Pre-Industrial Industry

You don´t need to visit museums to see how people used to live.

You can come visit this salt production ¨facility¨ in Peru.

Salty spring water is fed through a series of channels to basis, where it evaporates.  People then shovel the salt into sacks, carry them off, and market the product to the wider world.

It is incredibly labor intensive, and cannot be lucrative once you realize that a pound of table salt costs less than a dollar.  The raw version must fetch much, much less.  At this point, the money generated by tourism probably beats the revenues from the actual salt (an entrance ticket costs a $1.75).

Other than the Europeans taking pictures, this system probably hasn´t changed in thousands of years.  Wow.

Welcome to a three dimensional maze of thousands of salt basins.

Salt water starts out in the canal by those tourists. Then, by using rocks to block a series of channels, it is directed into the pools.  It takes about a month for the water to evaporate, at which point the salt is extracted.

Each basin produces a few hundred pounds of salt per year.

Making the hard uphill trek.

Surreal.



Probably relatively more accessible when you walked everywhere.  It´s a precarious road to the mines.



The textures really come out in black and white.

Shadows on the salt.

A natural adjacency to salt.  So.  Much. Stuff.

Peru - the Sacred Valley

Anywhere else, the Sacred Valley would be its own attraction.

But with Machu Picchu next door, sometimes it gets overlooked.  Like Pippen to Jordan.  Or everyone else in the NBA next to Lebron James.

There are huge mountains, quiet villages and loads of Inca ruins.  It´s part of the same valley that reaches Machu Picchu, and the Incas built and built up and down the mountains.

We spent a couple of days visiting ruins, doing light hiking and relaxing after our 4am assault on Machu Picchu the day before.  We also got lost trying to find a way between two sites (it was in Frommer´s - how bad could it be?), with a river in the way and no way to cross it.  A stray taxi saved us, and we got some good pictures in the process.

Hello Pisac, citadel and farming town at the edge of the valley.  Like a castle out of Lord of the Rings.  It´s like Machu Picchu lite.

Looking down the valley at huge green ridges and fields. 

Couple of American tourists and their guide on the edge of the fortress.

Birds of prey everywhere - here´s one cruising high above the canyon.

Terracing halfway down the mountain - it must have taken a hefty amount of human labor to get the job done.

To add to the ambience, there´s even live music at the summit.

Caught Weiner trying to get a candid!



A birds eye view of the terracing and ruins.



Getting around in the taxi... folks are superstitious here, and a few religious charms can´t hurt.

Traffic jam!

Part Wyoming, part Utah and part wild west.

More clever terracing, more questions about what it was for.  Even today most Inca sites aren´t well understood and are shrouded in mystery.

Huge snowy peaks just behind that last ridge.  Most are well above 6,000m (20,000 ft.)  And this is at 14 degrees south of the equator!

Big mountains, bigger sky.

A different view of the terracing.

Taking the road less traveled, because it is the wrong road.

A great view of the topography - big canyons, big mountains, and winding paths. 

It turns out this scenic road would lead us about 20 miles from where we wanted to go.  Good thing we asked the local shepherd for directions.

Golden fields.

Local wildlife!

A different view of the Sacred Valley, towards Machu Picchu.

Special thanks to Weiner for this vanity shot.

Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail

I have to admit, I was a little bit skeptical of Machu Picchu.

All the hype, all the cliches, all the postcards with that famous shot.

But, Machu Pacchu is the real deal.  It is probably one of the coolest places in the world.  I´ve seen big mountains, and I´ve seen ancient ruins, but I´ve never seen ruins this impressive on mountains this big.  Wow.

On top of that (no pun intended!), the site is clean, organized and traveler friendly.  For all its faults, the Peruvian government takes its responsibility here seriously.  Getting to and from the site is a breeze.  You can see Peru´s best side here.
Machu Picchu´s obscure history, combined its mountaintop-in-the-clouds-surrounded-by-jungle setting make it a really special place. 

No one really knows what Machu Picchu was for.  It was abandoned when the Spanish came (although the Spanish never found it), and then re-discovered in the early 20th century by an American explorer and archaeologist.  Some people think it was a center of religious worship and power - like the Vatican.  Others think it was a retreat for royalty.  Others say it was built in the shape of a condor and symbolized the ascent to the afterlife.

Regardless, it´s worth a visit.



Machu Picchu visitors wear all sorts of hats as they wait for the train.



There are two classes of trains -
tourist class and local service.  Tourist class hits western standards of comfort and cleanliness, and is accordingly much much more expensive.

The canyon is so narrow it´s basically impossible to build a servicable road.  Even the train tracks get buried a few times a year from mudslides.  Service stopped before Cuzco because tracks further down the line were washed away.

Luckily, there is Peruvian time, and there is tourist time (which is usually on time).  Service is good but very bureaucratic... sometime I´ve noticed in other places too.  There are about 3x too many people checking tickets.

These women walk covered in blankets and other trinkets from head to toe.  How much do they sell?  How much money do they make?  It´s a little heartbreaking seeing these women work so hard to sell a few trinkets, especially when you do the math on how much they must earn for a days work. 

The best coffee in all of Peru.  It was delicious. 

Skylights on the train.

Our hike began with this rickety bridge.



I´m not even that into flowers, but you couldn´t help taking pictures.  The flora really was amazing.



Just two gringos in the jungle.

Mountains as steep as the Tetons, covered in vegetation, and shrouded in clouds.  It sounds good in theory and it is incredible to actually see it.

Winded but happy.

As clouds appeared and disappeared the views would change dramatically.

Terracing high up in the mountains.  Scientists think this might have been an agricultural supply zone for Machu Picchu.




Brutal steps.  But worth the view!





 

More views from the trail.

The train snakes it way at the bottom of this canyon.

Using a little fish-eye lens to try and capture just how larger than life the view is.

To give a sense of scale, this mountain is about 2,000 feet tall with near vertical cliffs, and just sort of sits there in the middle of the canyon.  Amazing.



Welcome to Machu Picchu!



And in black in white.



Making our way through the jungle.  Just 30km away the climate is dry and alpine... amazing how quickly the landscape can change out here.

And here is that famous shot of Machu Picchu. 

For my parent´s refrigerator.

This time without people - just like the postcards!

Shrouded in clouds early in the morning.

Birds of prey.

We weren´t as lucky with weather on the second day - but the clouds and fog give Machu Picchu a very mystical vibe.

You can see a piece of Machu Picchu in the bottom right, with peaks in the background. 

Jungle vegetation with the clouds as a backdrop.

There is so much moisture that some of the plants live just off of the water in the fog - like parts of the Pacific Northwest.

An eerie place.

Mr. Weiner travelling in style!