A Short Side Trip to Peru -- Oxygen Not Included

December 5-10th, 2012; Cuzco City, Peru --

This side trip during the last week of my two and half month visit in Brazil was a pleasant surprise organized by my lovely Brazilian Sister-in-Law: Our stay in a beautiful old mansion, retrofitted into an upscale hotel, the tickets and driver to take us to each of eleven former Inca sites -- and the endless walks (up to 10,000 steps a day according to my trusty pedometer!) -- all were arranged by her.

View of dining plaza; right of entry

View on entering enclosed courtyard

I would like to start out by showing you a couple photos of the hotel. It had three floors of guest rooms, a large indoor courtyard dining area where a complementary breakfast was served each morning [this "complementary breakfast" was head and shoulders better than the so-called "free" breakfasts advertised by U.S. motel chains!], and each guest room included a Jacuzzi in addition to a shower and other "necessities". Four "suites" were located on the second floor behind a balcony which overlooked the dining area. Lunch and dinners could be ordered by guests from a "Chef's Menu".

Meat was also unrefrigerated -- flies would die!

Step right up and eat with gusto -- and the flies!

Our first exercise, upon arriving in Cuzco (also spelled "Cusco"), was a walk to the Central area to see such sights as the city market place (food service and fresh meat storage not meeting FDA standards!) as well as one of the Cathedral's that was built over the ruins of an Inca temple. The Catholic priests evidently believed that by building over their ruins that the Inca would recognize the defeat of their religion by Christianity; I believe the good padres were misguided in their approach, but I wasn't there.

Cuzco is at an elevation of 11,000 feet above sea level. Walking around the city took an effort, even though it was not as hilly as downtown Seattle. Needless to say, Grumpy's lungs, acclimated to sea level, found the Oxygen content of the air here to be very lacking; he "huffed and puffed" a lot during the entire visit to Peru, but especially the first couple of days.

Close up of scene on left!

These aren't just little rocks!

[This Inca site was developed in a large crater.]

The second (and first full) day, we visited four Inca sites located at an altitude of 12,000 feet! Fortunately, these sites had only a few stairways up (and down -- or down then up!). By going slow and taking lots of photos, Grumpy was able to survive. His leg muscles were in decent condition since had been exercising on the treadmill fairly faithfully in the days and months leading up to going to Brazil, and again while visiting his brother and sister-in-law in Brazil. But the leg muscles still needed Oxygen and Grumpy opined that Peru must have been rationing it since there seemed to be so little of it available to we tourists.

Subsequent days we visited about three or four different sites each day, all at altitudes between 11 and 12 thousand feet. As if the altitude wasn't enough, each successive site seemed to have more stair steps -- and steeper stairways! Besides the altitude and the numerous and steep stairs, the Inca must have had a peculiar body form to have been able to build and accommodate their stairways: Grumpy figured that they must have been only about 5'5" to 5' 7" tall -- but with legs that were at least four feet of their body height and very well muscled! Grumpy's reasoning stems from the fact that in most sites, the riser (height of a step) was 15-18"! Sometimes the tread (the part where your foot goes) was only 8-10"! Going up was sort of like going up a ladder; going down was like contemplating suicide! [And of course, there were, and are, no handrails!!]

There is much more to tell. In coming days, (as I relax from the trauma of perparing my 2012 FORM 1040!!) I will concentrate on a few of the more impressive (to me) sites and try to describe with photos the "ups and downs" that made them impressive -- to me. Stay tuned.