Por fin, apprendimos champa pasada. Ahorra, puedo
habla casos en el pasado. Well I´m happy to say that
while I was away, SixFingerFist was able to get
another movie up, even without me! Amazing. Go check
out the new film at www.sixfingerfist.com
<–shameless plug.

Pues las ruinas de Pisaq were really cool looking. As
was all of the Sacred Valley. It{s called the sacred
valley because it is positioned between two other
valleys and stays warm all year around. It´s also a
perfect stronghold, having look out points on either
valley.

We got up early to make the bus at 9am and
then we were off. it was Sam, Marlena, me and this
Argentinian woman we didn´t know but who turned out to
be very nice and knowledgable in Quezchuan culture.
the Quezchuans are the Inca people. Actually Inca is
an incorrect name for the Incans. Only one man could
be Inca and that was the king of the people and of the
empire.

There were many dirrent types of people,
named mostly for where they lived like the Quezchuan
and the Nazca and so on. The actual Incan empire is
thought to have reigned for a mere hundred years from
1450s to when the spanish came and conquered them in
1550s. Not all of the ruins we see today were built
in that time, some are much older and others were
never finished because of the invasion.

The guide was peruvian but took a vote and english was
the chosen language he spoke on the bus. He was
pretty knowledgable and had a sly sarcastic humor
which made the long bus rides more fun. I say long,
but they were really only 45 minutes max at one time.

OUr first stop was the Pisaq market which is the
biggest local market in the area, with tons of shops
attended by locals with souvenirs, alpaca clothes and
the like. We noticed the further back you go into the
market, the cheaper things get. I bought a row or
different grains in corns. They are in small plasti
bags, attatched to each other and running down into a
long strip They have over 800 different kinds of corn
here and hundreds of types of potatoes as well. The
teired algricultural plots of the Quezchuans created
microtemperatures at each level changing the size,
color, and flavor of all of the vegetables.

Since
I´ve been here, I´ve eaten huge cholo maize which is
bright yellow with kernals bigger then your thumbnail,
and tiny purle corn and even drank maize murido which
is a purple corn drink. If you have it with pine
)pineapple) it´s really good!

After the market, we
went up to the ruins which lie above the valley of
Pisaq. The ruins are difficult to explain because
it{s something you really have to see. The teired
fields go up the side of the mountain, with blocked
steps sticking out of the side so that the farmers
could move from one level to the next. at the top of
the mountain is the fortification and what they
believe are living quarters. Pretty much all
knowledge about the Inca culture is theory since they
had no written record and most statues and frieses
were destroyed by the catholics while they tried to
convert the people.

Being over 500 years old, the
ruins are in remarkable shape. The Incans had a knack
for carving stone and made sure the stones fit
perfectly by cutting knotches like puzzle peices on
the insides of them. On the outside, they fit
together nearly seemlessly and you can rub your hand
along a wall and never feel any bumps. It´s quite
amazing.

At the ruins of Ollantaytambo, which we saw
later in the day, there is a spot where you can see
just how polished the stones might have been in Inca
times. They theorize the stones were as smooth as
glass in the temple areas. Like the Nazca, the
Quezchuans also observed animals as being sacred and
holy and seeing them in the night sky, recreated their
likenesses on the ground. The ruins of Ollantaytambo
are in a noticable Llama shape, the ruins of Cuzco and
Sacsayhuaman are in the shape of a Puma. They are
also remarkably strong and there are smaller stones
between much larger stones in some areas to prevent
(hey think) destruction by earthquake. During a huge
earthquake in Cuzco sometime last century, the
entirety of the modern cathedral fell along with many
homes, but the Inca walls were unmoved.

In Cuzco
there is a famous stone that has 12 sides to it, a
testament of how anal they were about blocs being a
perfect fit.

We had lunch in Urubamba in a nice restaurant which
served us our very own buffet. I{m usually wary of
buffets in general, especially any in Peru, but they
said it was supposed to be safe and they were in
large, deep, pots rather then the metal pans you see
in the states. And they were kept warm by actualy
stove fires underneath. I ate like four courses and
gorged myself. It was actually nice to have the long
walks in Ollantaytambo ruins afterwards to digest
quicker.

Many, in fact all of these ruins are thought
to have calendar puroses to them, but if you ask me,
that{s just the archeologists go-to theory, “Oh, it´s
obviously some kind of simple yet complex calendar
system.” They say this because there is a certain
window which shines light on certain parts of a wall
at certain times of the year.

Well, in my bedroom,
every June 21st at the summer soltice, the light
shines perfectly on my door knob. That´s the way I
planned it. I think some of the theories might be
true, but some of them are very far fetched.

OUr last was Chincherro, a small village where some
incan ruins still stand but most rocks were taken away
to use for colonial construction. There is a large
church there with amazing murals depicting the
struggle of the Inca against spanish invasion. Of
course it’s told the other way around with the
spaniards as the heros.

OUtside of the church, there
is a large market which was extremely cheap and I
picked me up a nice dagger with a face embossed in the
hilt. It has hair and even actual Alpaca teeth. WHen
you open the blade, the mouth opens as well, it´s
pretty cool.

We got back to Cuzco around 9 and even though we´d
gorged ourselves at lunch, we got dinner at Jacks Cafe
and had a few drinks. MOnday morning, I went to
school and had a totally new class. Unfortunately,
they{re not as much fun as last week, but I guess I
can deal. Ooh, I keep forgetting to tell you about
the awesome food here. Everything is fresh and
probably picked the day before if not the same day you
eat it. It´s sooo much better then American food. My
host family has cooked things like avocados stuffed
with vegetables, chicken and some strange curry like
sauce that´s fantasctic. Muchas papas y huevos y
jelatin, muchos typos de maize y sopas y platanos con
miel, sooo good.

During the day, I went over to the
travel agency to talk about booking our amazon trip.
Then went home, ate, and took my typical afternoon nap
before returing to school. After class, Sam and I
went to Mythology to see a movie. They don{t have
proper cinemas here, but during the day, the clubs are
turned into movie theaters with large tvs and
projector screens showing any kind of pirated movie
you could hope for. It´s pretty cool, you feel like a
celebrity. You walk in and they say what movie you
want to see, just pick any one, you pick it, go into
your own private screening room, which oddly enough
was the same room we were dancing hip hop in on
friday. For 20 soles (roughly 7 bucks), you get your
private movie and theater, two course dinner with
drinks including vodka which is what I got. It was
good food too! We watched Ocean´s 13 which is a
pretty enjoyable movie and I´d reccomend to anyone.

Afterwards, we went off to Uptown where we met up with
Jenny and learned some more salsa. I might just go
there almost everyday this week. I just hope i can
remember all the nrew moves I´m learning. Alright,
time to go home para almuerzo.
Ciao.