Machu Picchu continued...

After a long day hiking and having our first views of Machu Picchu, we spent the night in Aguas Calientes.  We showered, had dinner and then pretty much went to bed as we had an early start the next day as well.

The following day we left for the ruins at 6 am and spent 7 hours exploring the entire Machupicchu site.  Our guide gave us a tour for a few hours first thing and then we had time on our own to continue exploring. Here is our experience in a nutshell.  A very big nutshell as we took A LOT of photos.  

Oh, hey, look what is happening up at Machupicchu?  Seems appropriate with all the stones around.

Here is one of my favorite photos.  We arrived very early and so some of the photos had great lighting with the early morning sun.  This is one of them.  This shows the lower half of the ruins.  The photo was taken close to the first part of the ruins after you enter.

As you enter you can either go to the upper part of the ruins or down to the lower part of the ruins.  I'll post the photos in a circular manner heading up and around, ending back at the beginning by the lower part.

In the forefront is the housing section for the upper class citizens, past that is the "temple square".  That is what I call it since it had multiple temples together and at the far back set on a hill is the temple of the sun dial.

This is looking back up at the upper part from the lower part.  All I can say is that is a lot of rocks!

This house is one of the highest structures.  The roof is a reconstruction of what they believe the roofs were like back in 1450-1550 AD when they believe Machupicchu was constructed.

Here you can see the solitary house sitting at the top of the argricultural terraces.

The top photo shows "temple square"  You have two temples near each other.  The building in the forefront is not a temple as it isn't built using the smooth stone and near perfect fit without mortar.  Our guide told us they reserved that building standard for temples or palaces but they did not use it for every day buildings.

Above you can see the hill behind "temple square" where the temple with the granite rock being used as a sun dial is located.

Below you can see some close up photos of these temples

 This temple sustained some damage from the last really big major earthquake they had here in Peru back in 1950.  In both photos you can just barely make out a chinchilla sunning himself in the top opening second from the right.  I got some close up photos as well that I will post later in the blog.

This temple is famous for it's windows.  They are cut in a rectangular shape and yet the shadows they cast are square.  We were not there during the time of day when you could see this however.

   

Here is a close up of the granite rock the guide said the Incas used as a sun dial.

From here you walk down into the big green space and you can get a good view of the high mountain on the western side of Machupicchu called Huaynapicchu and the "face" they say the mountain peaks form.

Overlooking the green area that runs down the middle of Machu Picchu

 Hopefully you can see some of the terraces and ruins upon Huaynapicchu, probably in the photo below.  You can pay extra and hike up to the top of this mountain.  It is a very steep and dangerous climb.  We decided to forego that experience.

The photo below shows the "face" formed by the mountains, but you really have to look sideways at it.  Imagine the photo turned counter clockwise and you can make out the large nose (the tallest mt.) and the jutting chin (the mt. farthest to the left) and the small mountains in the middle form the mouth.  It's a stretch but you can see it when you are there in person.

From the sun dial temple we walked across the green area over to where the two house are showing in the picture above.  There they show you what is called "roca sagrada" or sacred rock.  It is a large granite rock that apparently held some sort of significance to the Incas due to the fact that it mirrored the shape of the mountain range behind it.

 Hopefully in these photos you can see how these two rocks have the same outlines as the mountains behind them.  Apparently, according to our guide, the Incas put a lot of stock in the natural formation of these rocks reflecting the shape of the mountains behind them.  The photo below has Huaynapicchu behind this granite rock.

As we headed back the other was to view the lower section of the ruins, we could look back across the valley and see the Sun Gate (Intipunku) high up on the mountain where we had been the day before.  I tried to zoom in and get a good view and this was the best I could get.  You couldn't see any of this with the naked eye.  I could barely make out the two columns that formed the sun gate from where we were at in Machupicchu.

I was quite surprised to see the terraces below.  We didn't catch a glimpse of those when we were on top.  Now, on to the lower half of the ruins...

This is a good photo showing the upper level of the lower half.  Here are some close up shots.

We didn't explore this section much.  So can't tell you much about it.  

There were a number of temples and altars in this section.  The Sun Temple probably is right in the middle of everything.  This is the temple that the sun rays enter the window perfectly from the Sun Gate as it rises over Intipunku on the summer solstice, Dec. 21 or 22.

You can see that they built it on top of a natural granite slab.  You can see how smooth the stone is and how perfect the fit is.  This makes it clear that this building is very important.

 Above is a photo of the Temple to the Condor.  They used two granite slabs that looked like the bird's wings and then a granite slab on the ground in the middle of the wings that represents the head of the condor so it forms a condor in flight.  Below is a close up of the stone representing the condor head.

Below is another granite slab that was used as an altar.  The Incas seemed to really prize the natural granite slab that formed part of the mountain.  It was viewed as sacred, and they seemed to try to incorporate this stone into their temples, either as altars or as part of the actual temple.

 Below is something very interesting, water mirrors.  Our guide told us the Incas would use it to observe the heavens, the constellations and other astronomical events.

After awhile, I'll have to admit that I began to feel I was surrounded by stone and rocks.  So much everywhere!

In this section we were able to get a good idea of three construction techniques of the Incas that were very impressive.  One was how they would carve stairs directly into the granite stone.

Another was their earthquake prevention techniques.  The guide told us they would purposefully leave gaps between the rocks so there would be some give during the shaking that an earthquake would cause.  Here is one place where you could see that type of construction.

Throughout the ruins you constantly see stones sticking out from the buildings.  We found out those were used to tie the roof coverings to.  Here are some photos demonstrating this.

How the ruins are now and below how they believe the Incas constructed their roofs.

Their canal system for managing the water was very impressive.  Dave was quite fascinated by that and took many photos.  Here are the best ones.

From the bottom half we could look up and get a different perspective of the ruins we had already seen.  Below is the temple of the three rectangular windows from below.  You can see they used some pretty big blocks of stone and that it is fairly smooth rock that is well fitted.  This temple's rock really stands out from the other buildings at the site for those reasons

Below is a different viewpoint of the Temple of the Sun

 Below is the view looking back to the very beginning where a lot of the agricultural terraces are located.

In the lower part is a section of ruins that have not been restored yet.  We saw many workers in different parts of the ruins working on restoring and maintaining what is there.

Since we spent 7 hours exploring the ruins the second day, we had packed a lunch and took a break, sat and enjoyed the spectacular view while we ate.  Don't want to make anyone too jealous, but here is what we got to enjoy.

Speaking of spectacular views, Darci & Eric, how would you have liked one of these scenarios?

 A reception at the Machupicchu Lodge?  Or maybe on top of Huaynapicchu Mt.?

Since that didn't happen, you could always celebrate your two year anniversary down here!

Here are photos of some of the animal life we saw at the ruins.

 The llamas are there more for photo ops than anything else.

 But this little critter is in his natural habitat.  We saw a couple of these guys, but only caught this one as he peeked out between the rocks.

 And this is the chinchilla. He was sunning himself right on the temple walls of "temple square".  He didn't seem too impressed that he was on sacred ground to the Incas.

We feel like Machupicchu lived up to its billing.  It truly is a spectacular natural wonder.  The scientists estimate it was built between 1450 - 1550 AD, so not much before the Spanish invaded the Americas.  However, the Spanairds never reached Machupicchu so it was left relatively intact and not destroyed by the conquistadores.  Hiram Bingham, a Utahan, is credited with discovering the ruins in 1911.

On our way back to Aguas Calientes, we got off the bus and visited a museum.  After visiting there we had the impression that it has really only been since the 1970´s & 80´s that Machupicchu has become a celebrated tourist destination.  In fact, Wikipedia says that in 1976 only 30% had been restored.  It also says that in 2007 it was voted one of the new seven wonders of the world.

When we got our mission call and saw that we were assigned to Cusco, Peru, we realized we would have the opportunity to visit this amazing part of the world.  It is no wonder that people from all over the world are drawn to visit Machupicchu.  Since the Spaniards never reached this Inca location it has helped to keep it preserved so well.  It truly is the crown jewel of the Inca sites.  Come visit us!  We will be your tour guides.  Our English is a lot better than the English our native tour guide had.  Oh, here is our guide, just so we can remember.

Our walk back to Aguas Calientes gave us a chance to admire the river, the granite mountains and the flora of the semi-tropical climate.  

Bridge we crossed after seeing the museum.

 See why we feel like Peru reminds us of Utah?  Granite mountains and towering peaks, although, to me, they seem to tower much higher than any peak in Utah and they are greener.

We don't see a lot of flowers in Cusco, maybe because we've been here during the dry season, but whenever we go to lower elevations, all of a sudden we see a lot more flowering plants.  Here is a sampling.  Since we don't see many flowers, our appreciation and admiration of their beauty has increased.

Hydrangeas!!  I love those flowers.

A strange version of the Bird of Paradise flower

 Above and below are samples of the flowers we saw during our hike.  The top one is a type of orchid.  Our guide told us the name, but I have already forgotten it, except that the translation of the name means screaming mouth as the flower when open has that appearance.

Below is a view of Aguas Calientes as we walked back towards it the second day.

The river runs right through town and makes it a very picturesque place

Below is a fountain with an Inca and two of the three Inca diety symbols, the condor, and the puma.  The other is a snake and maybe it is there in the statue and I just missed it.

Upon our return we still had a number of hours before our train left so we visited the hot springs in town.  It was another hike just to get to that!

Dave in front of the entrance to the hot springs.  From there it was still a good hike up the hill before we reached the hot springs.

Ever see a banana tree?  Here the photo shows they grow upside down

Avocados or paltas as they call them here

Dave being attacked by the killer plants.  Down here a very popular kids video game is Plants vs. Zombies we´ve learned.

How´s that for a backdrop while sitting in a hot tub?

We returned to Cusco very late, 10:30 pm and very tired.  Two long days, but oh, what an adventure!

It was back to serious missionary work after that.  I was finally feeling better and able to put in a full day's work so I was anxious to be busy.

Monday we hosted our fourth group of returning missionaries and this was just as big as the last time - 24 missionaries all together.  We didn't have much time to prepare, so it's a good thing we have some experience under our belt now.  We were on our own for the whole morning as Carlos & Javier had traveled to Puno to take care of some self-reliance business and were traveling back that morning so they could do their presentation during the afternoon.  Here is the latest group we taught.

We still don't know a lot of them, but this group had a few that we've worked with quite a bit.  Sister Ostler, from Oregon is in the back in the green dress.  She was the sister leader here in Cusco and was here when we arrived in June so we've known her for about six months.  Also in the front row is Elder Bazan (first on the left).  He attended our English class in Inti Raymi zone.  He is part Chinese.  Two over from him is Elder Harrison, who worked in the mission office for awhile and that is how we know him.  Also behind Elder Bazan (first on the left in the second row) is Elder Haderlie, who was serving as the zone leader of the Cusco zone this last little bit.  Elder Cardozo who served in Izcuchaca for his last area is standing next to Hermana Ostler.  He was a hard working missionary from Paraguay, who had a booming singing voice that he wasn't afraid to use.  Our first contact with him was out in Izcuchaca where he and his companion sang a special musical number for the little family group there.  They sang a hymn in Spanish, English and Guarani, the indian dialect from Paraguay.  He also came to our English class for the Cusco zone missionaries.  We really liked his spirit.

We also lost our help at the center with this transfer.  Both of our crippled sister missionaries have improved enough that they are back to full-time proselyting and both were transferred to new areas, Sister Camacho to Sicuani, two and a half hours away and Sister Sanchez to our home ward, Tullumayo, so we will still see her.  They were such a great help to us at the center.  We just need to find some permanent volunteers to do what these sister missionaries did for us.

We finally made it to visit a sister in the Picchu ward whom the elders had told us about before I had gotten sick.  Her name is Nilda and she has started a laundry service but is struggling to make it work.  When we visited her, we found out that she really doesn't know what she is doing.  Here, it is very common that people will see a friend with a business that is succeeding and say to themselves, "I can do that" and without much forethought or planning, make a sign and open their doors and think that somehow things will work out.  That is about what she has done.  She is a single mom with four kids and needs to bring in some income.  We have a lot we need to teach her.  After getting a better idea of where she is at, we told her we would think about things and pray for inspiration and get back to her.  One of the first impressions that came to me was how she needed to make flyers and take around to the hotels in her neighborhood in a marketing effort.

We also went by to see our other two families.  The Ponces are making good progress and doing the recommended things we've talked to them about.  The Cuadros are not.  We have not been able to get anywhere with them.  We can't even seem to find them when we go by their shop.  We have talked with their teenage daughter mostly.

For the first time in weeks, I was able to go to the center every day and to all English classes, even the evening classes.  We are now teaching Christmas songs to our class members and they are enjoying it.

We are so happy to be in this new apartment.  And I am happy this week as we finally got curtains on our windows.  We'd shopped around but really didn't want to pay a lot since we will only use them for about a year.  Well, we visited barrattio mercado on Saturday again and found these curtains for a price way below what we had been quoted by the curtain shops.

 Top photo is our study curtains and below is our living room curtains.  Same design just different colors.

We found a few more souvenirs at the market as well, and got sunburned in the process.  Life as a missionary in a third world country is never dull or boring.  

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  We must not compromise or dilute our commitment to the truths we understand.  We must not surrender our positions or our values.  The gospel of Jesus Christ and the covenants we have made inevitably cast us as combatants in the eternal contest between truth and error.  There is no middle ground in that contest.  Loving kindness is required, but a follower of Christ - just like the Master - will be firm in the truth.  Dallin H Oaks, "Loving Others and Living with Differences" October 2014 General Conference.