Saqsaywaman

     Before our group of 11 went off to Urumbamba we stayed in Cuzco (a larger city about an hour away from Urumbamba) with the 9 Cuzco volunteers and visited various ruins in the area, the most impressive being Saqsaywaman, which have been said to be anything from an Incan fortress to a temple, although the temple hypothesis has garnered the most evidence. From above, the ruins are zigzagged, a tribute to lightening. 

Before we got to the ruins we happened upon a grizzled farmer and his pack of llamas, which he allowed us to photograph as he stood off to the side. We hiked through the ruins, many of us gasping for air at the smallest incline as we have yet to acclimate to the altitude. It wasn't until we reached the foot of the giant walls that we realized the magnitude of what the Incas had done... huge boulders that towered over the tallest in our group, each perfectly aligned with the next, each stone's protrusion snuggly set into another's  indentation. 

    The day before the ruins we visited the enormous, alabaster Jesus that watches over Cuzco, his arms stretched wide as if embracing the city. At his feet vendors sold alpaca hats, dark stone miniatures of the statue, and Incan crosses. There was also a woman with a llama (possibly an alpaca, I have yet to gain enough experience with the two to tell the difference) who encouraged our group to take pictures with her. This has happened countless times in our week here- Peruvian women in traditional garb canvassing the plaza for gringos who want a culturally “authentic” picture, older women sitting perceptively next to ruins, spinning alpaca fur into yarn. What seemed at first to be a kind gesture towards foreigners revealed itself to be a practice in entrepreneurship- after a picture is taken the women will ask for money for their efforts. 

     However breathtaking any of the ruins or monuments, the view of the mountains as well as Cuzco nestled in the valley is indisputably the most beautiful part of the trip thus far.