today was set aside to take a bus tour to most of the sacred Inca sites in the valley surrounding Cusco. to get a visual picture Cusco is the main city, rising higher than anything else in the Andes here. everything else flows down through the valley. even Machu Picchu is located at a lower altitude than Cusco.
so we set off to visit the Sacred Valley.
driving up through Cusco, we got to see the more residential zones, rather than the beaten commercial tourist strip. notice most houses are made from the native mud bricks or "Adobe Bricks" made from surrounding clay and straw, sun dried.
as we exit Cusco we pass into the valley below. the climate here supports more agriculture with fertile soils and stable climate. this being the start of the dry season everything was dry and ready for turning over. kinda reminded me of the Aussie wheatbelt, as the muddy clay soils hold alot of iron giving them the redish colour.
as we pass further down the valley, you can clearly see the vegetation changing to from grasslands to greener forests. the largest sacred inca site visited late in the day consisted of agricultural terraces aligned with ancient inca temples. a taste test for Machu Picchu.
lastly after the heat of the day we stopped in for lunch at one of the local towns on the way back. had to show you this pic, this alleyway was tiny and yet somehow our driver drove our bus up the narrow road without hitting anyone or the walls, crazy!
3 comments:
Looks really good Shaun. Kinda cleaner than I imagined, you will be in for a shock then in S.A
Just got breaking news here - Peter Brock has been killed today here in Perth doing a rally somewhere north here! Well that leaves one more place(as these seem to happen in three's!) Love Mom
Brocky dead ?? u serious ?
*shakes head*
this is too unreal. we hit LA and felt shellshocked, when we heard the news of the croc hunter, now this. kinda cant believe it. i guess this is all over the media for the next 2 weeks, forget the footy.
crazy stuff.
well he left a great legacy and died doing what he loved most.
that particular street is the "tourist strip for that town" and is kept tidy of litter. otherwise i didnt take shots of the more poluted areas.
other than that looking back generally their litter issues are ok. not too much rubbish around. they seemed to have alot of indians on council clean up groups for the tourist areas.
one thing that did get me was that nothing could excape the "industrial dust" that settled on everything in the populated areas. Dad could understand, the same kinda Gasolene / Industrial dust that covers most workshops. i figured this was mainly in Lima due to no rain.
LA was poluted and scary as soon as you steped into the poor neighbohoods, unless you hit the hollywood drives were its all a million dollars and everyones driving a huge SUV cadalac. Dad you gotta see these cars. everyones in huge "Trucks" utes over here.
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