Phuyu Pata Marca |
|
|
Not far beyond the Third Pass you will come across the 'City Among the Clouds'. You can see by the photo at left that this is an appropriate name! (Although probably not the original Inca name - it was coined by the Fejos expedition who cleared most of the site in the 1940's.) It is built in a style similar to Sayac Marca - a lot of curves and not that much of the finely fitted straight lines that you see other places. This (according to my book) would date these ruins to around the fifteenth century. |
This is also the first place (as I recall) that you run across the series of ceremonial baths that you see in Huinay Huayna and elsewhere and these are particularly well preserved. You can see (sort of) in the photo above the first three of the six baths, one above the other. While these are no doubt ceremonial in purpose (in other words likely not a public bath), there are a couple of different explanations as the why they are arrayed in this cascade pattern down the hillside. One notion is that only the priests or holy men had access to the upper baths where the water would be most pure. The other idea (and this one makes more sense to me) is that you would start at the lower levels and make your way up, so that by the time you reached the top bath where the water came pure and straight from the spring you would be purified before entering the temple. And, I didn't make a note about this but it seems to me that Mauro told us that the upper level of this site was a Temple of the Rainbow. |
|
 |
In the bath pictured above, the water was so pure that Mauro recommended that we all
at least have a taste, if not filling our water bottles from this spring. (The only place
along the trail where we were advised to drink the water I might add!) To see Mauro
demonstrate the proper kneeling position to utilize this bath see Here. As you follow the path around the site, the other side of the ruins resemble a medieval castle - walls hugging the hillside and round turrets overlooking the valley below. From here you start down what amounts to a REALLY long staircase... |
I really like this picture. This is Percy (the assistant guide) coming down the steps at Phuyu Pata Marca. Throughout the trek I had a tendency to hang back and take my time so that I generally wasn't in the lead group of hikers. One of the benefits of this was that from time to time Percy, who brought up the rear, would get out his bamboo flute and play a little appropriately Andean sounding music. Which, like in this case, going down the steps in the mist with the music coming from somewhere behind, just added to the mystical feeling. |
Inca StepsFrom this point it’s down - down - down... descending a kilometer (!) in maybe three kilometers hiking. A lot of this is by stone steps - 5200 in all according to Mauro. This is a little hard on the calves but not that bad and the weather started to improve. So, once again hanging behind, I got to enjoy a variety of wildflowers, birds, butterflies and eventually nice views of the valley down to the Urubamba River (where you could see the railroad tracks for the first time - signs of civilization!). By the time we got to Intipata the sun was shining... |
 |
- Inca Trail
Day Three