Tonight, after a really long all-nighter the night before at the airport in Quito (in order to avoid the violent protests of the Paro Nacional that have broken out in various cities due to the lack of oil subsidies), along with a long day of connecting flights from Quito to Guayaquil, then to Lima, I finally landed in Cusco, Perú! It was a crazy 24 hours and I was exhausted when I finally landed. Of course, once I got to the hotel, there was no Wi-Fi, and my mom had been waiting for me to tell her that I made it safely. When she did not hear from me for hours, she got really worried and contacted the study abroad advisor from my school. It wasn't until the next morning that the Wi-Fi was working again, and I woke up to at least 5 missed calls from my mom, along with emails from my advisor checking in on me, haha! But after that, things calmed down. I can honestly say fell in love with this incredible city the second I saw it. It is full of beautiful architecture, incredible archaeological sites, unbelievable mountainous regions and lakes, and is very peaceful (which is a really nice break from the constant hustle and bustle of Quito). I seriously could move here right now and be so content. Our first day we visited various incredible archaeological sites in Cusco. This image is of a site called Tambomachay, and the exact function of this site is not known. It is believed to have possibly been a site used for Incan ceremonies, as a spa, or as a military outpost. The architecture is quite impressive, with trapezoidal niches built into the retaining walls. The whole site was also built on top of a natural spring, which is why this very likely could have been used as a spa for the Incan ruler, and has an alternate name of "El baño del Inca" or "The Bath of the Inca". It is also very likely that it had more than just one use. The two images above are from another archaeological site in Northern Cusco, called Sacsayhuaman. This name means "place where the hawk is satiated" in Quechua. It is a fortress of sacred buildings such as towers, aqueducts, and shrines. The walls are tremendously impressive, with some of the stones beings as large as 5 meters (15 ft) high and 2.5 meters (8 ft) wide, and weighing up to 125 tons. Aside from the incredible size of the stones, this site is so impressive because the workers carefully cut each and every stone to fit perfectly on top of one another without using any mortar to hold them together. This cyclopian architecture certainly makes one wonder how they were able to create such a complex fortress so many years ago without the modern-day equipment we have now. There was even this incredible natural slide at the Rodadero, where Incan children used to play, in the northeastern Suchuna sector. It is a smooth, diorite rock that you can actually slide down. (But don't worry, we slid down feet first, not face first. That was just us posing for the picture).
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Ashley KoboldMy amazing experience studying abroad in Ecuador. ¡Qué chévere! Archives
December 2019
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