The Lima Temple closes for two weeks -- Vacation time

The Lima Temple was closed for the first two weeks of August. This occurs every six months to allow for maintenance and upkeep.  We used the vacation time to travel to several destinations in Peru.  Not bad for a full time mission. Where else can you have four weeks of vacation plus Christmas and New Years? Several of our family including a grandson came to visit for a week. We made our second visit to Cusco and Machu Picchu. This time we were a little better prepared having had six months to brush up on Inca history, lore, and astronomical alignments.

The Angel Moroni is getting cleaned and additional gold leaf

Our first trip was to the Casma valley, about three hours north of Lima, where we visited the oldest solar observatory in the Americas. It is known as Chanquillo. A currently unknown culture built the observatory and fortress about 400 BC. It has been determined the fortress was not for defensive purposes but ceremonial in nature.

Thirteen stone towers line the hilltop as seen from the fortress.
This solar observatory allowed the local inhabitants to tell
within a day or so the date of the year. 

We next traveled south of Lima to a coastal location called Paracas. It is home to the Islas de Ballestas or the Ballestas Islands.  They are known as the little Galapagos Islands of Peru and were not a long boat ride from the Hotel Libertador where we stayed. We circled the islands with our daughter and grandson and saw thousands of birds, sea  lions, dolphins, and even a few penguins. We toured the National Reserve of Paracas, which is one of the dryest regions on the planet and yet its western boundary is the Pacific Ocean.  The Humboldt Current keeps any rain from falling. Our guide explained that in a year not more than a centimeter of rain falls.

The hotel pool and reflection pond at the Libertador in Paracas

Fabulous food, even Josh enjoyed it

A penguin and sea lions on the Ballestas Islands

In addition to the Andes Mountain chain, the largest in the world, the cliffs along the seacoast just south of Paracas and the Islas de Ballestas were formed from the upthrust of the Pacific Plate subducting under the South American Plate. This thrust, including some volcanic activity, has brought both basalt and porphyry granite to the surface.  This distinctive red granite is some several billion years old and among the oldest rocks on the planet.  A red beach exists because of the action of water and wind on the red granite cliffs.

Playa Rojo or the Red Beach at Paracas

Josh enjoyed the deserts in Peru including lucuma ice cream

Next we journeyed, six of us, to Cusco and a return trip to Machu Picchu for RA and I. Our flight was delayed four hours, so our time to tour the great fortress Sacsayhuaman above Cusco was limited. We wanted to see the cathedral where the painting hangs done by Quechua native artists showing Christ and the Twelve enjoying cuy or guinea pig on a platter for the Last Supper. Time did not permit a visit but we found a photo on the web to share. Among other things a number of holidays observed by the Inca/Quechua people were taken over by the Spanish and became Christian traditions and observances. The practice of melding together distinct cultures is known as syncretism.  The cuy for the Last Supper is a wonderful example of this.

It is a guinea pig or cuy on the platter. Unlikely that one average sized cuy even miraculously could feed the Lord and the Twelve. They are small, though efforts are underway here in Lima to breed larger cuy.

This was the most important temple in the Incan Empire. Known as Inti Qancha,  Qori Qancha or the Temple of the Sun. It was lined with solid sheets of gold both floors and walls. The gold was removed to pay for the ransom of the last Emperor Atahualpa. Mostly, it was destroyed to build the Dominican Monastery that occupies the site presently.

All of us at Sacsayhuaman. The stone work was classical Inca and beautiful.

The Inca understood seismic loadings better than anyone for more than 500 years to the present day.
This lintel has withstood massive earthquakes through the centuries and even the Spanish conquistadores.

We made several stops along the way in the Sacred Valley between Cusco and Machu Picchu including the fascinating Incan ruins of Ollantaytambo. Locals in the village still live in stone houses and structures dating to the mid 15th Century. They have the claim of being the oldest continuous lived in dwellings in the western hemisphere, or the world for that matter. Ollantaytambo was built by the Incan Emperor Pachacuti.  There are interestings carvings in stone on a mountain side including the Incan God Viracocha and an Incan Emperor, presumably Pachacuti.

The Winter Solstice at sunrise would illuminate the carved face of the Sapa Inca

bringing the promise of longer days and another growing season to the Andes.

Viracocha carved in the face of the cliff.  Universally worshiped in

pre Spanish Peru as the great creator god.  During the reign of Pachacuti the

Sun God became preeminent in the theology of the Inca as an effort to bring 

unity and consolidate control by this emperor of the Incas. His claim was that

he descended from the sun. 

Mary with a baby llama in the Sacred Valley near Cusco

Celestial alignments for solar and star gazing were essential parts of the religious life of the Inca and the earlier people of the Andes. Fortunately, for Peru and the world, the conquistadores never came to Machu Picchu or it would have been destroyed, as was nearly every other location where they visited. Buildings were literally ripped apart as the conquistadores were looking for hidden stashes of gold between the stones. Machu Picchu remains a place that in every way is as breathtaking as its 8,000 feet of elevation.  In the words of National Geographic explorer and archaeologist Johann Reinhard, it is one place where "reality exceeds expectation."

Adam and Natalie with Huayna Picchu in the background

Looking toward the Temple of the Sun and the Intihuatana Stone

We climbed to the Sun Gate above Machu Picchu, about a two hour roundtrip hike on Inca Trail. Over this mountain peak the rising solstice sun would illuminate the Intihuatana Stone and most importantly the Torreon or The Temple of the Sun.

The Sun Gate in the distance and the trail on the right leading to it.

From the Sun Gate looking toward the Intihuatana Stone

Mary at the Sun Gate

Some tired tourists at Machu Picchu

Our favorite restaurant in Lima on our last night with the family.  It is owned and operated by a family from Arequipa Peru. The ribs, chicken, cuy and papas fritas are the best. It is called "A La Leña.: