Interim report week 10 – 12

1.the daily activities/ placement assignments

Week 10 had only three working days and the office was closed on Thursday and Friday because of Easter. I spent my time on the destination analysis and about half of it is done.

Although I planned to continue working on the destination analysis until it is finished, I had to change my plans and started translating the new website (www.goldenempiretours.com) into German. I was busy with it on Monday and Tuesday and I estimate that I will need several weeks to translate all the explanations of the tours. Surprisingly, I began with my three tours that I received from Violeta. On Wednesday the City tour started from 1 until 7 and I visited places such as Sacsahuaman, Q'ENQO and Tambomachay. Luckily, the guide was very interesting and I received lots of information in Spanish. Unfortunately I could not visit the cathedral that day due to a demonstration of tourism professionals. They protested against the government that is planning to change the law to allow everyone to become a tour guide. In their protest they surrounded the Cathedral and blocked the entrance. Thus, I will have to visit it another day. In general, the whole tour was very interesting and informative. The only fact that I disliked was the lack of time at every attraction.
Thursday in the morning I went to see the Tour Sacred Valley. It was very amazing and I extremely enjoyed Pisac and the market, as well as the ruins of Ollantaytambo. I had the same tour guide as the day before. The travel from one place to another was very comfortable in a new bus. There were no problems and everything went very smoothly. I was impressed by the good coordination of the tour and visited many places in only one day, including time for lunch. People from different travel agencies were merged in this one bus, eating in 5 different restaurants, and staying in different hotels. The bus picked everyone up and dropped everyone off at their restaurant. I learned a lot of the ancient Inca culture, as well as some historical backgrounds during the invasion of the Spanish. Ollantaytambo is considered as the second most famous attraction after Machupicchu and is located in the Sacred valley, which is a long valley in between enormous mountains. The valley begins with Pisac, then Urubamba and ends with Ollantaytambo. It is characterised by the most fertile land in this region, which allows the cultivation of the biggest and most qualitative maize. Potatoes, maize and coca are the most important plants in the Inca culture. Pre Inca culture constructed many terraces and some other temples, which were improved by the Inca. Despite our modern technology there is no explanation for the architecture of the ruins, for example how they cut the rocks so precisely and how they constructed the huge stones in perfect alignment. The guide mentioned some theories, but added that none of them is 100% reliable. Hence, the Inca culture was very advanced with knowledge of astronomy, e.g. equinoxes were made visible at Ollantaytambo. Although there is no evidence nowadays, the Inca had to know mathematics to construct the buildings, e.g. the knowledge about pi (3,16) which is in accordance with the inclination of the walls to make them more resistant of earthquakes. Moreover they believed in Incarnation and a next life, so that the high class was mummified and buried with their belongings. The Inca empire had an distinct infrastructure, that allowed to eat fresh fish in only two days in Cusco. The distance from the sea covers a length of over 600 km. Llamas were used for transportation. These animals are very smart and only walk 30km a day, no meter more and carry maximal 25 kilos. If the limit is excessed, it refused to walk. Many cities therefore have a distance of 30 km, e.g. Cusco-Pisac. The mail system was very fast as well. The entire region was made up of distinct communities with over 70 languages. The Inca empire organised everything and nowadays only 2 languages remain, i.e. Quechau and Antaina. Plants that are native in Peru are potatoes and Tomatoes and maize. More varieties of potatoes (over 350) and maize (over 40) than in Peru are not to be found in any other country.
On Friday I went by bus to Ollantaytambo to take the train Vistadome to Aguas Calientes (Machupicchu). The Machupicchu tour was very interesting and one of the most amazing things I have seen in Peru so far. Aguas Calientes is a pure tourism place, covered with restaurants and hotels of all types and tourists from all countries. I accompanied two clients from Golden Empire Tours all Saturday and after the guided tour we climbed Waynapichu for 3 hours.
In week 12 I continued traducing the website. In addition, I visited almost all missing places of my Tourism Ticket, i.e. Maray and Moray, two art museums, one native dance performance, and the historical Museum of Cusco. The Tourism Ticket is only valid for 10 days, so that all the attractions need to be visited during that period and are completely free. On Thursday I was done with the tours and sightseeing of attractions and continued translating the website.

2.attainment targets

The past three weeks I have been intensively working on learning more about the ancient Inca culture. Not only did I get an insight of their cultural heritage, I also got to know about their ancient way of life. I visited the major attractions of the city Cusco, which were included in the city tour. The tour of the Sacred Valley allowed me to visit the city of Pisaq, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo, and Maras. I have seen how the alpaca wool is processed and coloured with natural ingredients. I visited places that demonstrated the influence of the colonial epoch with typical paintings and churches, e.g. Chinchero. I experienced first hand what travelling in Peru is like and got to know more about the tourism product.

3.personal aspects

Travelling in the department of Cusco is very easy and comfortable. Apart from the organised bus tours, I had to go to Ollantaytambo and then to Aguas Calientes by myself. I did not encounter any negative circumstances. I perceived all the tours to be very safe and it was a great pleasure. One weakness of me that has been challenged during the past few weeks was adapting myself to changing plans. It was a small surprise when Violeta told me that I was going to do all the tours in the previous weeks. I had to stop my work with the destination analysis due to the tours and the translation of the website. However, I was able to adapt myself very quickly to the new situation.

4.future action items

For the weeks to come I am planning to finish translating the website. I will have to look how much progress I will make and if there is going to be time to work on other things. I still have the destination analysis in my mind, and would like to finish it as soon as possible. However, I do not have all the information about tourism organisations and planning, so that I would need to make an interview with DIRCETUR. If there is going to be some free time, I would like to continue studying my Spanish. I still need to finish rewriting all the notes.