THURSDAY – LEARNING ABOUT THE INCAS

Unfortunately Trish has been unwell all day and has spent most of it sleeping. Hopefully she will be well enough to resume activities tomorrow when we will be moving on for more Inca exploration.

As the observant among you will have noticed, I am now up to date with the photos so those posts other than Antarctic now have photos embedded and are worth revisiting. I have dealt with Antarctic in bulk even though a number of the photos need comment to explain their significance.

 

Before I talk about today, I want to share two photos from earlier days. The Police vehicle is in Lima and perhaps says something about what they are expecting to have to deal with. The sign banning entry to English pirates is at the entry to the port at Ishuaia and is apparently a reflection of the Argentinians attitude to the British after the Falklands war.

Today we (that is, the tour group other than Trish) spent the morning exploring the Inca construction contained in the outer areas of Cusco by minivan. Of course, the outer areas of Cusco are the mountains surrounding it. We got to an altitude of approximately 1200 feet higher than Cosco in our exploration. While Macchu Picchu seems to attract the publicity, the whole area was a stronghold of the Inca civilization. We have two more days exploration before we get to Macchu Picchu. Needless to say, the construction is all incredible having regard to when it was built and the lack of technology to shape the blocks weighing many tons and precisely put them into position.

 

 

This afternoon, we visited several of the museums here in town and got to read a lot about the arrival of the Spaniards and the subsequent demise of the Incas caused by the Spaniards taking advantage of some infighting within the family of the Inca King at the time.

Tomorrow we travel through the Sacred Valley to Ollantytmbo then the following day to Aquas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu. We descend in altitude from here so hopefully that will assist Trish's recovery.