After our horseback tour we went home and cleaned up for dinner and had a pretty laid back night. In the morning we woke up to find that 6 new girls had moved in along with 2 guys. Us guys are extremely outnumbered, but everyone that moved in is really nice. We have a few people from Canada, a few from Australia and a few more Americans now. That night we went and played Soccer and Volleyball with our host family and their friends and it was EXHAUSTING. It was the equivalent of hiking up to the top of the Sandia Mountains and then playing Soccer. It was still a ton of fun. Oh! and we also watched the Spain, Italy game (of course). Spain really didnt need those 2 goals at the end, but Torres did have something to prove since we wasnt getting much play time. Nonetheless it was a fun game to watch. I think that was about the sum of our weekend. It was a ton of fun staying in Cusco, but next weeekend we are going to Machu Pichu and I cant wait!
Monday, July 2, 2012
The Puma, Condor and Snake
This weekend we decided to stay in Peru and learn more about the local history. On Saturday, we woke up and headed up one of the surounding mountains to the historical ruins of saxsaywaman (the ones that we keep mentioning). On one side of the mountain is part of the city of cusco and then on the backside are the ruins. Unfortionately when we got there tickets were too expensive, but we were offered to do a horseback tour of the surounding ruins which was awesome because I have never been on a horse before. We got an incredible deal as well! Anyways, we walked up past the ruins of saxsaywaman to a ranch where we got on the horses and headed on a 2 hour adventure. During the tour, we visited mount equis which used to be a small little Incan village. The ruins were destroyed because the Spanish used the stones for their cathedrals in the 16th century, but a few small caves were found so we explored those. The large stones were lightly covered with this dark green moss that made for and incredible sight that is very rare in New Mexico. Next, we travled to two temples called Templo de los monos and Templo de la Luna which are Temple of the Monkeys and Temple of the Moon. Inside the temple of the moon were three very beaten up carvings of a Condor, Snake and Puma. It is believed in Incan religion that these three animals symbolize the three worlds. The Condor represents the link between the Gods and Mankind, The Puma Symbolizes the Human state of Living, and the Snake symbolizes the afterlife where souls go to prepare for their rebirth. These three symbols are integrated into every historical Incan Ruin, and Cusco was actually originally shaped like a Puma, and Machu Pichu a Condor. As we went into the cave that was the Temple of the Moon we saw a large flat rock below a whole in the ceiling. Here was where Sacrifices were made when the Moon shown through the hole in the top of the cave. Now there is a sign out front that saws "Please no open fires or offerings"...intense.
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