part I: sacred valley.

our first day began at the foothills of green crops and flowerbeds, next to a little covered market and a pen of alpacas.. getting into the bus and rolling left and right over mountain passes surrounding the sacred valley, with views of sheer rocks and forested peaks.. we stopped roadside to take the generic touristic photo of the valley; the river snaking through the background.. it was beautiful.

next stop was at a festival site.. which wasn't so originally, of course.. but what was cool was the fact that there was actually a festival happening there that very day.. massive speakers and crowds of people began gathering along the hundreds of terraces (they look like huge staircases) jutting up the mountainside.. these terraces served three purposes for the inca's: the large sections were used for crops, the medium-sized ones were for stability and support to prevent mountain slides, and the small one were for decoration. they had intricately constructed irrigation plans to ensure all the crops got a sufficient amount of water.. and through the terraces, they were able to determine which crops were able to survive the different altitudes and efficiently farmed the mountainous areas. old ruins further up were old storage houses for the crops. the walls and windows were placed in such a way that they naturally cooled the rooms, the air circulation preventing the food from spoiling. their systems were brilliant. we're talking about the time before the freaking wheel, here. and they're off building these phenomenal buildings on mountain tops with materials taken from other mountain tops.. it is beyond my comprehension.

next we stopped for lunch.. everyone getting off the bus to partake in a huge buffet banquet.. except for danelle and i, the reject hobos in the corner slab of cement with our shoes off.. lying on our packs eating peanuts and bananas..

we continued on to another town (i remember none of the names..) where we climbed staircase after staircase, passing terrace after terrace.. reaching the entrance to the temple of the sun, as well as what was speculated to be the temple of the moon, but which was left incomplete. they determined the role of these temples by the positioning of the doorways, which perfectly correspond to the position of the sun during the summer and winter solstices.. two very important religious festivals which mark the two seasons the inca's knew.. dry and rainy season.

the massive polished boulders that so perfectly fit together like pieces of puzzles weighed up to 8 tonnes in some cases.. they speculate that it took about 200 men and an intricate pulley system to bring one such rock up the mountain. does that work ethic even exist today? i'm not sure it does. we make tall cement buildings and destroy the planet with filth and pollution.. they worshipped the earth in a pure and natural way.. they did it without powerful machines or electricity.

heading back to the last town, we spent a few hours in the sunshine and then took the train to 'aguas calientes'.. arriving to our hostel around 11pm and settling in for a few hours of sleep.