Trekking the Inca Trail - Phuyupatamarca

With Day 3 of trekking a relatively shorter day, we arrived at camp before lunch and had time to unlace and unwind.

After a brief (and smelly) nap (it's been three days of sweating and no showers at this point), we all enjoyed another amazing lunch. We had free time to watch the clouds engulf and pass over the mountain top before we gathered to explore the ruins below.

Phuyupatamarca is roughly 3,200 metres altitude and means the City Above the Clouds. As we descended the steep stairs to approach the archaeological site (located just below the camp site), we noticed various Chasquis running up and down the stairs with big containers of water. The only fresh water at the camp comes out of a small stream and ancient irrigation system, which includes five ceremonial stone baths. I don't know if I was more impressed by the ancient engineering or the speed of the Chasquis running up stairs carrying huge jugs of water considering I was having trouble standing stationary with my wobbly baby alpaca legs.

Phuyupatamarca was impressively intact! There were the standard sun temple, storage houses, farming terraces, various rooms, but more importantly... LLAMAS!

Lookit his cute llama butt!

Becoming one with the llama herd

I've never felt so free and majestic!!

Man, our poor guide was trying to tell us about the super interesting site and surrounding mountains. but I was somehow continually distracted.

Someone was eavesdropping on our history lesson

She did not seem to want to stick around when our guide started talking about sacrificing llamas...



Okay, focusing up we learned that Phuyupatamarca likely functioned as an observation post and relay station for Chasquis carrying messages to the Inca. A small population would have lived there and in the surrounding hills, of course practicing terrace farming.

Looking directly out and across from the edge of the Sun Temple you can see Machu Picchu mountain - our final destination of the trek was nestled on the other side of the peak.

I tried not to think about all the steps between us and the archaeological site. Which was easy when... (points arm and yells) BIRD!

Mountain Caracara

Scarlet-Bellied Mountain Tanager

Andean Sparrow

Peering down with a bird's eye view from the edge of the Sun Temple, we saw a large rock sitting on the grass across from the water fountains.It was the rock used for sacrificing llamas. Different events and times of year called for different sacrifices, but llamas were the most common. We learned that llamas were led to the rock, had their throats cut and their hearts removed. Depending on the condition of the llama's heart, the priest could tell whether the farming year would be good or bad.

Erin and I decided to stick around and soothe the poor shocked llamas and assure them they weren't going to be sacrificed by us. The only thing sacrificed was our dignity. Stay still and llama take a selfie!

We zipped, ran, skipped back up the steep set of switch backing stairs to the camp (read: very slowly ambled up). I briefly stopped to take a photo of this excuse to rest, I mean moss.

It was going to be an early night as wake up call was 2 am for the last day of trekking through the dark to arrive at the Sun Gate perched above Machu Picchu. But first, it was time to say a heartfelt thank you and goodbye to the team of Chasquis that had made our trip so enjoyable, safe and delicious. They had to run to reach and catch the local train just after 2:30 am - which meant ensuring we had water, pack lunches, packing up our tents and the campsite and hitting the trail in under 30 minutes in the dark of the early morning!

We tucked in to our tents and said goodnight. It was pretty cold up at 3600m at night and I wished I had wrangled a fuzzy llama to be our space heater. It seriously couldn't smell worse than us. Good night!