Cusco is the Spanish version of the original Inca word Qosqo meaning umbilical cord. It was the capital of their empire which at its height covered half of South America.
Today, it has everything a tourist could wish for - Inca ruins dotted over the hillsides, original Inca stonework around every corner, an elegent aracaded colonial main plaza, an excess of museums and craft shops, and cafes and restaurants catering to Western, and particularly English, tastes. Usually embarassed by Darren`s habit of carrying tins of baked beans with him when he goes abroad, Angie was more than happy, after 2 months of forced abstinance, to join him in an English breakfast including Heinz beans, veggie sausage and a pot of PG Tips! We went back the next day for marmite on toast and more tea.
Angie chose Cusco as a suitable place to finally succumb to Delhi Belly, seeing as we were in the same hotel for 4 nights with a proper toilet! During her 24 hours in bed Darren braved a Peruvian hairdresser and emerged with an extremely neat short back and sides. He turned down the offer of a cut-throat raser shave and also neglected to use the sentence given in the hairdresser section of our phrasebook: "I should never have let you near me!"
There is quite a lively nightlife scene in Cusco and we decided to go for a big night out for the first time since Rio. All the bars offer free drinks to get punters and happy hour appears never to end with a selection of 2 for 1 drinks. To advertise these promotions the bars and clubs station flyerers outside on the streets that have to be some of the most tenacious people on the planet. It`s not unusual to have 5 different people shoving flyers in your face at one time. With competition like that it is the funny things that stand out. One guy got us into his bar with a selection of English phrases such as "luvely jubbly" and "alwight geezer". In total we visited 4 venues scooping up our free drinks and heard the same tourist classics being played at each one. We resorted to trying the local cocktail, a machu picchu, without knowing what was in it: it turns out it is a traffic light cloured drink in three layers, some red indistinguiable alcohol at the bottom, orange juice in the middle and then an overly generous helping of creme de menthe on top. Mmmmmm.
When the Spanish conquered Cusco, they used the stones from the existing buildings and temples to build their own churches, but left the Inca foundations and base of the walls in place and just built new structures on top. Cusco suffered a big earthquakes in 1950 and most of the Spanish parts of buildings collapsed, but the Inca walls stayed solid. Thus, all along the narrow cobblestone alleyways around important buildings (the catherdral, churches, convents etc) in the centre of town, you can see examples of amazing Inca stonework - huge blocks cut at such precise angles that they fit together without a hair`s breadth between them. All external walls are built at inclined angles (leaning in towards the building) giving the classic Inca trapezoid shape and their earthquake proofness. Some of the most skillful examples of Inca stonework are on walls that go round corners, smoothly, perfectly, leaning in at a constant angle. The most famous Inca stone in Cusco city centre fits perfectly into the jigsaw of the wall with no less that 12 sides.
I (Angie) have never been that turned on by ruins in the past but the Inca ruins are so intact and it`s easy to see the detail and planning of their sites that they are fascinating. We visited dozens of sites over our few days in this area and each one was impressive in its own unique way.
We booked a horse ride out into the hills surrounding Cusco to see the numerous Inca ruins. Unfortunately our guide couldn`t speak English and was on foot so it was not quite the galloping frolic around archaeological sites we imagined, but rather a sedate plod accompanied by the tinny sound of our guide`s portable radio blarring out popular Peruvian tunes. He would lead us to a site, point us in the right direction and give us a time to return to him. Still, we got to see some amazing scenery and visit the ruins without having to traipse miles in between them.
Near the city is the imposing complex of Saqsaywaman (meaning Satiated Falcon) which is considered as one of the best monuments that mankind built on the earth's surface. The site is huge and includes a large flat circular area that was a reservoir (thought to have been used for religious purposes and as a mirror for studing the stars), a maze of caves and tunnels, and three stepped walls that run in parallel zigzags for 360m and include boulders up to 8.5m high. What is visible in Saqsaywaman today is just a fraction of what it would have been like, because of destruction that has lasted 400 years; the first conquerors started used its stones to build their houses in the city and subsequently the Cathedral. Even until 1930, Cusco residents could pay a small fee to take the amount of stones they wanted in order to build their houses.
We also visited Q'enqo (meaning labyrinth) which had a fascinating fountain carved into a rock protrusion consisting of a small zigzagging channel that branches into two and is thought to have been used for divination rituals: depending on which channel the liquid flowed through it had positive or negative meanings (we tested it out with our water bottle and the water disappointingly flowed down both channels). There is also a story about the groove being used to check the virginity of girls by standing them over it and forcing them to urinate. If they did it right into the groove then they were virgins!
On our way to the start of the Inca trail we did a bus tour of the sacred valley which as the name suggests contains many archaeological sites. But first, we had a chance to visit a llama and alpaca farm! We were given bunches of alfalfa to feed them and had dozens of the big furry creatures dashing towards us as we entered their field bearing green gifts. We took far too many photos and did lots of patting and ruffling. At the end we saw the wool being spun, dyed and woven and got the chance to buy extremely expensive, exteremely soft alpaca wool teddy bears for 40 dollars a head. Tempting...
Two more ruins later and we were in Ollantaytambo which is the overnight stop for most people who are walking the Inca Trail. We stocked up on snacks, water and pain killers and prepared ourselves for the arduous task ahead.
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