Inca Rock

Our last day of the pilgrimage, after mass, we visited the museum at the church at Copacabana. We waited a long time for a quick tour, our guide didn't say much, but the guide of the second group was full of information she wanted to share. I hung back at times to hear what she had to say. Again we were not allowed to take photos.

There were many artifacts from centuries earlier. Original chalices, vestments, altar clothes, paintings, altar vases and so on. Very little was labeled and was not very organized. (Items from 30 years ago mixed with items from 500 years ago. I noticed this trend in other museums.) There were a lot of silver and gold items. We came out into a beautiful cloistered garden adjacent to the church, where we did take pictures (none on my camera), it was a peaceful, prayful spot.

The whole trip I was able to spend time with different groups of people from church. I think because I didn't go with a particular group, it was easier for me to mix in and get to know different people. One night a couple of the church ladies asked me to join them for coffee.



After the museum, a group of young people were going exploring and invited me along. We arrived at Inca Head (above photo), which I assume was carved by a modern sculptor. I also thought it was our destination (we had already stopped at a small park.) No we were going somewhere else, we continued further up hill to the outskirts of town. We were going to climb a hill similar to the Stations of the Cross but on the other side of town.

It was nice they wanted me along, but now I thought I didn't want to slow them up. I am double the age of most of the group, and we needed to get back for lunch. I looked for ways to convince them I would stop and wait for them to come back down. They kept urging me on, and we discovered that we were not on the path about 1/2 way up the mountain. We had been bushwacking, well more like rock climbing, because we were using our hands, and there weren't many bushes!



At one of my rest spots, I took the above photo because it reminded me of the view from Mt Battie above Camden Harbour. Of course there are more boats in Camden! At my last resting spot, I was at it for a while, Jimena called me from slightly above, but more further around a cliff. She said I had to come because it really wasn't very far to go to see Inca Rock. It was nice that it wasn't on the top of the hill. Remember we are already at an elevation of 12,600 ft, so a hill feels a lot like a mountain.





Inca Rock is a lintel placed on two stones (see above, it is not the Easter Island type rock on the right!) Many of the stones at the top part of the hill stuck up like Stonehenge, though I don't think they were placed there like the lintel on Inca Rock. Jimena explained to me that this could be called punnishment rock. If one commited a "sin", a hand or a foot would be cut off. More sins or larger sins a whole appendange would be cut off, repeat offenders could have another hand/foot cut off..

Later someone told me that this rock was also a sacrificial rock, where humans were sacrificed. Could this be true too? The day before we were told only beautiful virgens were sacrificed. Oh what a blessing to be ugly! We made it back down the mountain in time for lunch, in record time becuase we followed the path the whole way! After lunch we cleaned, packed, and picked up snacks for the way home