Imagine a hobbit house (a reference to the Lord of the Rings for those who are not familiar), minus the circular windows and doors, and you have our little home away from from home in Urubamba, Peru. It is not underground, but its low ceilings in some rooms give way to vaulted ones lined with dark beams and it is neat as a pin. Bilbo Baggins would feel right at home.
We arrived in South America's Andes mountains yesterday (6/9/14) at noon. Having stopped in both Miami and Lima and filled ourselves with Diamox and water... we landed at 11,000 feet above sea level. I kept thinking that there must be a comic strip out there somewhere about people who take Diamox when traveling to high altitudes. An unfortunate side affect of this useful drug is that you have to go to the bathroom every 1.5 hours and your need for water is huge (4 to 6 liters a day). The cartoon would be drawn by the Family Circus artist and it would have a plane full of people traveling to Machu Picchu. In the illustration the seats would be empty (other than a few native-dressed women) and the aisle would be nothing but a long line of people crossing their legs and jumping up and down.
That said acclimatization has gone well so far. With 2/3 the oxygen up here there are many concerns for travelers from low areas. Carlisle is only about 300 ft. above sea level and by Saturday we will have reached our peak of 15,000ft. So we had to take a picture of the soda looking can they sold in the airport. Big Ox. Who new you could sell 4 breaths of flavored, yes flavored, AIR. For the low price of $20 USD, you can buy peace of mind. Nate just laughed. I was considering it. The label read:
"good food, clean water and unpolluted air containing oxygen are keys to a healthy lifestyle..."
When Nate and left our lovely compound today, I must say that seeing the Big Ox in the taxi was a comfort. In case you are wondering what flavor options you can have when buying air... try "tropical breeze", "citrus" and "mint".
So after an awesome fusion dinner (pumpkin spinach soup and a traditional peruvian drink I can't spell) delivered right to our chalet followed by a delightful rest for me and Nate up to visit the John six times, we woke to a beautiful, cold Peruvian morning. I looked up at the rafters, which are tied together with animal skin (some still has the hair on), and saw some serious equatorial sunlight streaming in through the double doors that lead to our porch. Beautiful! A nice warm shower and some hand washing of laundry left me light headed and with tingling fingers and feet. A gentle reminder that Pennsylvanians need to take it a little slow in Peru.
At breakfast (quinoa, yogurt, eggs, fresh bread and jam) we arranged for a taxi to show us around town. We visited the town of Chinchero to learn about Peruvian textiles and then to its mixture of Incan ruins and a Spanish Conquistador cathedral. After Chinchero we drove to Moray, the location of an ancient Incan agricultural laboratory. On the sides of a natural depression in the landscape, the Incans built terraces. It is estimated that they could experiment with 20 different climates in this one area due to its unusual landscape.
We left Moray to visit the Salineras. This was the area I most longed to see because it is ingenious, I suppose Moray was too, but oh! As we approached a canyon a mile or more of glistening water lined the far wall like shining crystal tidal pools. Each one was about the size of a king size bed and surrounded by rocks hand laid into the hill side thousands of years ago. I got out of the car and stepped onto a windy overlook. My hat blew away and my hair swirled in my face like crazy. Apparently this is attractive to older Japanese men.
We all had a good laugh after the two lovely older gentlemen had taken about 15 pictures of me with the salt pools in the distance. Finally we went down to the parking area where our taxi instructed us to walk through the mile or so of salt pools then head toward the end of the mountain on the right. "Take a right at the river," she said, "and I will meet you at the suspension bridge with the car." Strangest directions we had every gotten.
Within moments of saying good bye to our taxi, we ran into our japanese friends again and proceeded to have more pictures taken and we exchanged emails. We finally escaped my moment of stardom when we got far enough into the salt pool maze that no one was following us. Apparently no one else got the instructions about heading toward the end of the mountain, taking a right at the river, etc...
So I found these salt pools captivating. The Incan people had discovered 1,000s of years ago that the spring that fed this gorge was salty. They created hundreds of pools with tiny channels to direct the water to each one in turn. As the water evaporated in one, the salt would be left behind and collected, then sold. This ingenuity persists today as the same families harvest these unusual salt mines. Boy, I hope my pictures turn out.
So in the end we found the suspension bridge (after an hour and a half of hiking) and we returned happily to our hobbit hole. Tonight it is Chicken quesadillas delivered right to our door. The fire will be going... Did I mention it is pretty cold here?
Sent from my iPad
Moray - an Incan agricultural laboratory
The salt mines
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