Sacred Valley of the Incas

After limping our way out of the Colca Canyon we finally made it to Cusco for a brief moment and then went to
Pisac to look for a place to settle in for a few weeks of recovering and catching up with school.

Translation please!
It means that if you are not a guest to the hotel and enter the premises, you will be massacred and thrown
into the river.   I dare you boys!
   

Peru's Independence Day in Pisac . The march was led by the community leaders 

Go that kid with his AK47 toy gun

Main street in Pisac.

Just miss the full moon but got a good picture anyway.

Up in the hills behind Pisac City there is Pisac Citadel laying on a triangular plateau with a plunging gorge on either
side. Take a look at the diagonal flights of stairs made out of flagstones set into the terrace walls.

These were the food storage sheds with underground natural ventilation to keep the food dry and cool for
longer preservation also the location of the building was as important to take advantage of the cold air currents.
This technique was widely used through out the whole Empire.

Army head quarters

Stunning views.

Lookout Post.

From the lookout post.

From the lookout post looking into Pisac centre of town.
We live two blocks away from the big Tree.
All the white looking roofs are the market stalls that had taken over the town.

At the entrance to the town you had to go through check point. 

Inca terraces they were made for agricultural purpose .
Inside they had 3 layers with different types of soil. The top layer was rich soil, the middle layer was rich soil with
small pebbles and the bottom layer was rocks and pebbles for water drainage.

Louise in the sunny courtyard.

Question:  Is it the sun or the moon?

In the town of Chincheros.
Where you can still witness  genuine (trueco) Bartering by the locals at the Sunday markets.
The lady on the right was bartering lima beans for green vegetables just like in the times before
money was created.

These are the terraces of Moray near the town of Maras.
Again we were very lucky to arrive just in time for the (Pago a la Pachamama festival) Pay to Mother Earth festival.
Which is held on the first Sunday in August.   Also known as the Moray Raymi.

The terraces of Moray are carved into a huge earthen bowl, each layer of which has it's own micro climate
according on how deep into the centre it is. The Incas used these terraces as an agricultural laboratory to determine
the optimal conditions for growing crops and most importantly also to be able to domesticate  new crops into new
types of climates by planting crops in their according climate and picking up the best results and moving them into
the next level climate, harvest again two or three times and then moving the crop to the next climate, the locals reckon
that the Incas were able to grow sugar cane in Maras , mind you Maras is at 3500m above sea level.

Impressive show.

The height differences  between top and bottom is 30m
The temperature differences between top and bottom could be up to 15 degrees.

According to the indigenous people, Pachamama (Mother Earth) is a living god and she enjoys being given
an offering back.

Coca leaves, corn beer, cotton, legumes, fruits and vegetables were on offering.

This is the Salinas an amazing sight I was not prepared for.

Hola Mama estamos todos bien.   Un beso para ti y para mi Papa los quiero mucho.
Hello Mum we are all good.  Big kiss for You and for Dad. Love you lots.

For centuries The Incas had harvest the salt that comes from a small underground spring at the top of the Sacred Valley
There is a maze of small channels of heavily salted water that run into salt pans and then evaporates leaving the salt for harvest.
Each salt pan belongs to a different person and that person is part of a co-operative that commercialises the salt.
That way just about every one in the town has a small income.

Madeline buying a salt figure.

From these two girls