Five Feet, Nine Inches Above Ground

Sunday October 26, 2025

The Cusco area and the Sacred Valley tend to have two seasons rather than four: the wet season and the dry season. We are here at the beginning of the dry season and it feels like Spring and it is. Crops are being planted, ewes are lambing, llamas are giving birthing the wild flowers are popping up everywhere. The field of corn behind the converted monastery in Urubamba where we are currently staying grew several centimetres after the previous night’s thunderstorm.

On Sunday, the Pure Art Group left Cusco for Machu Picchu – it’s an overnight trip – and I stayed in Cusco to spend more training time with Wilbert my teacher. He and Juan picked me up in the early morning and we headed out to the archeological site of Inkilltambo. It is a sacred site of the Incas, ideally placed on one of their main travel routes. It was a resting place for travelling royalty, an administrative centre and most importantly, a sacred place where flowers and healing herbs and plants were grown. It is still used as a place of worship today with it’s centuries long connection to the feminine powers of the river in the valley and the “windows” and “womb” in the central area.

You don’t have to be a Paqo in training to feel the incredible sense of serenity and peace in the place. During the ceremony that Wilbert and Juan celebrated with and for me, I was deeply touched by the spirit of the place. There were other people there – it’s free and open to the public – and they all demonstrated a deep respect for the site. I had the opportunity and privilege to meditate in the cared rock enclosure known as Pachamama’s womb. It was relatively dark with a breeze coming through a fissure in the rock. There was evidence of human presence in the wear on the sills of the openings and the faint remains of previous offerings. It was an intensely emotional and moving experience for me as thought about the people who created the place now mostly destroyed. The voices of people, children, the sounds of animals, the scent of flowers and herbs filling the air manifested themselves in my imagination. I began to see the connections to my own life and the amazing power of the earth and the role it plays in our lives every day. For a brief moment, I could see the terraces of brightly coloured flowers; red, yellow, pink, white and more stretching up the side of the mountain, the air filled with their scent and the buzzing of bees. It was truly magnificent. It was all irrigated by a series of carved stone channels with gates that controlled the direction and flow of the water. Some of those channels exist today.

The ritual area is about halfway down the slope to the river on a natural plateau. The entire site fits naturally into the landscape on the side of the mountain which is the usual Incan architectural practice.

There were wild flowers poking up through the grass and I wondered if they were survivors from the time of the Incas.

This flower has other names but I chose this one because it is significant to the Andean tradition I am following and I really like hummingbirds. They represent a connection to our ancestors creating a pathway of healing relationships with those who are no longer physically here.

The Rain Lily was spread out amongst the rocks and we did receive some rain. However, Peruvian Swamp Lily seems to be a bit of a misnomer as they were a fair distance from anything resembling a swamp.

The area where I meditated is in the following photos. I could the falling rain but was protected from getting wet. I don’t know how long I stayed there and I went back a second time. It felt timeless.

Here are a few few more images of the site:

In the early afternoon, we packed up our gear and began the return trip to Cusco. It took much longer than expected because of a high volume of traffic. I managed to take a few shots along the way.

Back in Cusco, I had a few hours before the San Pedro Market closed, so off I went on a short shopping trip. What better way to end the day? However, because my visit there was very short, I had to go back the next morning and that’s when I took the photos. Meanwhile, here are some shots of the area.

The day blew by and suddenly it was time for dinner at Jack’s. When I find a restaurant I like that’s convenient with friendly staff and good service, I keep going back. They have the most delicious and large veggie burger I have ever had.

And that is it for the moment. There will be more! Thank you for reading.