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Peru Bob Travel Bob

Hay agua

It’s easy to marvel at the Incans’ skilled masonry, but one thing that really pops out at me is their command of water. They were brilliant at channeling it for agricultural and aesthetic purposes. Their fountains are marvelous. It’s humbling to stand in front of the tingling waters and realize this sound has been reverberating through the nearby stone for hundreds of years. And it’s all by design. It would be hard not to incorporate rushing water into the architecture here. Cascading mountain springs are the Sacred Valley’s soundtrack. The distant roar of water is always present, at Machu Picchu, in Urumbamba, in Cuzco. And the Incans echoed it as they built their cities.

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Peru Bob Travel Bob

On pottery and politics

Marilu Behar is describing pottery technique in a video at Seminario Ceramicas in Urubamba, and I am instantly smitten. She has a quietly direct yet impassioned demeanor and though I am reading the English subtitles in the video, I am listening closely to the cadence of her Spanish.

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Peru Bob Top Bob Travel Bob

Heads of the household

“This,” Hernan says proudly, “is the room where I was born.”

Well, not quite. He is one room off, as his aunt quickly informs him. But it is clear how proud he is of his origins.

Hernan has brought us to his aunt’s block-long home in Urubamba to show us where he came from and to give us a glimpse into daily life.