Tipón, Part III: The views

Tipón's agricultural terraces. The canals were probably originally intended for irrigation of these terraces, while the fountains may have served a ritual function as well.

In the distance, the town of Tipón, and in the foreground, more giant plants.








Ta-da! That white sweater tied around my waist, that I'm sitting on, yeah, it's in the wash now.

Tipón, Part II: Water, water everywhere

Lonely Planet claims that the road from Tipón pueblo to the Tipón ruins is 4 km long, but it sure felt a heck of a lot longer than that to me as we continued to climb the mountain with no signs of the archaeological site. Well, I must correct myself: there was a huge sign that said "Tipón, parque nacional arqueológico", or something to that effect, that gave me a lot of hope until I realized that the sign is in fact nowhere near the ruins themselves. When we finally got there, it was totally worth it. See for yourself. I am sorry that I cannot include sound with the images; if you like you can go flush the toilet before you look at the pictures, or turn on a nearby faucet, or better yet, conserve water by providing the sound effects yourself. If there are other people around and you feel self-conscious about making water fountain noises, you can just imagine.

Tipón, Part I: The journey

Last Friday afternoon I went with a friend from school to Tipón, some 20-25 km south of Cusco. We arrived in the tiny town, whose main road is lined with restaurants specializing in cuy, and started down a dirt road toward the ruins.

We crossed these train tracks...












...and ended up stone-hopping part of this stream further down the path.








A common sight along the way. Unfortunately I didn't manage a photo on the way back, when we shared the road with a herd of cows and a gaggle of sheep. I know that's the term for geese, but I like it for sheep too.

Qorikancha

Qorikancha is a Quechua word which translates roughly to "golden courtyard". In the Inca days, this site in Cusco was a large complex consisting of the temples of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the rainbow, which were used both for religious ceremonies and as astronomical observatories. It got its name from its plethora of pure gold adornments, including gold-plating on the walls. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived, the gold was quickly, er, reappropriated, and the Dominicans had this church constructed on the same site, unfortunately destroying much of the existing structure. Here are two views of the interior courtyard of the church of Santo Domingo, as it is known. If you look closely in the second picture you will see, behind the colonial arches and columns, the original stone walls of the Incan temple of the sun, topped by anachronistic glass walls that protect the site.

Astronomy

was a big deal to the pre-Columbian cultures of Peru. The sun itself was considered the progenitor of the Incas, and the appearance of certain constellations in the night sky announced the arrival of the rainy season or harvest time. Last night as I returned from a tour of the "sacred valley", I looked out the window and there was the big dipper, larger and brighter than I had ever seen it... and upside down.

From the appendicitis scar of the universe, Part II

A lovely view of the Colca, if only that funny-looking girl hadn't gotten in the picture.

















Colca is famous for its condors. Every morning, billions of tourists descend upon the Cruz del Cóndor in hopes of seeing the magnificent birds in flight. This picture doesn't really do them justice but it was my best shot. Interesting side note: there at the Cruz del Cóndor I met a couple from Alcalá de Henares, the town in Spain where I studied almost three years ago. How did the conversation get started? Referring to the condors, who seemed to be hiding out for a while, the guy standing next to me said, "Están perezosos". The pronunciation was a dead giveaway.

Another view of the canyon. This is not its deepest part. That would be somewhere around where the condor is flying; you'll just have to extrapolate from the photo above. Oh, and, those plants in the foreground are not really ginormous, just in case you were wondering. It's like, one of those camera tricks.

From the appendicitis scar of the universe, Part I

Last week, from my base in Arequipa, I took a two-day trip to the Colca Canyon, the second deepest in the world (if you are wondering which canyon is the deepest, that would be Colca's neighbor, Cotahuasi). It was one of those group guided tours, my first time going alone on one. I shared the van with a man from Prague, a couple from the Netherlands, a guy from Paris, a guy from Lima, a girl from Trujillo, a girl from Germany who had been traveling for ten months throughout South America (it was her year off between high school and university), a Jewish woman from Chicago who kept things amusing and made me nostalgic for home, and of course the driver and our excellent tour guide, both Peruvians. We shared the road with tour buses and tour vans and more tour buses, and the occasional llama, alpaca or vicuña.

We spent the night in Chivay, a tiny town in the Colca valley. The hostel was less than cozy (not to mention freezing), but I liked the light fixtures.




There are several tiny towns like this in the Colca valley. I think this one was called Maca. They each boast, oh I don't know, a few hundred residents and quite often have a pretty colonial church like this one, built with sillar, a white volcanic rock fairly abundant in the area. It is that same stone that gives Arequipa its nickname, la ciudad blanca, or, the white city.

On the way from Arequipa to the canyon, loads of tourists stop at this little restaurant/souvenir shop in the middle of nowhere, where we are urged to drink maté de coca to counteract the effects of high altitude. This alpaca and several mangy sheep were hanging around the hordes of tourists with their teacups and cameras. I wonder if the poor animal has any idea how abnormal its existence is?