We awoke in this Incan village containing some of the oldest continually-occupied homes in the Americas. After breakfast we made a 30-minute climb to the Pinkuylluna ruins, 3 curious-looking long buildings we had seen on the mountainside from our hostel. The students recognized that the ruins were of an Incan storage house. The expansion of the Incan Empire and the surplus labor that made possible so many massive, high-quality stone structures – without resorting to slavery – was made possible by the Incan ability to produce excess food and store it, assuring food security for everyone where many other civilizations had failed.
Afterwards we got a look inside one of the village’s ancient homes whose interior (replete with guinea pigs and unexpected decorations on the walls) was typical of rural Andean homes both today and more than 500 years ago.
The students’ homework assignment upon waking, before breakfast: go to the roof-top terrace, view the ruins across the valley, and guess their purpose. [Based on previous readings and tours, they got this right.]Hiking up to the Pinkuylluna ruins.Although this was the steepest climb so far this week, our lungs were more adapted to the altitude.The students had previously learned that tall buildings built on mountainsides, with long vertical windows for ventilation, were Incan storehouses.The placement on mountsides took advantage of cool breezes moving up the mountain.On the other side of the valley was a more impressive set of ruins …… the main Ollantaytambo ruins, which we will visit on our return trip from Machu Picchu.A perfect Incan photo frame.Question for students: what is the purpose of the round stone pegs jutting out from roof line? …… They were for lashing down the wooden beams which supported the thatch roof.The stone streets and wall foundations are more than 500 years old.This and other homes like it in Ollantaytambo have been continually inhabited, and housed guinea pigs as a food source, since the Incas and perhaps before.Willy, who grew up in a Quechua home like this, shows the stone used for grinding corn.What 3 small, unusual objects do you see in the wall niches above the students’ heads?Willy demonstrates the type of plow used since the pre-Incas and still today.On the train to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu!Based on the players, this must be the card version of hacky-sack.
