Ski season has officially arrived! This means I need to clear my backlog and clear space for skiing blog posts. Better knock out the rest of Peru now.
After walking down from Cerro MP, we continued wandering around the complex. At this point, the net flow of visitors was out and the crowds were getting progressively thinner.
The "Guard's Hut"
A lizard!
The curved structure is called the Torreon, and was a building used by the astronomer/priest for certain ceremonies.
The temple alcove immediately below the top of the Torreon.
On the altar wall just to the left of the steps below, at left, is a carving by individuals named Jesús Velarde and Juan Santillana, apparently Spaniards or European-descended South Americans. The carving claims they visited the site in 1902, 9 years before American Hiram Bingham came in, excavated the site, documented, and popularized it. Whether this is an authentic carving seems to be a bit of a mystery. However, it is very well known that the ruins were regularly visited by a handful of locals, and a few of the terraces were even being cultivated, at the time of Bingham's arrival.
The carved rocks at right, below, are renowned not just for knifeblade-precision of the rocks, but also for their wild, psychedelic, abstract shape.
The personal toilet used by the astronomer/priest.
Stone bosses used for securing thatched roofs.
Very llama. So fur. Wow.
Big Rock may be appreciated from many directions!
Chincilla!
This rock is said to be carved in a shape which echos the mountainscape in the background. Clouds today made that difficult to evaluate independently.
he Intihuatana, basically a ceremonial sundial marking the solstices.
In 2000, a crew was up here filming a commercial for Cuzco's Cusquena beer, when a gantry collapsed and broke off a part of the stone. It was only a small part that shattered off and may have been partly repaired.
Llama is as llama does.
Rosie and I running up stairs to get one last view from up high before the guards kick us out.
Ya, there it is.
Rosie shot this photo.
Another good one of Rosie's.
After this, we were chased back out to the bus stop, where we boarded and rode back to town. We staggered around, got some delicious grilled llama, and hit the sack.
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