Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.
So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. --- Mark Twain

Friday, August 9, 2013

Ollantaytambo, Moray, and other places


07.07.2013 – 10.07.2013

The journey: Aguas Calientes – Santa Teresa – Santa Maria – Ollantaytambo – Moray – Abancay – Nasca – San Juan – Nasca (1085 km).

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One can cross the river this way as well.
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Machu Picchu has been visited. Two and a half hours of early morning walk along the railway up to Hidroelektrica parking lot is waiting ahead.

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The poultry has entirely adopted the bus at the parking lot - just a shadowy nice place for resting and dozeing.

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Santa Teresa Central Square.

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After Santa Maria a long, long ascent will begin.

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And a view from the top on the covered road.

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Ollantaytambo is 60 kilometers away from Cusco, and here also are the ruins of the buildings of Incas.

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Large stone blocks of various shapes tightly next to each other. Even a sheet of paper cannot be placed between.

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On the left there is a street café, in front the terraces built by Incas, on the right – a souvenir market. In the middle large trucks are driving.
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Moray - the first impression is deceptive - it's not a traditional amphitheater. Not even close.

It is believed that this is rather an agricultural testing laboratory, where cold - proof plants were cultivated. Because of the sun the warmest place is deep down at the bottom of the hole. So at first the plants were planted at the lower terraces. And the following generation of plants to a higher level, and so successively higher and higher.

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Cusco – The Nasca road goes over the mountains, mostly 3000 - 4000 meters in altitude.

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Meanwhile, an hour long waiting, but it is not due to the " roadblock ", but there is an ongoing road repair.

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An overnight place found in the dark. Actually, it is just next to the road, behind a post.

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Finally, the mountains come to an end and a long and sloping descent begins from the height of 4 kilometers. Until Nasca, and then further up to the Pacific Ocean.

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Near the town of San Juan de Marcom there was said to be a colony of Humbolt penguins. One of Peru 's largest, but it is not advertised to. On the spot there were no signs. And no penquins, and even no familiar smell of the penguins.

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A local shows the next place on the GPS and explains that it is 15 kilometers away, near the small town of San Nicolas.

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On the other side of the dunes one can admire the ocean.

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DSC02560  By the ocean the ground is holey, as if the panguins had once been nesting here. In the right place the ground is like Swiss cheese. In Punta Tombos it was this kind
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There are cormorants on the nearby rock-islands.

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And finally, on the last island, there are penguins among cormorants.

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Continued...

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