Group Tour of Ancient Andean Indian Sites

Today is our group tour, yea! Always look forward to getting into a small van with 10 other people to cruise around for hours. But no way are we renting a car to do this, not in Peru! Tour guide showed up right on time, 8:00am for a 7:30am pick up. Then we had to walk to another shop (this was their hotel pick up method) and wait another 20 minutes for the van to show up. Finally, 9:00am and off to the ruins, right on time.

First stop is the ancient ruin called, ‘Chucuito’, the Temple of Fertility.  Located in a town with the same name, legend has it that this site was used by the Inca Uyo to cure fertility problems in both men and woman.

The structure is a rectangular area surrounded by a stone wall. Inside there are 86 carved, mushroom-shaped stones look more like carved stone penises, some pointing up at the sky – possibly toward Inti, the Inca sun god – while others are rammed into the ground – toward Pachamama, the Mother Earth goddess. The site was first excavated in 1950 and according to the report, the stones found there were not standing upright, nor were they in rows. There is also some discussion that not all of the stones were originally here, some may have been removed from other sites and brought here. Could be the whole thing is a hoax, but it was fun to watch some people react to these “penis” shaped carvings.

Too much fun, now on to Chullpas and the Inca Burial Towers. Again, there seems to be some discussion about this site. Our guide told us that the towers were built as burial chambers for important people in the tribe who had died. The bodies were mummified, joints on the legs and arms were broken, and the body was folded into fetal position before being placed inside these towers.

Where the discussion comes in is about the shape of the towers. Three of the towers are square, while one tower is round. Our guide said that was because women were in charge, leaders of the tribe, and were buried in the square ones; while the men who worked the fields and died, were buried in the round ones. Only one round tower remains today.

What research says about the different shapes is this. There were the Incas and the Aymara tribes living in this area. They managed to live in relative peace (temporarily) and shared some traditions with each other, like mummification and burial. However, where they differed was in the shape of the burial tower; Incas tower was round, while Aymara towers were square. Again, no one really knows.

Not through yet, still more ancient sites to see. This next site was called, “waru waru” which is the term for a farming technology developed by the Quechua Indians of South America. This technology precedes that of the Inca Indians who used terrace farming to grow specific crops at different altitudes.

The way the Aymara implemented this technology was to first make a large circle in the land. Next, they would dig irrigation channels in pie shapes from the center of the circle. Between these channels were “islands” of land used for planting crops. As the islands and channels spread from the center, they got wider. This is an important feature of this technology. As the channels got farther from the center, and got wider, they produced more moisture and frost due to evaporation than the channels closer to the center.  This, in effect, was equivalent to changes in altitude; colder as you go higher, warmer as you go lower. That’s where the Incas got the idea of terrace farming different crops. (Or so our guide said) Makes sense.

Regardless, pretty ingenious way to experiment with types of crops in different temperate levels.

Last on our list of sites today was the ancient “portal” temple of Aramu Muru. Found in the 1990’s, this carved “doorway” has been called many different things. Some have said it looks like a doorway that was once used to access an underground temple; others say it is an unfinished part to a temple that was to be carved into the mountain; still others say it is a interdimensional portal that can (at certain times) whisk you away to another dimension. As for my theory, I’m going with the unfinished temple.

With three other bus loads of tourists hanging around waiting their turn to try to be whisk away, we decided to climb to the top of the rock and get great views of the valleys and a little bit of Titicaca. Once it cleared out, we went down for our turn to call to the Gods.

Just in case the legend was true, Collette said I could go first. There is a special technique to summoning the Gods. You must kneel on the stone base while placing your hands on each wall, then place your forehead in a little divot in the rock wall. Some people stayed in this position for 5+ minutes, guess they were hoping to vanish but no luck, still here with the rest of the group. I chose to make a minimal stay, if it was going to send me to another dimension, I think it would have done it right away. After 1-2 minutes the only thing I had to show for my participation was a small bruise on my knee and red spot on my forehead. Good thing, Collette checked our insurance papers (she carries them with us while we travel to see if out activities are covered) and portal jumping is not covered.

Best part, lunch was included in our tour. A BBQ lunch on the shore of Lake Titicaca, perfect.

Well, as fun as all this was, it was time to head back to our humble hotel and find a nice place to have dinner and a pisco sour.

Time to bid farewell to Peru but we’ll be back. Our next stop is La Paz, Bolivia to see more ruins. These are special ruins, built by aliens (no not people from another country – the space kind).

Chao.