Following our tour of the Pisaq ruins, we stopped for lunch, then continued to Ollantaytambo, a spectacular display of Inca fortress ruins above the modern Ollantaytambo town, which is known as a “living museum” because of all the Inca roadways and foundations that still exist there (visit the link for lots of great info). At the fortress, we learned a bit about how the Incas were able to construct their amazing walls of rock. Well, a bit of the mystery was solved, anyway. Apparently, Peruvian granite is a little different than Canadian granite. The Peruvian granite fractures naturally. Of course these fractures don’t result in factory-perfect carvings (which is what they look like), so the Incas were indeed masters at their craft. But what they’d do is insert wood wedges between the natural fractures in the rock, then cause the wood to “swell” by saturating it with water. As the wood would swell, the fractures would become more deep, etc., etc. But the help of the wood doesn’t explain the perfection of Incan archictecture displayed in some of the walls. You’ll see what I mean when we get to Machu Picchu.
In the meantime, the Ollantaytambo ruins were breathtaking. Like many ruins we visited, including Machu Picchu, the fortress was never finished. It’s hard to finish a structure like this when it takes hundreds of years and thousands of men to build and the Spaniards from long ago were intent on taking over your world. I could talk and talk and not explain how amazing it is to climb all over these ruins. So let’s just look at some pictures.
Apporaching the fortress. Just thinking of climbing all those stairs, considering my health issues (were which considerable on this day) made me exhausted. But I was there. I HAD to do it.Of course I'm kissing an Inca-carved rock. Wouldn't you?Looking across to the granaries built into the mountain across the way. I know, they're kind of hard to see. Look on the right. If you look in the middle, you can see what looks like a face carved into the rock.Don't you love a zoom lens? Same hillside, same granaries (where they'd store grain), same "face" in the mountain. Those crazy Incas!If you can't see the face now, you're blind. I'm sure there's a story behind this face, but I can't remember it and I'm too lazy to search the web. I'm not Wikipedia, you know! I have foibles!I'm only pretending to be freaked out. Honest. I'm afraid of heights, but I had my DH with me as I walked this very narrow path to a reconstruction of a granary on the fortress side of Ollantaytambo. It was a long way down, but it wasn't a sheer cliff face like I encountered walking to the Inca Bridge at Machu Picchu.Pointing out the magnificent Inca architecture for the DH. If I look worn out, I assure you, I was.Ain't we cute? Our guide, Gladys, took this photo for us. Note how the Inca doorways were wider at the bottom than at the top? Apparently, that was to help protect from earthquakes. At the top, above our heads, were two rocks not one. The two big rocks helped with earthquakes as well.
Following Ollantaytambo, we were dropped off at our hotel and tried to enjoy a nice dinner in the dining room (I won’t expand on the “tried.” Let’s just the Peruvian idea of how to prepare beef tenderloin and mine are not at all the same). The DH had alpaca. I tried a mouthful. It wasn’t bad!
The following morning, at our hotel. Self-portrait. We were waiting for our driver to pick us up and deliver us to the bus that would deliver us to the train station that would deliver us to the train that would take us to Aguas Calientes. This is Day 13.More Peruvian terrace farming. Plus, someone had thought to carve or clear out "CST" into the mountainside just for us! How thoughtful! Just kidding. We had no idea what it meant, but decided it MUST mean "Cindy and Steve Traveling."
