Today we left Cusco and headed into the Valley de Urubamba. The picture above is of the valley and the picture below is of me with a few of the other girls in the program.
Once in the valley we went to visit Pisac which is an ancient Incan society. They built the terraces into the side of the hills to have more space to grow agriculture. And built their homes on the rocky portions of their land to not waste the fertile portions.
This next picture you should click on so you can really see it. Its an ancient cemetery. All the wholes in the rock are where they buried their mummies. When someone died they would mummify them in the fetal position because in Incan tradition it was a privilage to die it meant that you were just moving onto another life, that is why they put them into the fetal position and then back into "pacha mama" or mother earth so that they could move onto the next life. Also whenever they would hold celebrations they would take out the higher members of societies mummies so that they could participate as well.
From there we went onto Las Salinas de Maras. The water there is naturally full of salt (alot like salt lake) and the people have built these different "ponds" to catch the water and then thru a process cultivate the salt so it can be sold. Each family in the town has a pond that they are responsible for and they just get passed down from generation to generation.
Then it was onto Ollantaytambo. It was built as a defense against any invaders. From the fortress on the hillside you can see the entire valley and know if someone was coming. (can you spot the Incan face?)
No comments:
Post a Comment