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Lima…Cusco…Machu Picchu
“This was the abode, this is the place:
here the wide grains of corn ascended and were
lowered again like the red hailstones.
here the golden thread was sheared from the vicuna
to clothe their loves, their tombs, their mothers,
the king, prayers, warriors…”
Pablo Neruda
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an extraordinary dinner at Casa Aliaga, built in 1535. With friends/collectors Nicky and David Bell
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Daryl holding stones at Sacsayhuaman, a hilltop fortress outside on Cusco
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Andean music expert, Kike Pinto playing a Condor feather flute
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City Cusco, elevation 12,800 ft
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Daryl with a Chinchero weaver
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Peruvian Paso Horse demonstration
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Pago a la tierra, an ancient ritual that homage to Pachamama, the earth mother
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aboard the Hiram Bingham train bound for Machu Picchu
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narrow gauge train alongside the Urubamba River
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Machu Picchu 2009
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celebrating the great trip on the train ride back to Cusco
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One of the six cradles of civilization, this area is filled with an incredible power. From 3,000 BC, along the dry coast, the artifacts remain for us to “wonder” and to “connect” in yet another way to this earth we inhabit. The clay and the gold and the silver and the fibers were molded and woven…to tell the story of this ancient culture. These precious objects were carefully buried with the people who knew their story. Cut stones were carefully stacked to form places of worship and daily life.
In 1911 when Hiram Bingham and his party accidently discovered Machu Picchu…in the Sacred Valley where the Rio Urubanba flows today and the Valley remains sacred. 40% of this site remains covered with the beginnings of the Amazon jungle…more secrets to yet be discovered. Unlike other ruins of the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu was saved from destruction by the Spanish, who, it is believed, never acknowledged its existence. It was inhabited by 1,000 Incans and abandoned between 1400 and 1500 AD. The rest is a mystery. Thus the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the rivers and the oceans, remind us that we are part of a whole…part of nature.
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