'Cat Chronicles - Blog 1 - Allison Ross
.....a cooperative blog from their own perspective on the adventures they encounter away from Bozeman.
Hola! My name is Allison, and I am a member of the MSU Nordic Ski Team. I am a senior studying architecture, and this summer I am taking part in a foreign study trip through the MSU School of Architecture. There are 7 of us students traveling around South America with two of our great professors, and so far, every day has been a new adventure.We started our program in Lima, Peru, which is a bustling city on the coast of Peru. After checking out the capital city for a couple days, we moved on to Cusco, a smaller city in the Andean mountains, which was a welcome change from the city.
Our program here focuses largely on architectural history and city planning as it relates to the pre- Incan civilizations, the Incan Empire, and the Spanish Conquest. From Cusco, the capital of the Incan Empire, we have taken several trips to the multiple ruins around the area, most recently traveling to Aguacallentais, the town at the base of Machu Picchu.
This is a beautiful small town on the Urubamba river, situated in a tight valley between steep mountains and cliffs. The town seems to exist solely as a stopping point for tourists in the region, and has an extensive bus system to bring visitors up to the Machu Picchu ruins, which are up in a nearby mountain saddle.
On our day up at the ruins, we had a bit of a battle with the rain, but soon enough the clouds lifted and we were able to see the extents of Machu Picchu. Built as a mountain retreat for the Incan emperor, the site has two original points of entry, one from Cusco along the Inca Trail, and the other from the opposite side, which crosses the Inca bridge, a narrow log system across a sheer cliff face. As a group, we walked out to the extents of the ancient city, all in awe at the landscape of steep mountains, cliffs, and the life of the rainforest.
Today we are headed by train back to Cusco, where we have a few days to work on our independent study projects before traveling to Trujillo, a pre- Incan civilization on the pacific coast. I look forward to being able to explore much more of the country in the next few weeks! (5/27/14)
