First a little bit about the Inca Empire and Culture. The "Empire of the Sun" began in the 1100s AD but the height of the empire was from 1400 to 1575 AD. In 1438 Prince Yupanqui leads the Inca army to defeat the Chancas after his father (8th King) and brother fled. Yupanqui ascends to be the 9th Inca king, his new name was Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, Pachacuti in Quechan means "He who transforms". Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire and Pachacuti rebuild the city with a new central plaza Huacapata (Holy Place).
In the 1400s, the Empire grew to include modern day Ecuador, Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, and parts of Chile and Argentina, with a population of about 16M. The Incas communicated by a system of roads. Long distance runners (cheskes) delivered messages between population centers. The people lived by the philosophy "I help you today, you help me tomorrow". When the Incas conquered a people they insisted that the Sun God be worshiped, that the Quechua language be spoken and imposed 3 rules: 1) don't steal, 2) don't be lazy and 3) don't lie. The Incas had musical instruments and pentatonic music. They had oral literature and poetry. The Spanish later recorded some of this in Spanish.
The Incan fortress Ollantaytambo was begun by Pachacuti as a royal estate. It probably took or 100K workers. Taxes in the Inca Empire were paid in labor.
The town has areas which are much like what an Inca town would look like, with narrow roads and basic architecture.
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| View of town street from bus. |
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| Pre-Incan Architecture |
The Ollantaytambo fortress buildings on Temple Hill were never completed. There are lots of large stones on the ground, too many to fit in the current architecture so there probably was another building.
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| We walked part way up the terraces to where the people in green are. |
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| View of the town from the terraces. |
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| Storehouses on Pinkuylluna Hill |
The ventilated store houses were high on the mountain where it was cool and breezy. They were kept to avoid famine when crop yields were poor. Our tour guide thought they looked like "Your tax $$ at work".
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| Bano de la Nusta - Bath of the Princess |
This fountain has a magical property (or an interesting engineering feature). If you run your finger along the edge where the water comes down, the water stops. It is started by the same procedure. The step carvings indicate levels of life. The top level (condor) is where you go when you die, the mid-level (puma) is where we are, and the lower level (serpent) is where your body ends up.
As we walked to the buses we were met by several street vendors selling jewelry and other items. One was named Kevin Cosner, one Angelica, and one Pablo Picasso. When Diane told Angelica "No thank you" she responded "Maybe later?" Diane laughed and said "Sure, maybe later." Little did we know that these folks would follow our buses until we flew out of Cusco. We returned to the Sol y Luna Lodge which has an area called Wayra where there is a restaurant, art exhibits, and an area for cultural activities. 
Later in the morning, we watched weaving demonstrations. A group of weavers was formed in the 1970s to work together with the mission of reviving ancient Chinchero weaving styles and techniques. 
They joined The Center for Traditional Textiles of Chinchero in Cusco ("Awayricch'arichiq") in 1996 whose mission is to ensure that the ancient traditions of textiles would not be lost. The objectives of the weavers are: to weave ancient patters, revive use of natural dyes, use natural fibers, reintroduce traditional dress/textiles in the home and collectively commercialize their textiles for sustainable income.
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| After a huge and delicious lunch, we saw a Paso horse demonstration. |
Later we went to a pottery studio, toured the sculpting, drying and painting areas. Seminario Ceramic Studio has been dedicated to the discovery
of techniques and designs from ancient Peruvian cultures. Pablo Seminario
presents a new art expression, providing continuity to these cultural
inheritances. Pablo and his artist wife Marilú live in the town of Urubamba where
they are dedicated to sculpting the red clay found in the Sacred Valley.
Pablo's work has been exhibited in the National Museum of the American Indian
(Smithsonian) in the US.
In the evening, we enjoyed folkloric music (flutes/drums/voice) and dances. A vignette "Gods of the Andes" was presented, with some of the actors on stilts. The story was of the gods squabbling but unified by the God of Abundance and Prosperity (Ekeko).
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| Actor on stilts |
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