As the ancient center of the Inca empire, Cusco is surrounded by many sacred sites and inspiring archeological constructs.
Of course there is Machu Pichu, which can only be accessed by train from Cusco, however, there are many sacred sites within the city itself and within hiking distance from the city center.
Such an example is Sacsayhuamán (hilariously pronounced “sexy woman”). Sacsayhuamán was the central imperial base of the Inca empire and where the epic battle occurred in which the Spanish overtook the Inca empire. Amazingly, this historic location is located 2.2 kilometers from my apartment.
Early one Sunday morning I woke and decided to explore this indescribable site. One of the downsides to travel photography is it doesn’t begin to capture the scope and spectrum of such a place, especially when one uses an iPhone for their travel camera.
It is impossible to capture the perspective of stones that are larger than houses as one ponders how it was possible that the Incas were able to build such structures by human hands and labor alone.
Some people have said that visiting Sacsayhuamán was the highlight of their trip to Peru. Somehow I had the good fortune to find my living accommodations within walking distance from this sacred site.
It is said that you cannot even slip a piece of paper between the stones. There are lots of theories on how the Incas built such an incomprehensible site with their bare hands. One theory says that the structure was here when the Incas arrived.
Field Notes
A prophet once said, “Don’t tell me what a man says, don’t tell me what a man knows. Tell me where he has traveled.”
Do we get smarter, more enlightened as we travel?
Does travel bring wisdom?
There’s probably no better place to find out than Peru, a place where many generations of mystics, lunatics, writers and artists and general seekers of the truth have come to find enlightenment.
-Anthony Bourdain
View From the Road
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Zen and Ink Journals represents hundreds of hours of writing over the past decade, sometimes from a train in remote China or a coffee shop in Kyoto, a hammock in Costa Rica or a simple cabin on a mountaintop in Boquete, Panama or Ciudad Colón.
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