After two nights with a headache and oxygen intake in the morning, it was clear that I would have to stay 300 meters higher for a while today to stimulate blood regeneration. And even then, I encountered some wonderful situations that were a lot of fun:
the first Inca site Sacsayhuamán was not high enough, so I took the cab driver to the next one, 5 km further on: Tambomachay, “Bath of the Incas”, although it’s not clear if Incas ever bathed here, it may have been used for water ceremonies instead.
The Incas lived in South America between the 13th and 16th centuries, and at their peak around 1530 their empire stretched from Ecuador to Chile and Argentina, roughly the distance north-south from the North Cape to Sicily. They were characterized by a high degree of organization, for example in that their work for the state had to be performed through strictly organized work in a collective: the population had to work a third of their working time for Inti, the sun cult, and another third for the Inca, i.e. the ruling aristocracy and the military. The last third of their working time went to support their families, the elderly, the sick, widows, orphans and the needy.
Their architecture and engineering skills were very remarkable, for example, they transported stones to the desired building site and cut them there so that they could be assembled without joints. The Inca road network covered around 40,000 km and was used on foot, including by route runners who could carry messages over 240 km in one day. This culture was highly developed and its capital was Qusqu, today’s Cusco.
Driving back from there, the cab driver had to write a few text messages and stopped right in front of a store counter, when I got out I was able to talk to the owner and also take a photo of her, here first with my small handheld camera, the real shot with the large format camera, analog, will come in the next few days, she is ready for that too! My first photos in Peru, I am very happy!
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