Peru 2

Visit: Train: Cuzco to Puno Photo Gallery

After our one night in Lima, we flew off to Cuzco. A headache that had started for me in Lima became worse in Cuzco. Cuzco’s altitude is 11,400 feet, and I felt extremely dizzy and disoriented there. Recently someone explained to me that I may have been experiencing a response to the energy of the Southern Hemisphere. The forces on our bodies are quite different there, and it has always intrigued me that water leaving a drain below the equator spins the opposite way than it does in the Northern Hemisphere. My home in Sedona is at an elevation of over 4400 feet, and I routinely visit Flagstaff with an altitude of 7000 feet, so experiencing altitudes above sea level is the norm for me. Whatever the cause, I felt disoriented, dizzy, and my stomach churned.

The local remedy is some coca tea and I think that drinking it comforted me, though I didn't feel much better physically. It is quite common for tourists to be offered oxygen to breathe in the higher altitudes of Peru. I tried this twice, and didn't feel much effect. I was adapting to a whole new set of energies, so I tried to stay aware of what my body needed. Dan actually thrived and often experienced high energy levels in the altitude. He did however, have some digestive issues. We tried to give ourselves all of the rest that we needed. We never forgot that there were no accidents on our trip, and we trusted and honored our bodies’ processes.

Our Cuzco hotel was unique in that one of the walls in its restaurant was an ancient Incan structure. That it still stood supporting part of the hotel was a great testament to the amazing architectural abilities of the Inca people. The huge stones rest upon each other with no mortar, with such precision that it could hardly be duplicated today.

We took the typical tourist bus tour of Cuzco and spent time with the tour group at one of the oldest Spanish Cathedrals. As was customary, it had been built on an ancient Incan site. Some of the original Incan stones were used in the construction of the new cathedral. The Catholic Church always seemed to recognize and utilize the energy at ancient sites that often corresponded to areas of strong earth energy.

Building on these ancient and revered sites also tended to demoralize the people that the Church "saved". Dan and I both had extremely strong responses to the amount of gold poured all over the sculptures and altars of the cathedral. It was as if the gold still held the energy of its past; of one culture stealing it from another through war after war.

Domination, control, power and greed were stored in this precious metal. The church felt icy cold to us. It felt warmer when we returned outside, though the air was chilly. We heard someone else remark that the church had been beautiful, and it might have been in the physical sense. We were feeling the denseness of the energy, and sensing what was there on the nonphysical level.

On the steps of the cathedral waited a group of children in fancy and colorful native dress. They held a tiny lamb, and before I realized what was happening they placed the baby animal in my arms. A photo opportunity for cash was created. The children appeared forlorn and shut down. We saw someone give them a very large amount of money, maybe 40 times more than was customary, and they did not respond at all. It seemed that they were forced into this job and had no interest in what they were doing. They shoved the coins and bills in their pockets without thanks, and handed the little lamb to the next passing tourist.

This scene was repeated throughout the world, with puppies or llamas or lambs held by little children who often pushed the animals into tourist’s arms. I wondered how the baby animals were being fed when their mothers were nowhere in sight. I realized that they may have been willingly sacrificed, as they brought families much more money as objects in tourist's photographs than was their normal value. Now I also realize that the children were in a similar situation. We gave them our prayers and blessings that day, as well as some money for their families. I knew that when we returned home after our journey, many things about life in America we would never again take for granted.