Back to Cuzco again

Village weaver- Sacred Valley

Textile vendor- Olantaytambo

June 28^th

     My planned alarm wasn’t required as noisy trekkers departing for the Inca trail made enough racket to wake everyone by 6:30am. An early breakfast allowed us ample opportunity to explore the town centre.

Our 9:30 ride back to Cuzco arrived promptly at 10:50am. The driver was stuck on the road for over an hour due to a blockade of the road by striking teachers. If we had known that sooner we could have used our time to visit the Inca fortress above the town. At least we managed to take some photos from outside of the terraced platforms and outbuildings.

 The extra time also afforded a chance to review optional tours on Friday with our guide Luis.

  The route back to Cuzco was a shortcut avoiding much of yesterday’s route. It did provide a spectacular view of the Urubamba mountain range and its glaciers. The snow capped peaks stretch almost all the way from the town of the same name to Cuzco and the tallest are as high as 4,000 meters .

 After a brief and relatively cheap lunch of soup and quiche I managed to purchase bus tickets for the journey to Puno and Arequipa (Monday and Thursday), next week.

Terraces of Inca Fortress- Olantaytambo

 Capping off the afternoon was a visit to the Inca Museum which, for 10 soles ($4.00), was the best deal in town. With over 23 rooms of exhibits it was an interesting and informative way of spending 2 hours. Most of the signage was in Spanish only so reading the information cards took a little extra time.

 The temperature this afternoon was a balmy 25 degrees, but with the sun having set an hour ago the temp. is already down to the single digits.

Urubamba mountain range

 Dinner tonight was at a local restaurant which did not actually have a name posted outside. Their specialty was broasted chicken. When the plate appeared in front of me it was obvious I should have ordered the 1/8^th chicken instead of the ¼ chicken dinner. I think they used roasting chickens as opposed to fryers. Sadly the fries and rice were barely touched, although I did manage most of the chicken. The uphill walk home was a bit of a challenge with the extra weight on board, but I didn’t have any urge for a midnight snack before bed.

Sacred Valley Tour- Wednesday 27th

June 27^th 9pm

With one week of our trip completed, tonight’s hotel is the Munay Tika (which means lots of ticks- kidding!)- it actually means “ Jungle Flower”. It is situated along the river in the town of Ollantaytambo, some 90 minutes drive from Cuzco.

 Our journey this morning began at 9:30 with a brisk 3 block uphill walk to meet our bus (the street being too narrow to handle anything bigger than a car. With luggage stowed we travelled to the hills above the city stopping at a silver jewelry and wool factory to get “fleeced” of some of our Soles ( So-lays), the local currency. Some of our group were a little inattentive at the orientation and forgot to bring overnight gear (( they thought it was a day trip) so they, the tour guide and bus had to return to the hotel for extra clothing etc.

  After a somewhat delayed re-start we set off through some smaller valleys before heading towards an area known as the Sacred Valley, officially known as the Rio Urubamba Valley. It follows a path west along the river for about 80 km with Ollantaytambo its westerly entrance.

  A brief stop on the way, allowed us a short visit to an animal sanctuary where we were able to see llamas, vicuñas, deer, puma and alpacas and a couple of macaws. We were also able to witness 3 condors who were coaxed into flying with offerings of raw meat. With a wingspan reaching over 7 feet these were impressive looking birds, apparently the worlds largest flying species. All of the aforementioned animals were rescued after injury in the wild or mistreatment at the hands of abusive owners. [ The macaws were smuggled aboard merchant ships stowed in pvc piping for sale in Lima. Naturally the mortality rate was very high in such confined quarters.]

  Leaving the sanctuary, we made a slow meandering descent into the valley along a series of hairpin bends.

   The first major town we encountered was Pisac ( population 2000) Above the town is a fairly massive mountain with some amazingly large terraced areas several hundred feet above the valley floor. ( The Inca apparently preferred living on the mountain[ closer to their gods] and only used the valley floor for agriculture]

  Passing through Pisac we climbed ever higher into the hills, the road turning to a narrow gravel path with mountainside to the left and a steep drop into the valley to the right. There were no safety barriers at any point on the route to prevent a drop. While it was, essentially, a white knuckle ride the hills and mountains were amazing in their beauty. On the valley floor and lower slopes were hundreds of fields of various crops, with not a tractor or any other mechanical device to be seen.

   After 45 minutes we eventually arrived at a small village by the name of Pampa Llaccta.

  Awaiting us was the village leader and several inhabitants, mostly female, dressed in traditional costume. After a brief introduction and a short musical performance we were taken to a dining room where we had a lunch of  quinoa soup, vegetables and rice and for the brave at heart, 2 roast guinea pigs. Not being one to pass up something different, I did sample a piece. Tasting somewhere between pork and lamb its texture was not to my liking and I cant see anyone getting rich opening up a chain of KFG’s any time soon.

  After lunch we returned to our previous meeting place where the women of the village gave demonstrations on wool spinning and dyeing. The latter is done using various leaves and berries and in some cases cochineal (the red dye obtained from crushing and drying a certain type of beetle. [As a child I remember my mother used it as a food colouring in home made cake and icing]

 With the demo’s over the group then offered samples of weavings for sale. After some negation I found my wallet somewhat enlightened and my back pack just a little heavier.

  After a group photo and handshakes all round we boarded our bus for our return journey along the highway of loose gravel, trying not to think about flying buses. 45 minutes later we again passed through Pisac and began the hour long trip to Ollantaytambo. The mountain ranges ahead changed colour as the sun dipped towards its resting place for the night. To the north of the town of Urubamba a distant glacier was visible some km away.

 Arriving at the hotel at 5:30 offered us a chance to drop our bags and take a brief walk around town before darkness decended. After the trekkers bought snacks and water for their first days’s hike we had a small group supper sharing conversations about our respective home countries.

  A planned early sleep is not happening- must be the mountain valley air. Fortunately it is much warmer here than in Cuzco, so I am happy to sleep with a room temperature of 15/16 as opposed to 8 or 9.

  My self imposed wake up call is 6:45 in order to allow time to explore before our bus returns to Cuzco at 9:30am

Monday/Tuesday in Cuzco

June 26^th 10am

Yesterday was a relatively lazy day. In the morning a tour of the Iglesia de Santo Domingo and the Qorikancha. The latter was an Inca ceremonial area, known as the Golden Courtyard, which consisted of multiple temples with walls covered in gold sheets. Various religious rites took place within its walls. The walls themselves were built of interlocking blocks, designed and built without mortar in such a way that earthquakes had no impact on their structural integrity.

 When the Spanish arrived they plundered the gold and silver within the temples and destroyed much of the courtyard, re-using much of the blocks to build their own ceremonial structure on the ruins of the Inca temple. Ironically the Church sustained almost total destruction in the major earthquakes, of 1650 and 1950 as well as serious damage in the quake of ’84. The Inca walls however, remained unmoved.

  After a fast lunch of quinoa soup (Peruvians make really great soups) and grilled trout/chicken we returned to the main square for a tour of the La Compania (actually Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus) A Jesuit church, construction commenced in 1571, it is also built on the ruins of an Inca building, in this case the palace of the last Inca ruler.

  A magnificent gold covered altar reaching to the ceiling is its most remarkable feature.

 Down both side walls were secondary altars and shrines to various religious figures. A trip up some very steep and rickety stairs allowed me to snap one photo of the church and altar (no photos permitted- helps boost the sale of crappy postcards!) as well as a panoramic shot of the entire Plaza de Armas.

 Walking back to the hotel we detoured up some other side streets to locate the hotel being used by our Intrepid tour.

 After a brief siesta we continued our tour of the city centre looking for some gloves and hats, in order to deal with the much cooler temperatures of the days ahead.

  Apparently Puno area, 2 ,000 feet higher has night-time temps dropping to  -8 Celsius.

While people are probably complaining about sweltering weather back home, we are anticipating an uncomfortable night in our new hotel, the Buena Vista Cusco. The supplied heater is much smaller and less powerful than the one at the Corihuasi.

10pm

  Our group consists of about 16 people, 2 from Norway, 2 from UK and the rest from USA. Most (11) are doing the 3 day Inca Trail. At this time of my life comfort is more important than bragging rights. It is cold enough at night in the hotel. Why would I want to sleep on the cold hard ground for three days, since the prize at the end, Macchu Picchu is the same. Actually, the Inca Trail is one of several trails that go to Macchu Picchu and the other treks seem far more interesting and yet are not offered by many tour companies.

 Today we paid a visit to the Coca museum, a small place dedicated to all things coca. Everything from arthritic rubs to cocaine seems to be made from this plant which is considered almost sacred to the locals. The tea has various medicinal properties including altitude sickness, headache prevention, eradication of sore throats and colds. The leaf itself is chewed as an energy source similar to caffeine and is applied in various forms to aching joints. Legal here in all forms except actual cocaine, it is seen everywhere. Even our hotel has leaves available to make coca tea or to add to regular teas.

Inca Temple windows- perfectly alligned

Inca walls as foundation of modern building

Local with Llama

  Tomorrow we catch a bus for a tour through an area known as the Sacred Valley, ending up in Ollantaytambo, the last major town in the valley.

inti Raymi aka Fiesta Del Sol

10:30pm Sunday.

  A long and tiring day is behind us. We arrived at the main square just before 9am, in time to get a good seat (we actually stood) for the Inti Raymi festivities. Held annually on the 24th of June,as a celebration of the Winter equinox it has become more of a tourist attraction with some loss of its original religious overtones. 

   Like everything else around here the 9am performance commenced promptly at 10:20am. For an hour and a half we watched a series of costumed dancers parading through the square, interspersed with speeches, in the local Inca based language from key characters in historic costume.

(Sort of like watching an opera without the sur-titles.)

  Once that part of the festivities ended we returned to the hotel for a fast break before joining a massed assembly of thousands walking towards the historic site of Saqsaywaman, an Inca settlement and fortress 2km out of town (mostly just ruins) with walls comprised of massive blocks weighing several tons.

Here, the second part of the ceremony took place. While we were told that admission to this area was by paid ticket only, we could, in retrospect have sat on the neighbouring hills with the locals. The view would not have been as good, nor the seating, on stony ground, as comfortable.

Inti Raymi 2012_ Ritual Sacrifice

Dancers at Inti Raymi 2012

 The ceremony, lasting close to 2 hours was a re-enactment of the Inca Ceremony to the Sun God asking for support for the community and blessing for the harvest and the season to come. Grossly accurate in detail, it featured the ritual sacrifice of a llama, complete with removal of its heart and lungs. [I would assume from close up photos and conversations with people that the llama had already been killed and bled prior to the ceremony]

 It was conducted entirely in Inca but a supplied guidebook offered translations of the speeches into Spanish and English. Highly elaborate and involving upwards of 1,000 actors and dancers, it was, to say the least, spectacular.

Ceremonial Knife and bleeding cup_Larco Museum

 The walk back to down, was, again, a mob scene, but fortunately it was downhill, so less tiring than the road there.  The plan for tomorrow is to do a lot less than we did today, hopefully we stick to plan!

From Lima to Cuzco- glad we didn't take the bus!

Saturday June 23^rd

 Following breakfast we spent some time scaling back our luggage load, leaving a bag of unwanted ( and hopefully they will be unneeded ) items with the hotel, for pickup when we return to Lima on July 8^th.

   Another hair-raising taxi ride delivered us to the airport for our flight to Cuzco.

 The flight, aboard a smaller ( 98 seat) TACA airlines jet, departed Lima at 11:20 for a 70 minute flight which will be remembered as the most visually stunning flight of my life.  Heading in a roughly easterly direction we broke through the cloud cover around Lima and could immediately see the Andes mountains above the clouds. Within 20 minutes the clouds were almost completely gone and and we passed over the lower mountains, while in the distance, snow capped peaks could be seen. The further we flew the lower the snow belt seemed to reach and the closer we came to some really magnificent peaks.

 Even though the flight was just over an hour and cost slightly more than $150 per person we were served a small sandwich and a selection of drinks which included beer and liquor at no additional charge. Quite a contrast with the price and service level on Canadian domestic airlines,

  The landing in Cuzco was a bit of a nail-biter, First we overflew most of the city before banking into the hills surrounding. Barely 200 feet above the hills the pilot rolled into a fairly hard left, dropping through the hills and leveling out over the town before lining up with the runway. A fairly smooth approach brought us back to earth with a slight bump as the wheels touched down.

  Once we deplaned and grabbed our luggage we took a taxi to our hotel, the Corihuasi an old colonial building located 2 blocks uphill from the Plaza de Armas. Our room features 2foot thick exterior walls and affords a view of the distant hills to the south west. The ceiling is wood planks supported by a series of log beams. An electric oil heater and super thick comforters will hopefully keep us comfortable through the zero to minus 2 or 3 Celsius temperatures that are expected this evening.

  After a quick job of unpacking we set off downhill for the Plaza and the surrounding streets where we spent a few hours exploring. 

 Cuzco was quite warm, 18 degrees C and very sunny, a sharp contrast to the dull overcast skies of Lima. So walking during the afternoon was a pleasant experience. While out, we also picked up some fairly expensive tickets ($110 per person) for the Festival of the Sun ( Inti Raymi) which takes place tomorrow, June 24^th which is the Winter Solstice in South America.

  Cuzco seems to comprise only two groups of people- vendors and tourists. Just off the main square we discovered a temporary art and craft show with about 100 vendors from the region and other parts of Peru. On display were ceramics, various textiles, jewelry and many wool products of Alpaca or Llama origin. Since they will be here a few days more I am guessing that prices will drop somewhat once Inti Raymi is over and the tourist population drops slightly.

  Feeling some of the effects of the altitude we decided to partake of an early dinner and get to bed fairly early, estimating a long and tiring day tomorrow. Coca tea is the alleged cure promoted by all the locals. Therefore I assume that it is legal and doesn;t contain cocaine in any appreciable quantity!

  For dinner, I decided to take the plunge into local cuisine and ordered Alpaca a la plancha- essentially a pan seared alpaca steak. It was either that or guinea pig and I decided I would save that local delicacy for a later date! The hotel seems a lot further, walking back up hill in the cooler darkness of the early evening- sunset seems to be somwehere around 5pm- expected really, considering it is winter here.

  One more cup of coca tea and it's off to bed for an early night so that we can be up and running by 7.

   Hopefully the attached photos will give you a rief overview of sights seen on the trip.

Lovers Park, Lima

Cathedral-Miraflores

Plaza de San Martin, Lima

Palace, Plaza LasArmas, Lima

Drinking Vessel- Larco Museum

Black Corn- Wongs Supermarket-Miraflores

Museo de La Nacion, Lima

Entrance to Bario Chino, Lima

Monasterio de San Francisco,Lima

Typical Chifa Menu

Interior-Monasterio de San Francisco

Cathedral, Plaza Las Armas, Lima

Seafood dinner

Shots from Lima to Cuzco flight

Bedroom at Hostal Coruahasi Cuzco