Finding rocks bigger than us: Sacsayhuaman with the kids
(Quick pronunciation note: Sacsayhuaman is pronounced: Sax-sigh-hwa-man. In English it can be remembered by saying 'sexy woman' with a Spanish accent!)
Sacsayhuaman was one of our favourite places on our trip. Overlooking Cusco, it is an Incan ceremonial center and the rocks there are just HUGE! We told the boys we were on a mission to find rocks bigger than themselves and Daddy and it didn’t take them long! Just look at the size of this one!
Not bad for a culture that had no iron tools, no wheels and no animals who would haul heavy loads. (Alpacas and Llamas sit down and refuse to move when loaded with more than a small weight!) Wondering how many people must have been involved in moving these rocks, which all fit together perfectly, is amazing. Many of the rocks have large numbers of sides, so the boys also had the challenge of finding a rock with the most sides. I don't remember exactly but we found one that had at least 12 neatly fitted sides.
We had also been told that there were natural slides and tunnels so the boys were very anxious to find them. In the end we went exploring and came upon the slides by accident! The boys loved them and would have stayed for longer. Here is a video of Mark and Kaleb going down the larger slides. Don't worry, Mark wasn't hurt!
The tunnels were more difficult to find. Eventually, after doing a detour to a corner of Sacsayhuman where there were a group of llamas and asking 3 different people who sent us in different directions, we finally found the tunnel - it was at least 20 meters long and pitch black in the middle! I had to find my phone when everyone else left me behind so I could get out.
Sacsayhuaman was probably the site that the boys enjoyed most on the trip. I loved wondering at the huge stones too which are much larger than the ones at Machu Picchu. Last time we had visited Sacsayhuaman we had no idea that the slides and tunnels existed so it was fun to finally discover them too!
Next post is the final one on our trip to Cusco! You can read about our other adventures in Cusco in past blogposts:
1. Practicing Rest: A family Holiday
3. Salt pits and Crop Circle experiments
(Just a side note, we are not traveling for 3 months in Cusco, it was a 2 week trip we did in July! It is just I am slowing sharing with you about the trip over several weeks so I have time to process the photos and the time there! We are back to normal missional life in Lima right now but spreading out the posts allows me to still enjoy our time there!)
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