Day Ten

Today was our last day of historical sites on the trek. We all woke up early with group so we could hike the "Sun Gate" before sun rise. We all sat and watched the sun come up, which was completely breath taking. When the sun rose, the trek leaders allowed us to go off on our own for the rest of the day. With our own free time, we decided to go walk through the ruins of the Inca's lost city again to look back on the architecture and the history, since we enjoyed it so much the last time. We thought it was so interesting how a civilization from so long ago could be so advanced.

 

After we finished looking at the main sites, we explored the surviving houses, temples, and baths. We were surprised to find that they were in great condition.We only got to see two temples, so the first one we went to was the Temple of the Moon. We noticed it was pretty small compared to others. It sits under a shelf of large rock, so when walking in you need to duck slightly in some spots.

We had time for two more sites today before our dinner reservations; The Room of Three Windows and The Temple of the Sun.

The Room of Three Windows

Three out of five of the windows remain, and they each represent each part of the world; The underground (Uku-Pacha), the heaven (Hanan-Pacha), and the present time (Kay-Pacha). The windows also represent the rise of the sun, which is a very important in everyday life for the Inca population. The view outside of the three windows was breathtaking, and we really enjoyed hearing about the special meanings of the windows. We spent a while there, appreciating the beautiful

The Temple of the Sun

In early civilization, not many people were allowed in The Temple of the Sun, because ceremonies for average people were held in the public square. That meant the only people allowed in were the priest and the Inca. They keep mummies here in royal tombs, because mummies were an important part of the cult to the Sun. We also learned that sacrifices used to be performed here to prevent disaster. The site is up high because they believed they could reach the sky and perform better.

We then headed to dinner at a restaurant near by called the Pirqa Restaurant, because we had heard many people recommend it to us. We ate salmon in native berries, potato soup, a Peruvian seasoned shrimp, and volcan, which is the equivalent to ice cream. We were very impressed with the food and service, agreeing it was the best meal in Peru we have had so far.

Afterwards, we head in for the night, extremely tired and full.