Sixth grade field trip



Huge adobe walls over volcanic stonework at Raqchi



1. We hired a rather dilapidated bus and headed South.  Thirteen students and five adults.  The theme was geology and our first stop was a chalk mine where the mineral was burned and turned into white plaster.  There are many such mines on the road south of Pisac on the way to the hot springs above Sicuani on the Altiplano, our final destination where we spent the night in a primitive hostel after bathing in hot, mineral-rich waters.  Along the way we saw how the geology changed with some areas displaying red and yellow rocks, the sign of iron present in the earth.  We stopped at Raqchi where the Incas had made use of volcanic pumice to build a huge ceremonial site.