2/20/12 Urumamba Valley

We flew from Lima to Cusco on an early morning flight. We went from 80º weather to 50º and cloudy, from sea level to 11,200 ft at Cusco. Fortunately we had taken altitude sickness prevention pills which last three days. 

Starbucks in a traditional building - Cusco

Cusco Street

Coca Tea helps with mountain sickness

After an early lunch, we boarded buses for an eastern drive through the Urubamba Valley, part of the Sacred valley of the Incas. Quechua is the language the Andean people speak.

Weavers

Dyeing Display

We visited Awana Kancha, which means "the Palace of the Weaver" in Quechua. The founders of this place view it as the first "Living Museum of the Peruvian Ande". We were able to view the South America Camelid species, learn about traditional and modern weaving techniques and purchase goods made by the Andean people.

The Camelid were grazing in different areas of the farm. There are 4 species of South American Camelids: Llama, Alpaca, Vicuna, and Guanaco. They were not shy and would let people feed them.

Women had their children and grandchildren with them.

What Awana Kancha is...

House on grounds of Awana Kancha

We then drove through the countryside to Sol & Luna Lodge/Spa in Urubabmba. We each had a small cottage and the grounds are beautiful.

The day wasn't over yet! We were privileged to hear a lecture by Peter Frost who wrote Exploring Cusco, Insight Pocket Guide to Peru, and co-authored Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary with Jim Bartle.

Peter spoke about a variety of topics including geology, ancient cultures, architecture of the Incas, hydrology, agriculture, pottery, bronze work, textiles, sculpture, altitude, record keeping, and astronomy. Here are a few items he mentioned:

• The Andes mountains are young, are the longest mountain range in the world,  and are the 2nd highest mountain range in the world
• The Amazon river used to be trapped within the Andes, but it broke through to Atlantic
• The Nazca Tectonic Plate moved against the South American Tectonic Plate causing earth to rise creating the Andes.
• There are three climate regions in Peru: Costal, Highlands and Jungle.
• Peru is the size of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico put together!
• Peru has 1800 species of birds
• Caral people in 2700 BCE were isolated and worked with weaving unlike other peoples who worked with pottery
• Potatoes come from the Andes
• Corn first domesticated in Peru
• Coca was used at least by 8000 BCE
• Incas were masters of hydrology and terraces
• Incas had a sophisticated organization of labor and taxation
• Quipus were recording devices and usually consisted of colored, spun, and plied thread or strings from llama or alpaca hair. The cords contained numeric and other values encoded by knots in a base ten positional system.