How many Coca Leaves does it take....?

What a weekend....I feel like things are slowly falling into place. I've met some really amazing new friends, feel extremely comfortable living my Peruvian family, and I am in close proximity to some of the most incredible archeological sites in the world.

This weekend our nueva amigas Veronica and Susanme took us to the local Inca ruins of Pisac and Ollyantaytambo. I know I have seen pictures of Incan ruins online or in magazines, but to see this up close is absolutely incredible. First of all-we're talking about the Andes mountains. These crazy mo'fos decided to build a civilization in terrain that is around 10,000 feet above sea level, and its not just the height of the land, the sheer steepness of the terrain is mindblowing. Additionally to see in person, up close the SIZE of the rocks that are used for the buildings, temples, etc is pretty unbelievable. I have a hard time envisioning how this could be created using the modern technology of today-nevermind cerca 1400. Let's face it, the Incas were not known to be the largest people.


Both in Pisac and Ollyantaytambo you can also clearly see their crop terraces. According to Wikipedia - and a tour that I eavesdropped in on, these terraces permitted farming on otherwise unusable terrain; they also allowed the Incas to take advantage of the different ecological zones created by variations in altitude. So they'd actually test to see which crops worked grew best at which altitudes.


You can still today even see the intricate canal system that they built for irrigation and obtaining water. It still works!!! I could see the water flowing, and this was built out of stone in the 1400s~! Amazing!! According to one report I read, expert hydrologists believe that the Incas actually estimated the runoff from tropical downpours, then designed a drainage system to channel water through small holes cut in the rock. This allowed them to avoid significant erosion and landslides at these altitudes.

However many coca leaves it took-these sites were impressive, though I was told by the girls that these sites are nothing in comparison to Macchu Picchu. Although I think its something that is hard to grasp in pictures, I threw in a few to hopefully give a brief sense of the sites we visited this weekend. Also threw in a few from romping around town.