Thursday May 2nd
This beautiful country. The sky is
dark with mountain peaks, glacier, and puffy white clouds. We spent the whole
day out in the farm county on dirt roads visiting Inca sites.
We first visited a site where 700
years ago they took stream water with high salt content and took it through a
series of holding pans to evaporate off the salt. The Incas were real clever
people. It is strange that as far as we can tell they had no written language
and therefore no written history. The 100 or so years when they ruled they were
one of the most powerful empires ever.
The second site was an experimental
greenhouse. They had built terraces and developed new varieties that would
survive in the harsh climate. There are no plants there now but it was
interesting to see how they did it.
The ride into Cusco was another
crazy time in traffic. Great fun. The traffic here was heavy and slow but we
get through it pretty fast. We wound down out of the hills into town.
Jan and I are starting to feel a
bit better tonight. We didn't go to dinner for the 4th night is a
row but our systems are settling down. We have not felt any direct effect of
the elevation but one of the signs is a loss appetite. I didn't expect to get
sick as well but I don’t think that was caused by the elevation. Whenever we
have had to climb steps like at Machu Picchu it is easy to get winded. We don’t
know for sure what caused our problem. You have to drink bottled water and
watch what you eat but that is the case at many of the places we have been.
No comments:
Post a Comment