Cusco, Peru

Despite flying in to Lima as our entry point for Peru, we spent zero time there, instead heading straight for the smaller (but much more beautiful) city of Cusco. From here, we could visit several nearby Inca ruins, learn about Peruvian culture and of course start our trek to the world famous Machu Picchu. Upon arriving in Cusco, we spent a few days missioning about travel agencies trying to decide which tours and treks we would do during our time in Peru. It was a minefield of information and bargaining was paramount. Without too much heartache however, we managed to book 3 tours, our trek and a rough itinerary for how to spend the 2.5 weeks we had in Peru... success!



Cusco is a beautiful city and I loved the vibe right from the start. Like with Quito in Ecuador, the city of Cusco felt more akin to my expectations of a South American city - Brazil and Argentina were understandably more developed and European in feel. When we arrived on 23 March, the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu had still not opened after the closures due to January´s heavy rains and mudslides. As a result, Cusco was less rammed with tourists than usual and we enjoyed the city´s stoic colonial buildings, sights, picturesque plazas and cobbled streets with more peace than is usually possible. Don´t get me wrong, we still couldn´t walk more than 5 paces in the main square, Plaza de Armas, without being chased by several street sellers offering fake Alpaca hats and gloves, paintings, jewellery and travel information!! It was also good to see so many local Peruvians in traditional dress - overall the city had a more authentic and culturally-rich feel than many other South American cities we had visited. I could have spent days just mooching about the streets and squares, taking in the beautiful hill views and watching the world go by... I really liked Cusco! Another refreshing change was the coolness in the evenings, for which a jumper was always necessary.



We stayed in a great hostel in Cusco - probably the best yet - and we met 2 lovely hostel workers who were / are travellers themselves; they were only to happy to recommend places to eat, shop and visit. On our first night, we joined them to watch the annual inauguracion del Teatro at the city´s theatre. It was a free performance of Peruvian dance from all over the country and a nice way to ease ourselves in to the culture of this wonderful land. We also joined our fellow hostellers on a Friday night pub crawl, a good way to check out the night life scene of Cusco. The leaders from our hostel sorted us out with lots of free drinks and entrance to several bars and a club - it was a good night out and fun to be part of a bigger group... something Alkesh and I have missed out on for several weeks. Close to our hostel was a great Peruvian restaurant serving authentic cuisine.



Having suffered the carb overload of pizza / pasta / steak in Argentina, we were thrilled to find Peruvian food was tasty, diverse and included vegetables!! Hurah. We ate several times at this restaurant - it was good but cheap and where the locals ate so we knew we were getting a good deal. One dish I particularly enjoyed was Palta a la Jardinera: large tasty avocado halves (amazingly big in Peru and always ripe as far as I could tell - not like yucky ol´Tesco ones), topped with steamed potatoes, yams, carrots and onion in a cheesy mayo dressing all on a bed of lettuce and tomato. Delicious, healthy and nutritious! I definitely will be adding this to my dinner party repertoire back home in London.



One morning, we visited the nearby local fruit & veg market. Mummy and Pappa, this took me back to such fond (surprisingly!) memories of when we went to the market in Jakarta for our weekly stock up! It was an incredible sight: rows and rows of sellers with their piles and stacks of fresh vegetables, unusual roots and fruits, spices and corn. Remember from Ecuador, this region has lots of corn species and Peru is in fact the home / birth place of the humble potato - it now has over 1000 varieties... which is why in the market, there was a whole row dedicated to potato sellers. The smells and sounds were rich and diverse - I kept stopping to examine yet another item which I´d never seen or tasted before! Still never found the brown chiku fruit that I love from India! Another market we visited was of traditional Peruvian handicrafts. We found out that Peru´s handmade crafts get shipped to much of South and Central America which is why they seem so common. The main textile here is alpaca wool but you need to be careful you don´t get the fake synthetic wool. We needed hats and gloves for our trek so bought those plus a few other things to take back home. Alkesh bought a jumper that he was pleased with - however a few evenings later when heading out on the pub crawl, several little Peruvian girls selling bracelets ran up to him and touched the sweater and laughed lots saying, ´Amigo, amigo, esta no Alpaca, esta synthetico, ha ha ha!´. Whoops! - we´d been had!

Sacred Valley tour
In the hills and valleys surrounding the city of Cusco, several Inca sites have been uncovered and preserved. This has given rise to the area being named the Sacred Valley. These Inca sites have a lot of religious importance because they were high on the mountains, close to the Sun - the most important and worshipped god in Inca culture. The Inca (meaning king in Quechua - the original language) civilisation was one of the biggest the world has seen until the European empires and colonisation took hold. At its height, the Inca civilisation covered Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia and northern Argentina. It was Pachacutec, the 9th Inca king (c. 1438) that was heralded as the greatest Inca king responsible for the massive spread of the Inca civilisation. The civilisation lasted for several hundred years during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, ruled by successive Inca kings - 14 in total, with the 15th being defeated by the Spanish. In Spanish documentation, Incas were made to seem primitive and uncivilised. This was not the case - in fact, they had an evolved and complex religious structure, worshipping Pachamama (mother Earth) and all the natural forces - they believed these were gods who determined their survival and agricultural livelihood. Although they didn´t use a Latin-style alphabet, they had a well-articulated language through symbols. There was a strong sense of community.



Our day tour took in 3 of the main sites in the Sacred Valley and it was great to see Inca ruins up close and personal as well as learn lots about this vast civilisation. First, we visited Pisac which was home to an Inca cemetry where archaeologists had discovered some 3000 bodies. Although the Inca village at Pisac only contained 1000 people, historians believe that the site was so religious and spiritual, many people came to Pisac to be buried. Incas believe in reincarnation, so the dead were buried in the foetal position to help with their ´re-birthing´ in the new life.



Also, various artefacts were buried with them as accompaniments for their new life. To be re-incarnated, Incas believed the souls had to walk along the Milky Way to reach their new life. Pisac was important because of its geographical location close to the stars, equator and the line of the Milky Way. Also at this site, we saw grain stores high on the hill side to keep the year´s harvest protected from infestations and mould.





Next we visited Ollantaytambo, a massive Inca site in reasonable condition. These ruins were breathtaking sights - massive rocks laid down without cement that had survived several earthquakes (the biggies in 1650 and 1950), forever preserving a piece of Inca culture and tradition. Here, we saw grand agricultural terraces carved in to the steep mountain sides. These served 3 purposes: 1) to cultivate the harsh landscape, 2) to protect the livelihood from being destroyed by landslides, and 3) create the right micro-climate and ecosystem for growing their crops.



This site, according to historians and archaeologists, was home to Inca astronomers. At the top of the site, we saw the Sun temple, strategically placed to capture the first sunlight on the all-important equinoxes and solstices. The Incas had tapped underground water tables and springs to create their Water temple - the water has always flowed since it was built some 500 years ago. Incredible engineering!



Finally we visited Chinchero. It was a sad sight because we saw the Spanish catholic church literally built on top of the old Inca walls, foundations of a once sacred place. That is how the conquest unfolded - the Spanish destroyed most of the Inca sites or used their solid rock buildings as foundations for their own Spanish buildings. Many of the Inca sacred sites were robbed of gold and silver treasures.



Cusco City Tour
One didn´t even need to go as far as the Sacred Valley (2-3 hours bus from Cusco) to see Inca ruins... they were just minutes from the main Cusco city centre. Our afternoon tour took in 5 such impressive sites.



First up was Qoricancha and the temple of the sun. In fact, this was 5 temples under 1 roof: the Incas worshipped the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Rainbow and the Thunderbolts (i.e. lightning). This was one of the best examples of Inca architecture: hard granite rocks perfectly cut, chiselled and smoothed to fit the geometrical cavity required. For religious and important buildings, Inca architecture was at its most advanced - we saw perfect 14 sided stones with different but matching angles at each corner. Without any mortar, the interlocking rocks were so tightly packed that they withstood earthquakes and one couldn´t even slide a piece of paper through the join.



Here, we saw the importance of the trapezoidal shape - used for windows and niches, it was claimed to be the most rigid and sturdy shape for doors and passages also. The rocks used at Qoricancha have been sourced to come from a site some 12-20km away - an impressive distance to move those massive rocks! On the way out, we got a great juxtaposition view of the Inca walls underneath the newer (apparently more modern yet quite clumsy-looking!) Spanish stone-and-cement walls.

Next, we visited Saqsayhuaman which was the biggest site we would see on this city tour. Historians and archaeologists still debate whether the site was used for defence as a fortress, but for sure it was a religious building.



Pachacutec built the city of Cusco in Inca times to resemble the puma, the symbol of the mountains - an important landscape for the people. Saqsayhuaman is said to be the head of the puma with zig zag teeth made of massive boulders. Occupied and in use for over 400 years, the site took 50 years and some 20,000 workers to build.





The rocks were cut with bronze and copper axe heads and hard st0nes. The cut rocks were then pulled / rolled in to place by humans (not by alpacas / llamas who only carried objects). From on top of this Inca ruin, we got lovely views on to the city of Cusco in the valley below.

Also on this afternoon tour, we visited Tambomachay, the water temple which again was an example of Incas tapping in to a spring / water table, the source of which is still unknown. The free-flowing and constant water is still used for irrigation today, although it had much more religious significance in Inca times.



We got a brief glimpse of Pucapucara before the sun went down and then we visited Qente, our last stop on the tour. This was the temple for the underworld, symbolised by the snake (puma = mountains, condor = sky / heavens - the 3 landscapes most important to the Incas). In a cavernous rock formation, Inca people would make animal and children (!) sacrifices to worship the well-respected dead and to help them pass over successfully in to their new life. Above the massive boulder rock that was Qente, there was a sun astronomy lab which Inca people used to study the sun and harness its power during the solar cycle.