Machu Picchu

We saw Machu Picchu yesterday! It is so amazing, nd I feel like pictures can´t even begin to capture its mgnificence. (the a key barely works - plese excuse the missing as)

we hiked up huaynapichu, the mountain next to MP, and looked down on MP from the very rocky top. the mountins re different shape here! then we went down to the temple of the moon, and finally into MP itself. The hiking was amazing becuse the trils are old Inca trails with mny rocky steps nd ladders. i don´t know wht is more amazing - the ruins or the mountains surrounding them.

the experience with the shaman was really nice too. I admit that I was more thn a little nervous bout it, nd i agreed to do it becuse gary relly wnted to. i reminded myself of what the book Vagabonding, a guide to long-term world trvel, said. you should do things that tke you out of your comfort zone, and let things happen spontneously, and you will hve the most mazing travel experiences. doing ceremonies with Q´ero shaman definitely ws like tht for me. Going to his house ws really nice. Basilio lives on the outskirts of Cusco in an adobe house that he built. it has a dirt floor. there is electricity, but no running water. the field behind the house serves as the bathroom. Basilio and his wife hve four children, the smllest just a baby. after the ceremony, Basilio´s wife Sabina served us potatoes that she had cooked in a dirt pit covered by a fire, in her field. She put a cloth on the dirt floor, and the pottoes on top of it. We sat on tiny stools or the floor and peeled the pottoes by hand and ate them there. they had cheese too, from the market. Sabina speaks only Quechua. The Q´ero nation is very high up in the mountains, above treeline. you have to wlk for two days from the nearest town with bus service in order to get there. they grow pottoes nd rais llamas. there is an elementary school, and the teacher only comes for a couple of weeks per month because he lives in the town from which he walks two days to get to the school. I will let Gary write bout the ceremoni9es:

The ceremony at Bsilio´s house was for our helth. he used scred rocks to help us. both cermonies are to thnk mother erth for everything. the coca leves are very importnt. they give energy nd help with digestion which is importnt in the high ltitudes. in the cermony you use the three leves to call the spirit of the mountins. ech person clls the mountains by blowing into the leves three times. Basilio t his house used flowers, seeds fo the coca, cndies, mize nd figures to bless us nd offer to mothererth. fter he blesses us he burns the offerings. while in machpicchu we used liguid of flowers to clense our hnds nd face to keep the ill winds way before tking the trail to huaynapicchu. we also bew into the coca to sk the mountain for pssge nd bring the spirit of the mountains. on top of huaynapicchu we meditated with the help of basilio´s scred rocks and stones. we thanked the sun for shining on us. at the temple of the moon, we did nother cermony tht kimi will not let me put on the blog. we both felt closer to mother erth fterwards.

Kimi again: i´m glad Gary wrote that part becuse expling spiritulity type stuff is pretty hard for me. There are rules about what kinds of ceremonies you can do at MP. Basilio is an extremely genuine person and you can tell that when you first meet him. I tend to trust my instinct when I meet people, and that´s why I was willing to do ceremonies with Basilio even though we just met him on the plaza. our instinct turned out to be right. Shaman do not charge for their services, but you give them a voluntary contribution.

Machu Picchu is in the jungle, much different fry dry Cusco. I went walking with our Argentinin friend Valeri, who is lso from the jungle and who can identify mny of the plants. We saw avocado trees! Tons of avocados were growing up there! But they were wy out of our reach. Banana trees too. Here, avocados are called palta, not aguacate like in Mexico. There is lso a different word for beans but I´m forgetting it. Change is sencillo, not cambio. I´m learning the different vocbulary here, and lso a few Quechua terms from Basilio. Basilio also cut some cane which he will use to make a trditional flute instrument.

Some Quechua words:
apu = mountain spirit
pachimama = mother earth
machu = old
huayna = young
picchu = master ¨maestro¨and is pronounced peek-chew

The train ride to Cusco is very beautiful. Train is the only way to get here, other than by foot. Foreigners have to ride the tourist train, which is very expensive (even the cheaper ¨backpacker¨service which we took). i guess we blew our month´s budget in MP but it ws definitely worth it. In a few hours, we will get bck on the trin to return to Cusco, so until then, thnks for reading!

I hve not forgotten the unidentified photos tht I last posted. I wnt to go back nd add cptions, but the service is too slow to deal with pictures here. I am going to need to experiment with a different photo service like flickr becuse posting them all to the blog takes too long. If I set up a separate photo site, I will let you know via the blog. Thnks for the blog comments we´ve received, as well as the email messages!
Kimi & Gary