Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend a guided tour through parts of Ollantaytambo with a local resident, and our hotel manager, Jhon. I am so glad that I went and was very impressed with Jhon’s knowledge and pride regarding the history and customs of his ancestors. In fact he was so passionate about sharing his wisdom that this tour, which lasted 2+ hours, was offered free of charge (we tipped him of course). On our excursion Jhon covered several topics, including architectural styles, traditional farming/food (the guinea pig/cuy), and traditional food storage systems (qollqas).
Archetictural Styles:
Jhon showed us a door way that had 2 tiers/levels to it, and was constructed in an imperial style. He told us that this indicated that the people who live/lived here were important or of high nobility. This was contrasted with the unpolished stones along the corridor that only consisted of one level. Additionally, he told us about the various technology behind the stonework. Specifically that it was built to resist earthquakes and how the various designs lock in together. The picture below is an example of a flower design, where there is a central stone and the surrounding stones are selected or altered to fit perfectly around it.
Food and Farming:
The next stop on our tour was La Casa de Cuye (The Guinea Pig House) where we learned about some of the aspects of raising them for consumption. For example, guinea pigs reproduce 5:1 female to male. Because of this, the guinea pigs that are sold as food will always be female as male guinea pigs are needed to impregnate the females. We were able to observe the guinea pigs in pens and there is one male in a pen of about 10 females. A male is not introduced to the females until they are sexually mature which is around 5.5 months of age. Females are able to get pregnant again only 1 hour after giving birth! This made me feel bad for the females. It seem that life of the male is far better as they are destined to eat, play, and copulate, while females are relegated to endless pregnancies and/or slaughter for consumption. I must admit however, though guinea pig is not what I choose to eat, I quite enjoyed visiting the farm as we learned about the importance of the animal to the cultural practices of local communities and it appeared to be humane.
Food Storage:
For the last leg of our tour, Jhon led us up a trail to visit the abandoned ruins of the qollqas, the sophisticated storage system that indigenous communities used for crops such as corn and potatoes. Learning about these ruins was such an interesting experience. I was hard for me to imagine how it worked but with great effort from Jhon and Daniel’s translations, I think I have a rough idea. The crops were tossed through large open windows in the back. To retrieve them, there was a passage was in the front for walking. this passage included holes for ventilation near the floor to allow fresh air circulation so that the crops would not spoil. there was also some sort of shelving/drawer system so that the oldest crops were retrieved from the bottom which allowed regular rotation, once again to avoid spoilage.
I truly enjoyed this tour, primarily due to the fact that Jhon was so proud of his past culture and wanted to share it with us. Was this a more authentic indigenous experience because it was given voluntarily rather than through a company that is paid to deliver a curated experience to us?
One reply on “Pride in Indigenous History (Ollantaytambo)”
I agree with you that it has been the route that has excited me the most of this entire trip. We were lucky that Jhon offered us this opportunity. He was precise in his way of explaining and concise at the same time. I was pleasantly surprised that his father was a restorer of archaeological sites who used Inca techniques. He surely shares the same empathy and pride as his son for his land. I just hope that Nicolás continues down that path.