Tag Archives: Architecture

Oy, Oy, Ollantaytambo – a day in the Sacred Valley

13th April 2018

[Long Read Warning – this was a content-rich day. Get a coffee, or a drink, is my advice]

The valley that runs from Pisac to Ollantaytambo was called the Sacred Valley by the Incas, as it ran along side of the Urubamba river, also known as Willkamayu in the local Quecha language, meaning “sacred river”. It became an important part of the Inca empire, and having the advantages of lower altitude and water, was a good area for farming, principally maize and potatoes.

Our day in the Sacred Valley was spent travelling through the valley from Pisac to Ollantaytambo. The weather at first was very dull – raining quite hard at times – but it cheered up as the day progressed.

Pisac is well-known for its market, which takes over a latge part of the town. These days, it plays mainly to tourists, and, like many such, it’s a colourful place.

Many of the stallholders dress traditionally,

and there are one or two locals also dressed traditionally, in the hope of getting a tourist Sol or two as a photo opportunity.

Some of the fabric designs are wonderful.

Traditional dress figures strongly among the locals (particularly, it must be said, the older ones)

but modern life exists alongside tradition.

Above – this lady is carrying milk, direct from the cow, to sell it at a stall

Shortly after I took the picture above, one of the ladies handed her lamb to the other, and pottered off on some mission or other.

The town itself is pleasant, quite pretty in places, but the usual South American mix of colour, charm and scruffiness.

On the outskirts is a tiny church (not the only one, but the cutest)

and many of the buildings sport a pair of animal statues on their roofs, by way of a blessing.

The town is well-paved, with aqueducts running along many of the streets

beside which you see mosaic versions of many Inca animals, with the condor (the animal the Incas held in very high regard) featuring often, in different representations.

and other traditional Inca animals such as the snake (bottom of the snake-puma-condor hierarchy).

Occasionally, you can see, outside a shop, a small basket hangingn on a pole. This means that the establishment is a public bakery. People can bring things – including cuy, or guinea pig – to be baked.

If the pole sports a red thing at the end,

it means that the place serves chicha, a local alcoholic drink. There are plenty of these establishments.

The town’s Inca roots can be seen in some still-extant terracing, originally used for farming, but here used to support a cemetery. Note the protrusions in the middle of the terrace wall; these form an Inca-style staircase

which is still in use today!

Our journey from Pisac to Ollantaytambo involved some notable items of interest. For example, a town called Lamay seems to specialise in eateries which will serve you the local delicacy – guinea pig, or cuy. The marketing is not subtle

in the way that it tells you that you get guinea pig on a stick.

Jane tells me that it smelt delicious.

Cuy is very clearly a delicacy and one to market heavily.

We stopped for lunch (not guinea pig!) at a splendid place called “Sol y Luna“, which, being Relais et Chateau, was, obvs, dead posh. We had a lovely lunch and were, unexpectedly, entertained with a display of traditional Peruvian horsemanship

and dancing.

After lunch we went to Ollantaytambo, which was a delight, but only after bumping up a considerably cobbled road through narrow streets. The town itself is, yes, typically South American – charming in places, scruffy in others and quite colourful.

but what it’s best-known for is a very substantial Inca fortress.

which you can climb up if you have the stomach (or, rather, the lungs) for 300 steps up at altitude. If so, you get to see some fabulous Inca stonework

with beautifully interlocking (and very substantial) stones which provide a base stable enough to resist earthquake)

containing niches for idols, fashioned in the traditional Inca trapezoidal shape)

and differentiatng between the temple part (on the left, with top notch stonework) and the farming part (on the right, still good stonework, but not of the top quality reserved only for noble houses and temples).

At the top is the throne, reserved for the ruler to view his fiefdom,

and this is his view. Note that the alignment of this is such that at spring equinox, the sun rises exactly over the top of the mountain in the centre of the picture.

There was a huge amount to learn from the Ollantaytambo site – how the accoustics of the design allowed for eavesdropping on conversations at a lower level; how it was never completed; how much of it was buried so that when the Spaniards came and took over (after a battle which they lost, incidentally) they didn’t find (and hence destroy) what was there – it’s around 80% complete and only the perishable stuff (like roofing, traditionally made using bamboo to support thatching) has disappeared. Some restoration work has been done, but fundamentally the site has survived over the centuries due to the remarkable stoneworking abilities of the Incas.

This was the first significant exposure to Inca work that we had seen on our travels, and it was a very impressive site and sight. There is much to learn about the Incas, and Camila, our guide, gave us some wonderful historical and cultural insights. I’ve tried to get across some of them, but, fundamentally, what takes your breath away is the size and scale of the place – an excellent end to a long and varied day.

Lima – Bean there, done that

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10th April 2018

When our plane landed at Lima airport, the cabin crew announced that it was in Callao province, 15 minutes from the centre of Lima.

Hah!

Nowhere in Lima is as short as a 15-minute drive from anywhere else. In Quito, our guide, Paul, warned us about the traffic, but no warning can prepare you for the reality. The congestion is bad, but I’ve seen worse (downtown Bangkok, London near the ExCel when they close the Blackwall tunnel); however add in the local driving style, and that makes a ride through the traffic an exciting and thrilling experience. Our entire journey from the airport was one long game of chicken, a distracting backdrop to the (actually very useful) information that our guide was giving us about our schedule whilst in Peru.

It seems that some preparation for altitude is necessary (and Sunvil had arranged a smooth increase in altitude across successive destinations, from Lima (sea level) via Sacred Valley (2400m) to Machu Picchu (2800m) to Cusco (2400m) to Lake Titicaca (3800m – the last time I was that high was in the Swiss Alps, and the simple effort of walking along a corridor carrying skis made little spots dance before my eyes). So we were given this advice to mitigate altitude sickness:

Drink plenty of water
Avoid drinking coffee and eating meat
Eat fish and cooked vegetables
Drink coca tea or chew coca leaves
Above all, take it easy

The last one is within my DNA; let’s see how the others work.

In the hotel is a sign that might give your average European traveller pause:

Our schedule included a morning tour of Lima, and we had a very charming guide called Hernando to show us around. It became clear that Lima, unlike many other capital cities, was not going to be very easy to get a flavour of. We actually spent two hours of the three-and-a-half sitting in traffic, while Hernando alternately regaled us with information about the history and culture of Lima and Peru and indicated points of interest as we ground past them (unable to stop and take photos, unfortunately). There are many handsome buildings dotted around Lima that date from one or two centuries ago. Unfortunately, the space between these buildings has been taken up with many more modern buildings which are (a) ugly, (b) tatty and (c) in many cases unfinished. Rather like London, really, but much, much scruffier and without the rain.

The first thing Hernando showed us was a pre-Inca site for which preservation efforts are being made – a huge pyramidal ceremonial site made out of adobe bricks. (We later got a chance to take a couple of photos.)

The Incas were known as builders who thought big, but they came relatively late to this part of the world, and various tribes had been here for three or four thousand years before they came, and it was they who built this site, and many others around Lima, since destroyed. And then, of course, came the Spanish, led by Pizarro, who built and declared Lima as the capital and ruled the area until Peru declared independence in 1822. The time of Spanish rule is referred to as the “colonial” period, and the centre of Lima does represent an opportunity to walk around and see some of the highlights. These include the very handsome main square, with the cathedral

the Mayor’s offfice

and other significant buildings such as the Presidential Palace (from the 1930s, too big and ugly to be worth a photo). Other buildings we saw included the old railway station, now a literary centre of some kind,

and the old Post Office, now lined with tat stalls, but not without its charm.

However, a large chunk of the 90 minutes spent walking around in Lima was spent at the Franciscan monastery, which, rather like the one in Quito, is large, imposing and which forbids photography. However, the ban is poorly policed and so I sneaked a few phone shots. There are cloisters

surrounding a peaceful garden.

and used to store some impressive processional items.

The inside of the church is striking

and, off to the side, in the choir, were some beautifully-carved pews where the monks could study their magnificently-illuminated texts – supported by small perches called “misericordia” (mercy) rather than having to stand for hours.

In exhibition cases were a couple of original examples of illustrated texts. They are things of beauty, but what particularly entranced me was the early musical notation included with the texts .

There was a macabre element to our visit as we visited the catacombs, where, at one stage, up to 35,000 (poor) people were buried (the rich could afford their own mausolea, of course). Actually, the available spaces had been filled, (brick-built compartments filled with levels of bodies covered in earth and lime) to the point where the bodies (or what remained of them, ie skulls and large bones) had been exhumed, ready to start again, when the use of the catacombs was discontinued. So there were bones, bones, bones everywhere, laid out in chests, used in decoration on staircases

and even in a well!

After our morning with Hernando, we visited a large, underground shopping centre called Locarmar, on the edge of the cliffs and not too far from our hotel.

There we had a nice lunch at a nice eatery called Tanta, a place which was fairly unique in that it served no wine (but the pisco sours were excellent, and it offered local-ish Cusqueña beer, which was quite palatable); and the kitchen was sufficiently broken that they couldn’t offer the dish they described as being their most popular – lomo saltado, a beef stir-fry. But we managed to find a few local dishes that they could serve (Jaranita Criolla, a sharing dish with various appetisers and Tacutacu a la Pobre, which was fried surloin steak in batter, with a fried banana, topped with a fried egg and served on a bed of fried rice – actually very lovely but too vast to finish).

So passed our time in Lima. In principle, it would have been nice to see a wider variety of city sights outside just the colonial quarter, but it’s so difficult to get around that it’s simply not possible in a single day; but it was good to have got the historical and cultural background from Hernando, as well as his despairing commentary about the difficulty of ever finding a political leader who wasn’t corrupt, and so we were able to leave with at least a flavour of the place.

Our departure was in parts amusing and frustrating. In normal cities, to drive to an airport, you get on to the relevant motorway which leads you smoothly and directly to the departure terminal. Unsurprisngly this is not so in Lima. The official route from our hotel (the Crowne Plaza in Miraflores) to the airport, according to a search engine of your choice, seemed to be straightforward – along the coast, up a major highway and into the airport – 13 km and 30 minutes.

Hah!

We did spend some time going along the coast, which emphasised Lima’s odd geography, as the city itself is at the top of a clifff that’s up to 100m high, with a long beach area at the bottom. But then our driver appeared to go off on one. If we han’t been accompanied by a rep from our travel organisation, I would have feared for my life, or perhaps just my bank balance, as we went up narrow streets, through car parks, and round the back of some very dodgy-looking estates, all the time playing the national game of traffic chicken.

Anyhoo…we got to the airport in only just under an hour, dropped our bags and headed into the departure lounge, hoping to get away from the pandemonium of landside Lima airport. All we did was move into the pandemonium of airside Lima airport, which featured a single coffee lounge with all available seats taken, and no other refreshment possibilities. We eventually were given a gate, so went there and managed to find somewhere to sit. Then a gate change was announced, so we trudged to the new gate. Then, and only then, was a flight delay of over an hour announced – and a later Cusco flight’s passengers were directed to our original gate; heaven knows what fate awaited them. Quite what byzantine processes and intricate relationship between airline and airport can lead to this particular chain of events is beyond me (mind you, it was foggy as hell outside). A further annoyance was that the delay meant my free WiFi ran out and I had to pay to stay online. Honestly, it’s shocking.

Quito marvellous day out

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8th April 2018

After the relentless tourism of the Galapagos, we flew to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and, weatherwise, a very different proposition from the scorching heat of the islands, being a refreshing 19°C or thereabouts. Our guide, Paul, delivered us to a lovely hotel in the old town of Quito, the Casa Gangotena.

(it’s the white building on the right). It’s a very splendid place, old school posh, with remarkable decor, great service, and very good food in the restaurant. It was once the family home to a pair of sisters who had one bathroom and 15 servants each. For the last 6 years, it’s been a hotel and one I’d thoroughly recommend.

Paul took us around the old town of Quito the next morning. The first thing he did was to lead us up some streets to a local market. The streets are fascinating; colourful, ramshackle and quite scruffy, and some areas are really quite dangerous, although Paul assured us that things are much better than they have been.

Shops are normally openings in the side of larger buildings, selling a bewildering variety of things, many quite unfamiliar to European eyes

Although there are plenty of people just selling things on the street.

The market, called the San Francisco market (named after the saint, not the Californian city, and styling itself “Quito’s 1st Market”) is interesting to wander around, although I have to say I was glad Paul was there (a) to explain to the stallholders about the weird tourists he had with him, and (b) to tell the tourists he had with him about some of the weird produce which was on offer – a staggering variety of fruits, vegetables and meat, mainly organised in sections.

For example, this stall had more varieties of potato on it than you could shake a stick at.

There was even a food court there.

And in the meat section, Jane was particularly taken with the cows’ feet on sale.

Paul then took us back to the square outside our hotel which features a huge Franciscan monastery and church, and is a stone’s throw from six other churches. We visited the Jesuit church as well as peeking in the Franciscan church, and they are both absolutely stunning inside. Neither permit photography inside, which is understandable but annoying to me as a keen photographer. So here are photos of postcards we bought, to give you an idea.

The interiors are extraorinarily ornate and sumptuously decorated. In the photo below, one of the two staircases up to the organ loft is actually trompe l’oeuil, just to maintain symmetry!

After that, we went on to the roof of the city library, which was once the Jesuit college and which had a relief model of the city, showing its extraordinary geography, situated above major fissures in the ground.

The library roof gave us a couple of nice views. Just as well, really; Quito is at quite some altitude (2800 metres, or one-and-three-quarter-miles, high) and lugging my camera backpack up two flights of stairs left me feeling pretty breathless, so I’m glad the view was worth the climb.

And it became apparent that something was brewing in the main square outside the presidential palace. Crowds had gathered for a weekly event, the changing of the guard, which is overseen by the Ecuadorian president. This being so, people use it as an opportunity to stage protest rallies – there were several groups shouting out about their particular grievances before the guard change took place. It was a colourful, noisy scene

with marching bands of the guards taking the weekly pledge to guard the president, Lenin Moreno (the chap in the wheelchair) who was watching the proceedings from a balcony in his palace.

I captured a lot of video of the proceedings, but you’ll have to wait until I can produce some kind of edited footage. It was good to have seen this piece of weekly theatre, anyway.

After this excitement, it was time to depart for the actual equator, which, for those who didn’t pay attention in geography lessons in school, is what gave Ecuador its name. There’s an attraction called the Intiñan Solar Museum, some 40 minutes drive north of the city. It’s a bit cheesy, but guided tours ensure you get a few nuggets of science and history out of a visit.

Today’s Ecuador was shaped mainly by invading Spanish forces, who arrived in the 16th Century, only a few decades after the Incas. The indigenous peoples (who predated the Incas by many thousands of years) were of several tribes, but had worked out that this region was on the Equator. They called it “the middle of the world” which sounds presumptuous, since the equator passes through land in other places, of course. However, pride of place is claimed on the basis that Ecuador’s equatorial altitude is higher than any of the others – the assertion is made that one is thus typically two pounds lighter standing on the equator line here than at sea level.

There is, of course, a line marked in the ground to show where the equator runs. Yes, you can have your photo taken on it. No, I’m not going to share it. You can have this one instead.

The tour offers some demonstrations and challenges for visitors’ amusement:

Coriolis force is demonstrated by emptying a bath through a central plughole into a bucket. On the equator, the water goes straight out of the plughole without rotation, whereas either side of the line it rotates as it leaves the bath. (This demo was somewhat fixed in my view, but, hey, it’s a bit of fun.)
Visitors are challenged to walk the equator line (heel-and-toe) with eyes closed. Since I can hardly even stand on one leg with eyes open, there was no point in my trying this.
Another challenge is to balance an egg on the head of a nail. Jane was successful, not just once but twice

and got a certificate for it, too.

As well as all of the flummery around the equatorness of the place, some serious nuggets can be gleaned about the indigenous pre-Inca inhabitants. Apart from anything else, the Shuar people (part of the Jivaro tribe) were headshrinkers, and the process of headshrinking is described: decapitate the subject; remove and discard the skull; seal the lips, eyes and nose; simmer the head in a boiling pot for a couple of hours; dry and smoke the head; and finally brandish the head on a spear (to scare others if subject had been an enemy), or wear it as a necklace (if subject had been a respected person). Whatever, the result looks like this.

On the way back from this museum, we even caught sight of Quito’s best-known volcano, Cotopaxi.

Paul had one more delight for us; a visit to a hill call El Panecillo, which features on it a giant statue of the Virgin Mary, the only one sporting wings (based on text describing the Woman of the Apocalypse in the book of Revelation in the Bible). You can see the statue in the background of the first picture in this post. From the top of the hill where the statue stands, you have a 360° view across Quito, and you see what a sprawling place it is.

Quito is a remarkable place, one I’m glad to have seen, although not necessarily one I’d be keen to walk around by myself, particularly at night. The hotel was lovely, and our guide Paul did a great job in making sure that we’d been able to see and understand some important aspects of its life, history and culture.

Steve Walker

Photography/Videography Hobbyist; Travel Enthusiast

Tag Archives: Architecture

Oy, Oy, Ollantaytambo – a day in the Sacred Valley

Lima – Bean there, done that

Quito marvellous day out