New World Mathematics: Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu

Sacred Valley

On Friday we toured the ruins of the fortress at Ollaytantambo. It was amazing to see how the Incas defended their cities so well. But what was even more amazing was to see the engineering in their irrigation systems. We saw how they were able to get water to not only travel down but also travel up. It's cool to see how a culture was able to do that without modern technology.

Fortress at Ollaytantambo

Today was our visit to Machu Picchu and it was nothing like I imagined. It completely blew my expectations away. We were able to go on the Winter Solstice which meant we would see things that happen only once a year. I went to the temple of the sun which is cool because only on the Winter Solstice does the sunlight pass through the trapezoidal window.

Immediately after that, I went below the temple and saw a small cave that is fully illuminated by sunlight only on the Winter Soltice

After touring Macchu Picchu I decided to try to hike with Dr. Brown to the summit. If you've never been to really high elevations, you think that you have the same mobility as back home. That is not true in Peru. After 20 minutes of hiking I decided to quit and head back. I made that decision because we have a long and tough hike tomorrow and I didn't want to exhaust all of my energy into today. That was still frustrating because I didn't get to see a rarely seen view of the world.

However today was still one of the best days of my life because I was able to see a place that I've wanted to see for a very long time. Can't wait to visit Huyna Picchu tomorrow.