped overnight at Marampata. The area around Choquequirao, while sparsely populated, is by no means empty. There are some farms along the valley, and the people have constructed toilets with the support of the government.

The people of the valley live mostly from agriculture, and they dry their corn to conserve it. As can be seen below, their houses are made from natural materials.

We had to cross the Apurimac River twice. It's a branch of the Amazon.
At the bottom of the valley, on the northern side, the climate is quite arid.
The recent problems to access Machu Picchu have made Choquequirao more popular than before, but because the hike is hard, hot, and steep, it's still not exactly a major tourist attraction.
Blazing sun, snow, and Michele...
At lunch, we stopped at a "huerta", which is a quechua word akin to "oasis", with the notable distinction that it refers to a place where plants produce flowers and fruits simultaneously, year round. So you can see an orange tree (unfortunately, no picture) with flowers, ripe fruit, and immature fruit all at once.
With this press, the local people make a kind of rum / sugarcane alcohol.
Sundown on the Padreyoq peak (5482 masl)
Same picture, different settings (goes to show you that you shouldn't believe in all photos that you see...)
Moonrise over an incline.
Agave plants are plenty on the northern (dryest) side of the valley, and their "stems" are used as building materials - the straight ones anyway.

Choquequirao itself

The ruins at Choquequirao are not fully excavated yet. In fact, part of its charm is the fact that significant mystery surrounds the site and that it's often empty. We were very lucky to see it without any other tourists there. We really lucked out because the day before we arrived there was a group of Americans at the site, many of whom wrote "healer" as their profession and left messages such as "true love" in the guest book. Yikes!

Anyways, here are some photos taken over the 1.5 days that we stayed there. A view of the terraces that first see as you enter the site.

Sunrise over a snow-capped peak. It was the dry season, and so there was very little snow.

A view of the saddle around which many of the main excavated buildings can be found
Some houses, where you can see on the left side that there is a ridge where the ceiling of the first floor was. The second floor was accessed through the openings in the upper wall (one of the benefits of building on a hill).
A view of the saddle and main square from the other side, together with terraces.
The stones at Choquequirao are different from the ones at Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo, and so the architecture is different as well. You can't use such big blocks when the rocks are anisotropic (they have a weak direction, basically).
There are also nice plants, and they don't run away when you try to take pictures of them, which is helpful.

Trekking to Choquequirao

We did a five day trek to the Inca city, Choquequirao. The only way to get to the site is by foot and so many fewer people go.
The first half of first morning was most definitely the flattest and easiest.
At one point in the morning, I noticed the river all the way at the bottom of the valley and remarked on how beautiful and far away it was. Our guide told me that is where we're going and then back up the other side of the valley. It was at this point that I started to seriously realize what I'd gotten myself into...
Going down

Slowly getting closer to the river
Andres and the mule, Negra who stayed with us the entire time... just in case.
The river and the moon
Going up the other sideI did take a small break and rode the mule.
The moon
Fidel (our guide), Andres, and me reaching the top.
The top

Ollantaytambo & the countryside

The day after we visited Machu Picchu, we stopped for short visit to the town and archaeological site of Ollantayambo.

We were a little impatient with the bus and so we walked part of the way to the town.
Inca masonry is very impressive.
As we drove to our campsite for the night, we passed many farms and this beautiful lake.

Machu Picchu

Greg had to go to Lima for a week of work and Greg's parents kindly offered to watch Lucie. So I flew over and we spent an extra week there together. Since the trip was a little last minute, all the tickets for the Inca trail were sold out (to control the crowds hiking to Manchi Picchu, they sell 500 tickets a day and you have to buy them 3-6 months in advance). We took the train instead, plus the bus since some of the tracks are still damaged by the mud slides and there was a strike while we were there.

Here are photos from Machu Picchu...

The terraces or green flats that are built-up with stone walls are where they would have grown crops for the settlement.