Cuzco & Machu Picchu

Cusco, Perú is the site of the former Incan empire capital and is said to have been founded in the 11th century. Pizarro sacked it in 1535. And, in typical Spanish fashion, they killed or enslaved most of the Incas, destroyed most of the city, and built churches over the ruins of temples. All for the sake of some gold and silver.


One of the two massive cathedrals in Plaza de Armas.

Plaza de Armas on Christmas Eve. Most of the people in the plaza that night were real Peruvians, which is a rare sight in the center of Cusco; usually it´s swarming with tourists and the only Peruvians are shopkeepers. Vendors came from rural areas to sell mosses, herbs, plants, incense, charcol, and hundreds of other unidentifiable objects that are used in the "Noche Buena" ceremonies.

Inca stonework of the temple remains in Cusco. It´s true that you can´t slip a knife blade in the joints. To this day it´s not certain how they accomplished such incredible precision.

One theory claims that the seemingly arbitrary angles, corners, and surface treatments are a type of codec that only high-level Incan priests could decipher.

On the road to where we started our four-day trek.

The poor beast of burden that would carry our gear up to a height of 15,500 feet of altitude and back down.

The village where we spent the first night. People still live as they did thousands of years ago, farming potatoes and raising llamas to eat and to trade once a month for other goods.

Typical stone house with its corrals.

This kid put on this face every time a camera was pointed his way. The people in this area have only been exposed to tourists for about two years now, so they were very shy and respectful. Whereas in Bolivia, you´re almost always pointed at and called "meester," or gringo. We didn´t hear one meester or gringo the entire time.

Jacob and I performing the star jump.

It being summer in the southern hemisphere, we were cursed with heavy fog and constant rain on our hike, but now and then a peak would poke through the clouds.

Two campesinos in traditional dress of the area.

Taking a break on the way up.

Type of moss/ground cover. It felt like the plastic indoor/outdoor turf.

This slope used to be covered with a glacier, but due to global warming that doesn´t exist, the glacier doesn´t exist anymore either.

At the pass, we each gathered a small rock to stack as a cairn as an offering of safe passage to the Incan gods. They worshipped Pachamama as a female god (mother nature) and the peaks as male gods. The first half of our trek followed what was a sacred road up to the peaks where the priests would make offerings to the angry male gods. A typical offering would be three female virgins who would walk to the ice skirts of the glacier and lie down to freeze to death. Sounds like a bad deal for them, but they considered it a great honor.

Guess who.

This raging stream flows down to the Urubamba river, whose valley was the "Sacred Valley" of the Incas, where most of their religious centers like Machu Picchu are located.

Taking a break during an 11-hour day of hiking. Of course it was raining.

One of the many faces in the sides of mountains. They built a temple in Cusco for this old man. He´s facing right (towards Cusco), with his hand on a boulder.

After taking a train at the end of our trek, finally we´re in Machu Picchu!!!

Standing outside the main gate looking back up the path towards the guardhouse.

The main gate into the compound. It´s narrow enough for one loaded llama to fit through.

Inside the gate looking back up at the path.

Temple of the Sun. The rock in the middle is part of the natural formations but was carved to correspond with the rays of sunlight that come through the windows of the temple on important dates i.e. the winter solstice, june 21st. The sun was considered a god.

The first of a series of fountains in Machu Picchu. This is located by the Temple of the Sun and is the cleanest of the fountains (the same water falls through all the fountains), which gives an indication to its importance.

A cave under the Temple of the Sun, also carved from natural formations. There are plenty of theories as to the function, but none are for certain. One theory says that places such as these were carved before the Incas, and the Incas built the temples and religious centers around these special rocks to preserve and study them.

The famous hour-glass stonework inserted between two natural rock formations.

Other natural formations are carved to mimic the ridges of surrounding mountains.

This is an abstract representation of one of the nearby mountains carved out of a block of natural stone with high quartz content. If you place your hand over the rock you can feel a static charge.

An Incan house.

About 10:30 a.m. and the clouds are lifting.

A view of Machu Picchu from Huayna Picchu.

Ladders and cables help tourists on trails that Incas would walk with eyes closed.

Part of the Temple of the Moon.

Seated in a chair in the Temple of the Moon.

Even Incan architecture mimics the surrounding landscape...

...like this...

...and like this.

The money shot.

Views on the train-ride back to Cusco.