On Tuesday we went on a group tour though three important Inca sites. First was the small town and ruins of Chinchero. Here were given a demonstration on indigenous crafting making with alpaca wool. Their produces was all natural. A root was grated a mixed with water too become really sudsy and perfectly clean the dirty wool. Then things like purple corn, coca leaves, and this bacteria that grows on cacti were mixed with boiling water to make dyes. They were intensified when mixed with a little salt or like juice. Pretty cool. Afterwards we walked out to the ruins.
Next we headed out further into the countryside (some of the most beautiful landscape in the world) to Moray, an amazing archaeological sites. Here the Incas built sets of terraces to experiment with genetic modification/experimentation of their potatoe crops (kelly holdIng some In pIc). Each the 4 sections of the sites somehow miraculously/ingeniously reflected the 4 climates of the 4 regions of the incan kingdom. And each terrace has its own microclimate. so thIs place was basIcally an agricultural labratory. The incan were brilliant. On the way to the site we also saw large man made lakes the Inca created to keep their crops warm during freezing weather. Brilliant. And the backdrop for this site was an expansive section of the sacred valley....rolling green hills, deep valley, backed by huge snow/cloud capped Andes mountains.
Last we went halfway down into a valley to the Inca salt mines of Maras that are still in use today. The Inca really had it all figured out. A hot spring feeds into the particular soil to produce salt. The terrace up the hillside and flood the place in the wet season. The overflow crusts up on the walls as pure salt and they bag it up. There was a woman doing this while er we there (see pic)
This was a really good tour. It would have been a challenge to find their places on or own
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