The Incas - Cusco & The Sacred Valley

We flew from Quito to Lima via our Round-The-World ticket - and when we turned up to check-in, our previous flight into Ecuador had not been updated and so we could not take the next flight on the RTW ticket to Lima!!! We had 3 LAN people try to sort it out but they all disappeared and we ended up paying $4000 to buy another flight for us all!! LAN's systems had not been updated - hopefully we will get a refund - but they refused to let us on unless we bought another ticket - a real lesson on arriving at the airport with an extra half an hour to spare!!

Anyway we arrived in Cusco via Lima and was picked by our guide Hose. We were immediately taken to 2 Inca sites - one was at 12010ft called Saqsayhuaman religious site (pronounced like "sexywoman") and this was a huge 3 layered worship area overlooking Cusco (The capital of the Incas)  and overlooking an enormous Limestone rock 500 ft high. Bearing in mind this Limestone should have been on the sea bed but it was not 11,200 ft above sea level - it was easy to understand why the Incas worshipped something like that that they had never seen before! These were just a taster of the structures/religious centres and towns/cities we were going to see.

We drove onto and through the Sacred Valley to our hotel - the Casa Andina - which was lower than Cusco but where we needed to acclimatise to the altitude for a few days. (highest point we went to was 12.5k ft asl). The Sacred Valley is a huge flat plain with mountains on every side and it was very important to the Incas as only 0.2% of land in Peru is flat and that is used for farming - that is why Incas never lived on flat land, they lived in the mountains - Flatland was always reserved for farming and creating food for its empire - for example Ecuador had 1.6% of it's land for farming - so for Peru 0.2% is very low. That is why the Incas lived in the hills and used every available bit of land including terracing for farming. For example at the peak of the Inca empire there were 12m people that needed to be fed - every bit of flat land was critical!

We took Diamox (altitude tablets recommended by my nephew Thomas from his Everest trip!) which made us all fine apart from Megan who was ill - it was her turn. So we took a chill out day and then Hose took the 3 boys off on an introduction tour of the warm up Inca ruins before Machu Picchu - we visited an Inca trail (one of 37,000 kms of Inca Trails around the Inca Empire!!) and the Inca gate which controlled who went into the towns - in this case the town of Ollantaytambo, which was a critical town at the end of the Inca reign. 

History summary of Incas:

The Incas started from Cusco in 1200 AD - the main part of the incas came from lake Titicaca 12500ft asl (highest natural navigable lake on the planet) to live in Cusco and near the Sacred valley. The Incas ruled for 300 yrs and had 13 emperor rulers - The most important Emperor was Pachacuteq - 9th Inca emperor most important, influential and powerful one. He ruled for 40 years and during his reign much was achieved, including the start of the build for Machu Picchu which he ordered. MP took over 100 years to do and it is believed it was still not complete after that long - when you see it you will see why (See MP blog post).

The Spanish invaded and took control of Peru in 1532 and smashed the Incas. After that there were some rebellious Incas - notably by Manco Inca the last main Inca emperor. He retreated with his depleted forces from Cusco to Ollantaytambo to regroup and fight the Spanish. He pulled the Spanish into the town - flooded it so the Spanish horses and soldiers could not move - and then they threw down the huge stones from the religious hillside temples and terraces down the hill to kill the Spaniards. This was the only victory against the Spanish when the Incas revolted all over Peru!! The Spanish retreated and Manco won that battle - 3 months later the Spanish returned with huge forces and Manco retreated into the valley that leads to the Amazon. Interestingly he never went to Machu Picchu (probably because he did not want the Spanish to find it) and he set up camp in Vilca Bamba - right on the edge of the Amazon. He ruled the Inca empire left from there for 13 yrs as the last Inca independent territory - then a new Spanish Viceroy was appointed and he declared war on Manco Inca and the Spanish bribed some Peruvians and defeated Manco Inca - his head being displayed in Cusco town square for all to see - the end of the Incas - not quite - this was now 1548 and Manco Incas son took over although young - he invited 7 Spanish priests/doctors to live with him - and over a gambling game of cards one of the Spaniards accused the son of cheating and stabbed him to death - all 7 spaniards were beheaded and sent to the Spanish regional ruler in Cusco. It was not until 1572 when the rule of the last Incas alive, holed up in Vilcabamba, was finally completed. This was after the third Emperor after Manco Inca at aged 11, declared war on Spain directly to the King of Spain in Madrid!! Quite a bold move for an 11-yr old!! At that the Spanish sent an army and obliterated the Incas once and for all and the 11-yr olds head was cut off and paraded in the main square - now the end of the Incas. It took from the early 1200's to build, have amazing power for a hundred years or so and then have it all destroyed by the Spaniards. The Spaniards were also to rule for 300 years!

The Incas worshipped nature called Pantheism, many cultures followed Pantheism including the Incas. For example, alot of the temples and places of worship link to the sun, water or mountains or stones like Limestone (normally on sea bed and not at 12,500 ft) or Ignimbright stone on top of mountains - very soft and unusual as normally it lives well below the bottom of the sea in the earths crust but had been thrust up by plate movement to the top of mountains - like at MP.

The Spanish introduced their Catholic religion into the Inca Empire with relish, destroying around 35 towns like Machu Picchu and Cusco and introducing Churches and Cathedrals and destroying the Inca places of worship. They say that much of the Inca Gold collected by the Spanish did not return to Spain but was delivered to the Vatican to repay the funding of the Spanish to spread the Catholic word - but this could be gossip.

At the end of the Spanish reign of South America Peru got its freedom in around 1830's helped by Simon Bolivar (who had also helped other South American countries get independence from Spain. Bolivar was appointed the "Protector" of Peru and tried, with the other countries he had helped become independent, to create a United States of South America. There was even an appointed President of the United States of South America Mr Lamar - who actually never was as it never happened. The idea was disbanded at the last minute when Bolivar was felt to be throwing his weight around alot and he was evicted from the Presidency of Peru by his own army - taking away the major pinnacle of the United States of SA. He was not a popular man in Peru and died and was buried in a plain wooden casket despite being very wealthy through his life.

We had a great lunch in a Hacienda owned by one of Perus long serving aristocratic families - where everything you saw from the garden was once owned by the family - and Simon Bolivar and Mr Lamar had both visited and had their photos their.

We also had an interesting discussion with Hose over lunch about the end of the world - he had studied Scapology - a study of how the end of the world may happen. He had also seen the Mexican Mayans had predicted lots of events accurately to the hour, the day, the week, the month and the year - according to the Mayan calendar - which was 14 months of 26 days. They predicted alot of the worlds major disasters and when they would occur - according to their calendar - e.g. the world wars, napoleon wars and the black plague!!!!

The Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012. But only because their cycle is 5125 years and on 21 Dec 2012 their calendar ends and a new one should start - as the Mayans had a lucky number 13 and their calendar ends at 13.0.0.0.0 - like a car mileage it should go 13.0.0.0.1 etc.... But 3000 years ago they probably thought that someone would gave come up with a new calendar by 2012!!!!! At least the london olympics will have happened by 21st dec 2012!!

We also had a really interesting evening with a very nice but "Mad astrology woman" in the hotel Planetarium. She claimed that Jupiter was hit by a massive storm that made volcanoes erupt on July 19th 2009 - and that she had seen 5 orange UFO's all from Jupiter recently - as Jupiter people, who are 15000 years more developed than people on earth now need to look for somewhere else to go. And everyone knows they will land on earth in 2010!!! 

We also found out that in the Taurus constellation there were 2 stars/planets something like 2.5m light years away that had very well developed people that are 15,000 million years ahead of us with such well developed beings that they can morph into things, remetallise and are 1000 yrs old but can make themselves look young. So sophisticated they use brain telepathy communication. They created the universe apparently and could also be the controller of our planet!

This lady also thought that Humans used to be able to live for 800 yrs or so a long time ago BC - but then the bible said man can only live for 120 yrs. And that humans are about to have a quantum leap and be able to travel more in space and find out about the people that live on these other planets.


All-in-all a very interesting few days with a very educational discussion for the boys in particular!