The Sacred Valley

The Inca culture is really incredible, and we are all in awe of their technology especially in agriculture. Today we visited a place called Moray where they constructed what amounts to a research station, with concentric irrigated rings of terraced land on a mountain plateau (3700m high).  There they developed seed for multiple crops in multiple varieties - 3000 types of potatoes alone.  Some of the lower terraces in the Sacred Valley remain in production today, continuously farmed for over 500 years now, and high in corn, as well as wheat, oats, and vegetables like squash and yams.  We also spent time at an alpaca farm, much to the kids delight - we all fed and pet them, and they are really friendly creatures.  Later at lunch the buffet included local dishes with quinoa(sp?) soup (a rice-like grain) and of course, alpaca in gravy.  We all tried it and thought it tasty - can you tell our kids were raised on a farm? Love it.  The Sun Temple at Oliantatambo was an awesome example of astronomy - the alter lined up perfectly with the summer and winter solstice shadows between the mountain peaks.  Truly, an incredible day of learning (not to mention about 1500 steps to climb?) - we are all very tired tonight.