Discovery Friday, April 28, 2023
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G O I N G P L A C E S, N E A R & F A R ....
Incan Sites of Pisac, Ollantaytambo in Peru’s Sacred Valley are Preview to Machu Picchu Continued from previous page buried in caves with their belongings so they would have them for the next world. The king and nobles, though, were mummified and put into a mausoleum. We also see the remains of pre-Incan cliff dwellings. “They were afraid of cannibals” who believed they could ingest their victim’s power. “It was practiced until the mid-1800s.” Also, 1000-2000 years ago, there more wild animals and the people lived in cliffs to be safe. We drive down into the town of Pisac which was built in the valley below the ruins by Viceroy Toledo in the 1570s, where Eric has found a local Andean restaurant online for lunch. Pisac is famous for its market. Official market days are Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday filling the Plaza Constitución but the market is busiest on Sunday when indigenous Quechua communities from the surrounding area come to town to sell their produce and stock up on supplies for the week. We have very little time to explore the market. (We need to be back in Cuzco at 6 pm for our mandatory orientation for the Alpaca Expeditions trek to Machu Picchu.) We would also have liked time to visit the museum, Comunitario de Pisac, which opened in 2009 with exhibits on the production of ceramics and the traditional textiles produced by
local Quechua communities. A room is dedicated to the Incan presence in the area covering its development from the archaic period (7,000 to 800 BC) to the period of imperial expansion of the Inca state (1400 to 1535). The museum includes a graphical presentation of the various areas of the imperial city, as well as various ceramic objects and remains (including Incan mummies). Ollantaytambo After lunch, we drive 1 ½ hours further to Ollantaytambo, a fascinating and massive Incan site built during the Inca’s heyday which provides an excellent preview of what we will experience at Machu Picchu. Here, we see rock formations representing the Incan god, Wiracocha (the god of creation) and the Church of St. James on top of Inca site. The large boulders, 40-50 tons each, were so finely finished with curved and convex edges and placed, indicate that this structure would have been the temple; boulders that are basically piled up show that it was never finished. He points out the slight angle of the wall – meant to for stability in the event of an earthquake. “They believed rocks were beings,” Jamie says. “From the quarry to the structure they may whip the rock (rather than the person)” to get it to cooperate. There would have been a model of the structure they were building in ceramic or stone at the quarry and most of the carving would have been done there, where there was more room, the
finishing touches would be done at the site. We can see the two quarries in the distance, but it is unfathomable how they managed to move these multi-ton boulders. At the Temple of Water, we see how the Inca used water for irrigation as well as for drinking. The window opening was cut to align with the solstice, and water, diverted from the river, would be directed back into the channel. I was concerned that I was huffing and puffing climbing around the site – realizing this was part of my acclimation to the altitude but anxious that it did not bode well for the Inca Trail trek we would be starting the next morning. I half imagined the Alpaca Expeditions guide would tap me on the shoulder and tell me I wasn’t suited for the trek. You could easily spend 2-4 hours here – there is so much to explore – and then spend time in the gorgeous market in the absolutely charming village with its hardware stores, kitchen and home supplies. But we have to rush back – it’s about 3 hours drive back to Cuzco – to get to our mandatory 6 pm orientation at Alpaca Expeditions’ offices for our Inca Trail trek. The next morning, when our bus taking our group to the start of the Inca Trail trek stops in this very village to pick up a couple from their hotel here, we realize we could have organized our tour differently – done the orientation the night we arrived and stayed overnight in Ollantaytambo. Then we could
have had more time to really enjoy the site and the village and instead of getting picked up at our hotel in Cuzco at 4 am could have been picked up here at 6 am. (In this scenario, we still would have left our luggage back at the Amaru Inca hotel in Cuzco where we will return after the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu trek, and just had with us what we were taking on the trek.) It is also possible to combine a stay in Ollantaytambo with Machu Picchu without doing the four-day Inca Trail trek. Alpaca Expeditions has various tour options with shorter or no hiking. The permits to do the Inca Trail trek are limited to just 200 trekkers a day and get booked up months in advance. To see all the options for touring, visit Alpaca Expeditions, USA Phone: 202550-8534, info@alpacaexpeditions.com, https://www.alpacaexpeditions.com/ To check with the US State Department to get the latest information on travel to Peru: https://travel.state. gov/content/travel/en/internationaltravel/International-Travel-CountryInformation-Pages/Peru.html. Next: Trekking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu __________________________________ © 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear. com
E V E R Y D A Y C H E A P S K A T E
Small Efforts Repeated Equal Big Savings BY MARY HUNT
Next to the rent or mortgage payment, food is likely your biggest household expense. And have you noticed food prices steadily creeping into the stratosphere? A little here, some more there doesn’t seem too bad until you get through the checkout. Wow, $100 doesn’t go so far these days! But you can make it go a lot further if you will diligently stick to a few sage guidelines. I won’t say these are new ideas. In fact, these are the things we learned from our grandparents -- especially those who lived through the Great Depression! It’s good for us to remember what we’ve learned in order to stay sharp and resolute. No. 1: Don’t shop hungry. Studies find you will spend at least 17% more for the simple reason that everything in the store looks so good! No. 2: Shop with a list. Get tough on yourself. If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t
go in the shopping cart. Even if you see all kinds of great “bargains” you didn’t know you needed before you saw them, stop and think. Then walk on by. If it’s that important, you can come back later. No. 3: Prepare your list. Make your list at home using the store’s weekly sales ad. Build your menus around what’s on sale. As far as possible, buy only what’s on sale. Make do. Get creative. No. 4: Concentrate on the loss-leaders. These are the items that are deeply discounted to lure you through the doors and into an impulsive shopping mood. No. 5: Know your prices. Keep a written record of the regular per-unit prices of the items you buy most often so you’ll know whether a special is a bargain. Many times, specials have nothing to do with a sale but more to do with a marketing campaign.
No. 6: Buy in season. Fruits and vegetables will be the best quality and the lowest price when they are in season. No. 7: Shop with cash. Take only the amount of cash you have decided to spend on this trip. Leave the checkbook and that wallet filled with plastic at home. If you come across a fabulous bargain and don’t have enough cash, you can always return later with more cash to stock up. No. 8: Carry a calculator. Keep a running total of your items in your cart so you can keep track of where you are and to avoid checkout embarrassment. No. 9: Shop at larger stores. Because of volume discounts, larger stores are generally cheaper than smaller ones. No. 10: Find a bakery outlet. These kinds of thrift stores offer wonderful bargains. But be careful. It’s easy to spend more on all those bargains than you would have on full price items at the supermarket.
No. 11: Use coupons. Buy the smallest size the coupon allows to get the greatest savings. Continued on page 5
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