We flew back to Lima. Again. This would be out third visit to Lima but not our last. We were joining a trip organised by Belmond. They are a global travel and leisure company. Our interest was that they operate several hotels and trains in Peru. Our trip, which would cover my birthday and xmas, was going to involve a couple of trains, Machu Picchu (again) and a few hotels. It began at the rather lovely Miraflores Park hotel in Lima. I was particularly impressed by the pond full of turtles just outside the front door. Here we also reacquainted ourselves with Paddington at sunset.
Next day, my birthday, began with a city tour. First stop was a museum. I have mentioned several times before that we are not really museum people. The idea of celebrating reaching 64 in a museum is not one I would have chosen. In the event, the tour actually proved to be quite interesting. We learnt about the Cusco school of art that developed during the colonial period and is characterised by religious paintings that incorporate Inca themes. The Cuzqueña painting style freely mixed traditional Inca colours, llamas, depictions of Pachamama (Inca earth goddess) with baroque style images. To me this feels like a subversive cultural revolution hidden in plain sight from the European Catholics. My favourite painting, The Last Supper, 1753, by Marcos Zapata, depicts the usual last supper stuff but with a guinea pig centre stage on the table. Jesus eats guinea pigs – I have proof. To my delight, we later saw the original painting in Cuzco Cathedral. The tour ended with an unexpected glass of sparkling wine in a richly decorated side room. On balance, as museum tours go, not so bad.
After that came a walk around the historic centre of Lima and the main square. There are some fabulous buildings and churches here. The weather was nice. The trip did not take too long and the day ended with an excellent pizza not far from the hotel. Next morning we flew to Cuzco.
This time we were getting a bit more used to it. Not only had we started to acclimatise to the altitude a little but also the day did not involve a silly early start. We left Cuzco immediately and were taken off on a small tour that began in a textile museum. This was a place we knew from the Hx trip, so we skipped past the main display and went straight to visit the llamas. Next, we were driven in the direction of Pisac and the Sacred Valley past an interesting hotel at Pachar. The accommodation here is a series of pods slung high on a cliff. After climbing a sheer wall for a couple of hundred metres you can sleep cosy in a pod with, presumably, excellent views along the valley.
Pisac is an ancient Inca town with narrow streets and amazing stonework. We wandered round some of the ruins and took in a few of the tourist attractions including tuk-tuk taxis, many colourful shops and the Incabucks coffee bar. Clambering up onto the remains of an old fortification we were reminded of the altitude here. It was well worth the effort for the view down the valley.
Next stop was higher up the side of the valley, 3,500 m, at an archaeological site called Moray. Here there are Inca remains, predominantly, several terraced circular depressions, the largest of which is 30 m deep. The depth, design, and orientation with respect to wind and sun creates temperature difference of as much as 5 °C between the top and the bottom. This has led archaeologists to speculate (guess) that the different terraces were used to study the effects of climate on species of plant. By growing potatoes, for example, they could determine which conditions favoured each of the 3,000 potatoes varieties that are cultivated in Puru.
Penultimate stop of the day was the Maras Salt Mines. Here, naturally occurring saline water from a deep spring is led into evaporation pools. The pools are built like a series of terraces on the hillside. A system of small dams control how the water is fed into each pool. Once a pool is full it simply sits in the sunshine, evaporating, until eventually the salt can be scraped off. Archaeological research suggests that the salt mines were used over a thousand years ago.
Finally, we arrived at our hotel for the night. The Rio Sagrado hotel by the Urubamba River in the heart of the Sacred Valley. This hotel is built of a series of detached small houses set in a beautifully manicured garden. We got to end the day drinking white wine while watching the humming birds flitting around the bushes.