Peru 2008: Cusco Day 1: City sights, Sacsayhuaman

June 29, 2008 After our morning visit to Machu Picchu, the group met up again and took our bus to Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incas. En route, I snapped these photos of the countryside with snow-capped mountains in the distance: I did not write in my journal on June 30, so have had […]

Machu Picchu, Day 1 (Part 2) and Day 2

June 28, 2008 (continued) The Intihuatana, or “hitching post of the sun”, stands at the uppermost point of Machu Picchu. It is a rather simple but elegant structure, a smooth rectangular protrusion from a larger more angular base, itself rising from a rock fitted and shaped so neatly on the ground as to seem to […]

Peru 2008: Machu Picchu, Day 1 (Part 1)

June 28, 2008 (Continuation of journal, with additions from Internet later) The great Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, described Machu Picchu this way: “Machu Picchu es un viaje a la serenidad del alma, a la eterna fusión con el cosmos, allí sentimos nuestra fragilidad. Es una de las maravillas más grandes de Sudamérica. Un reposar de […]

Peru 2008: Discoveries in Urubamba and the train ride to Aguas Calientes

June 28, 2008 We checked out of our hotel this morning, after separating what we would need for an overnight in Aguas Calientes, the town that serves the tourist industry of Machu Picchu. Most of our luggage would be loaded on a bus and driven to Cusco by Victor, where it would be left waiting […]