Elise in Central America: Sunday ADVENTURE, Part 2

So the other thing Pisac is famous for is its ruins. According to Frommers, little is conclusively known about the site's actual purpose. It appears to have been part city, part ceremonial center, and part military complex. It may have been a royal estate of the Inca emperor (Pachacútec), and it was definitely a religious temple. Regardless, they were very cool because they went on and on as we walked all over various mountains.

A couple obstacles- first, Roots was playing great trance music all night, so we didn't make it home until pretty late and were quite sleep deprived all day. Secondly, it cost big money to enter the ruins, money we didn't have, so we had to find a way to sneak in. After talking with some locals, we were dropped in the middle of the mountains and our driver basically pointed up. So the first half of journey we created on our own- walking through people's farms, and cacti while trying not to create an avalanche for the person below us (so many rocks and loose gravel...). ALL WITH A GUITAR!! Anyway, it was a true adventure, one that left three out of the four of us bleeding, legs shaking, and truly amazed with our bodies for performing at such a high level after we disrespected them so badly the night before.

Tons of pictures of Incan ruins... READY SET GO!

Our adventure begins- note the guitar Naser is carrying. It came with us the entire journey (on my back for much of the hike). Also note that Naser looks a little like a crazy person, but is actually fairly normal.

SO MUCH CACTUS... a lot ended up in my leg

This shrine was in the middle of nowhere... weird

WE JUST SCALED A MOUNTAIN!

That's what we scaled (from the road)... this picture doesn't do it justice

Templo del Sol

A close up- the circle in the middle is Intihuatana, an Incan sun dial

Alex and I were incredibly awkwardly balanced, as noted by the leg positions and facial expressions

Our ruin models- and yes Naser's pants were made from a used rug (or so we'd like to think)

The model on the trashcan shook her hip with sass while throwing away her trash- so Alex did too!

More awkwardly balanced poses...

These are andenes, or terraces dug into the slopes of mountains for agricultural purposes. In the Peruvian Andes very narrow and deep valleys are quite common, and they impeded the existence of agriculture. The ancient Andeans, who needed additional farmland, attempted to gain that land at the cost of the mountains and created the first andenes. Eventually the Incans refined the technique of construction of the andenes, incorporating layers of different materials to the filling, in order to better control drainage. A close up: