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Show Travelers celebrate Andean ceremony 5 , ' ; , Am i .-'-m- VL i:;:;IlW ill natives. Here, they had all types of food, salt, clothing and utensils and traded for supplies they needed during the week. Very little money was ever exchanged between the Indians. They have a barter society. Beans for salt, potatoes for bananas, bana-nas, blankets for kettles or pottery. The different types of potatoes that were being sold were not like anything any-thing we had seen in the states. They were very small and had been cooked and many were fermented and black and considered a favorite local dish. There were many types of vegetables and bananas that were not familiar to us. The trading was brisk. Each person was intent on making the best bargain. The left side of the market appeared to be more for the tour- Walking to the back of the market, mar-ket, we saw numerous Inca walls with their characteristically cut stone. One of the walls of stone was so constructed that a narrow entry way was made parallel to the wall so that when you looked toward to-ward it, you could not see it. The stones in front blended in perfectly with the ones behind them. This made it possible for a priest to appear from out of nowhere and speak to the audience. The village and ruins are perched on top of a steep knoll. From the rim we could see where the Incas had terraced up the mountain. The same type of stone work was used in the construction of the Inca buildings and used to stabilize the earth of the terraces. These have endured for hundreds of years Editor's Note: World-travelers and long-time Bountiful residents, Gerald and LaRae Durtschi recently traveled to Peru. This is the third in a series of articles arti-cles in which they have written about their adventures. By GERALD and LaRAE DURTSCHI The traditional Andean ceremony cere-mony of the Sunday market is observed all over Peru. We observed this in a small, quaint village vil-lage called Chincheros. Located approximately one and one-half hours from Cuzco, the In-dians In-dians have been gathering there for rbndreds of years and most are J,asically farmers who till the terraced ter-raced hillsides and valleys. They also make cloth, gather potatoes and maize and other items that they can sell, barter or trade at the market mar-ket on Sunday. Turning from the main road, we took a dirt road toward to-ward what appeared to be a cluster of small houses and farms. Wondering Won-dering where this large market could be, we left our bus, walked; further up the dirt road, turned a; corner and were confronted with 60 ancient Incan stone steps, laid by the Incas hundreds of years ago. The steps led up between high stone and adobe walls . Climbing up the ancient Inca steps, we crossed under the stone arch, and before us stretched a broad plaza surrounded by walls and houses and high above us, a huge church, all of adobe, built on the ancient foundations of an Inca temple and town. The plaza was filled with Indians sitting on the ground with their blankets and goods in front of them and their children and dogs around ' them. The scene of high Andean peaks covered with snow above the drab ancient buildings, and the riot of color presented by the clothing, clo-thing, goods and foods displayed in the plaza was breathtaking. We had just stepped back 500 years in time. The market is roughly divided di-vided into two sections by a narrow dirt path. The right side is for the boys seemd very happy. They were wearing ragged, dirty pants, no shirts and no shoes. The dirt was caked on their legs and feet and you could not see their toes. Pausing long enough to give them some American candy and take their picture, we continued on. Moray consisted of four deep depressions de-pressions in the earth. The holes descend approximately 100 feet below be-low their rims. There were several hundred feet across and terraced from the round flat bottom up to the rim and on up the mountain. It is believed that the Incas used these structures to climatize plants so that their seed and seedlings could survive the higher and colder elevations of Peru. The bus bumped on down the road, which was the main road to the Maras. The bus was equipped with good springs and shock absorbers, absor-bers, but the bumps still came through the seats. Rounding a sharp curve, we lurched to a complete com-plete stop. The road had just ended. en-ded. It was up to us to walk the rest of the way to Maras. It took about an hour to reach the hill overlooking overlook-ing Maras and below, in stark white, lay the evaporation ponds. They were laid out like a giant three dimensional jigsaw puzzle. The ponds all fit perfectly together with each one a different size and shape and gradually sloped down toward the valley. Here was the center of salt production pro-duction of the southern highlands during the Inca and colonial times. The natives still use the same methods of collecting salt and selling sell-ing it in the market. There was at least 5,000 small evaporation ponds in the system, each with a tiny channel leading back to one of the two salt brine springs. These springs have been flowing without interruption for over a thousand years. The source of salt is not known, but the water carries it to the surface and the brine that com- O CONTINUED ON PAGE 24 "The scene of high Andean U, peaks covered with snow above the drab ancient buildings, and the riot of color presented by the clothing, goods and foods displayed in the plaza was breathtaking." f mt II i m i in i i m in m iuii l in I ii ij i I . p . A worker prepares to harvest salt from one of the hundreds of evaporation ponds at Maras. i . , ists. There were many different types of alpaca sweaters, hats, and , scarves along with beautiful Llama skin blankets. Heavy stockings for hiking the Andes were for sell. There were pottery, pictures, leather, blankets and clothing for the tourist to buy and take home. Even in this small village, they preferred the American greenback above anything else in trade. The young men had carved flutes from bamboo to sell. The music they played was melodious and relaxing. relax-ing. The natives were eager to bargain bar-gain and would lower their prices until a customer felt compelled to buy such wonderful bargains. , I without much maintenance. The placement of each terrace was selected to generate maximum flat farming ground as well as collecting collect-ing the run-off from rain, and taking tak-ing advantage of natural filtration of the soil. The water was channeled chan-neled from one terrace to another, keeping the water from just running run-ning down the mountain into the river. After the market, we returned to the bus and proceeded to the ruins of Moray. Leaving the paved highway high-way and taking a gravel road, we traveled over hill and gully. We stopped to watch some very young boys tending a herd of pigs. The Travelers visit land of Incas CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21 es from the springs is warm to the touch. : The evaporation rate was increased in-creased by a stiff, warm wind blowing blow-ing up from the valley below. This helps produce the salt crystals that float on the surface of some ponds. When the ponds have precipitated enough salt, the brine supply is shut off and the pond dries up, leaving a layer of salt several inches in-ches thick in the bottom. The pond operators use a wooden tool to beat and compress the salt into a hard, flat mass. Further drying hardens the salt and, when the salt is dry, it is harvested, stacked and bagged for transport. The bags of salt are loaded on to the backs of burrows and taken down the trail to the village vil-lage where it is sold. We walked through the salt ponds and down the trail to the river. riv-er. It was easy, but all down hill. This made the muscles in the backs of my legs begin to rebel. Reaching the river and crossing a swing cable bridge, we discovered our bus had found its way back up the steep, winding road, down to the river and us. Giving our feet and legs a rest during the ride back to the hotel, we were pleased to hear the plans for rafting in the morning. Natives set up their wares for sale in the Chincheros market. |