Entering the Depths of the Andes

THURSDAY:

Journey into the Andes (Thursday June 18, 2015)

We left the city of Cusco and began our journey to Moray and Ollantaytambo. It was about an hour drive of half-road and half-gravel to Moray--a bit bumpy, but the sights of the Andes countryside kept me preoccupied. The combination of deserted landscape, stray donkeys (or perhaps mules), arbitrary towns, and an unbelievable mountain range had me wishing it was a longer drive just to admire the views so unlike anything I have ever seen before.

Yarn is Spun from Llama/Alpaca Wool! (Thursday June 18, 2015)

Dying Yarn (Thursday June 18, 2015)

Before arriving to Moray, we decided to stop at an outdoor exhibit that explained the way in which Peruvian textiles are created. The woman describing the process was quirky and definitely understood how to keep an audience's attention. I believe the most interesting and by far my favorite part of her demonstration was her explanation of how they obtain the different colors used in the fabric. They extract natural dyes from substances such as cochineal (a scale insect found on the flowers of the prickly pear cactus) for red hues, Tara (a bean-like pod) and blue collpa for blue and grey hues, and the flowers of Qolle for yellow hues. They then boil the spun yarn with mineral salts and weave them into beautiful textiles (the designs portrayed in their finished work are weaved from memory!)

Moray (Thursday June 18, 2015)

We arrived at Moray shortly after, and the ancient archaeological site was... beyond belief. In theory, it's quite unimaginable that a culture with no written language could produce a site that contained so much detail in agricultural engineering. What the Incas produced here is their very own micro climate! With each descent, the temperature of each terrace slightly increases, allowing the people to grow crops not otherwise suited for the Andes.

Ruins at Ollantaytambo (Thursday June 18, 2015)

An hour from Moray is the city of Ollantaytambo, our current place of residence. We hiked up a bit of the ruins that overlooked the entirety of the city. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Ollantaytambo used to be the home of Inca nobility, including the then-Emperor Pachacuti. The ruins we hiked were used merely for food storage, but one could still see the incredible architecture that went into the creation of these structures (trapezoidal windows, mortar and adobe encasing polygonal and coursed masonry, and irrigation systems).

Ollantaytambo (Thursday June 18, 2015)