Bee in my Bonnet

Located in the opposite end of the sacred Urubamba Valley is Pisac… the village and the archaeological site. 

The terraces are beautiful. 

Trying to post pics before we leave wifi service. So not much commentary at this time. 

The hike to the tower on top was hard and exhausting. The atitude is over 9,000 feet. Makes hiking so much harder. John stayed down a little lower since the altitude got to him. 

Here is a pic of me at the top of Pisac ruins. 

We spent a little time in the town and saw this cute family. Some native people dress in their local traditional clothing. For one sole, about 33 cents, you can take their picture. The cute little animals are llamas. 

We were able to go to a silver factory and jewelry shop. It was quite interesting to learn how they make the jewelry. They start from the raw stone and cut and polish it then it is mounted in the highest quality of silver work. Containing only 5% copper and the rest of the metal pure silver, it never tarnishes. The jewelry is created at a small work bench. 

Various stones and shells used for jewelry making. The very large pendant on the right shows the inlay work in progress. The other pendant is finished. This pendent has a spiral which represents the Inka/Quechua ‘Pachamama’, or earth mother. The rainbow colors are Quechua. 

 The significance and meanings for each color are as follows: Red: The Earth and the Andean man, Orange: Society and culture, Yellow: Energy, White: Time, Green: Natural resources, Blue: The heavens, Violet: Andean government and self-determination