On The Road Again - Hola Cusco!
Trip Start
Oct 30, 2005
1
121
122
Trip End
Ongoing
Cusco,
Peru
Thursday, October 5, 2006
After a night in Santiago (yes, again very bad food - you would have thought we would have learned from the first time), we were up at 3am and caught a taxi organised through the hotel to the airport. The taxi driver was a real character and he really lifted our spirits before we caught our early morning flight to Lima (with stories about Machu Picchu being an aphrodisiac - hence his 7 children!), and then had an afternoon flight to Cusco. We are now back on track from when we left for home.
We flew into Cusco on another small plane, the landing was a little hairy but we made it okay
Cusco Town (01)
. The airport was also small, and as soon as we stepped off the plane we knew that we had arrived at a prime tourist destination - there were people dancing in traditional costume, handing out food and free gifts - get us out of here! We grabbed our bags and negotiated with a taxi driver to take us to our guesthouse in town. We had hoped to stay at the Casa Grande and lucky for us they had one room left. A little dingy and on the bottom floor, but we really dinīt care at this point - after 3 days on planes and serious jet lag (not to mention the altitude) we needed sleep! And after a quick walk around the centre of town to get our bearings that is just what we did - sleep!We went to bed at 3pm, but didnīt wake up until 10pm! It was too late to go out, so we decided to keep sleeping, but couldnīt get out of bed until 11.30am the next day - we had overslept too much and felt yuck!
We changed rooms to a much better room upstairs and then went out for lunch, spoiling ourselves with some expensive pasta. We had a bit more of a wander around town and tried to find the tourist information office. Cusco really does have something special about it, we can understand why it is so popular (other than itīs proximity to Machu Picchu). The central area is steeped in history and it very much tourist central, which is fine, but it only takes a short walk from town to get away from all that too
Cusco Town (02) Glenn Showing Off His New Haircut
.After our expensive lunch we decided on a cheaper dinner at 3.50 Peruvian Sol each (just over $1US). It was a little strange. A soup for starters which was good, but then an omelette served with rice. Donīt know how the rice is supposed to go with an omelette!
That night Christie was not feeling really well (no it wasnīt the cheap meal) and we were worried that the flu she had managed to fight off at home was coming back, so it was straight to bed for her.
The next day our worries were realised and Christieīs flu was back with a vengeance. She spent the whole day in bed while Glenn caught up on guidebook reading. A little better the following day we went into town, met a few of the local kids and took a few pictures but with Christie still unwell it was a short day as well.
Christie decided to be a tough cookie the following day and we headed out of Cusco for the day to the nearby market town of Pisac, being Sunday it was the biggest day for the market there. First we had to find the bus station for the local bus to Pisac
Cusco Town (03) At Night
. We eventually found it, a patch of dirt with a tin shed for a ticket office. Glenn went to pay for the tickets and they told him his 5 sol coin (about $1.50US) was a "falso" (a fake). Yes he was devastated for a while, but it wasnīt long before he was planning how to palm it off onto someone else!The bus to Pisac took around an hour and as we got off the bus at the bridge there was a local guy eager to help us out and point us in the right direction. He wasnīt a tout, just a really friendly guy.
We walked up towards the market and decided to go to the church first (to try to catch the procession we had read about), but there was not much to see as the service was still happening. We went back into the market to take some photos, hanging out in our favourite part of any market - the fruit and veggie section (always the most colourful and lively). We had fun buying different fruits (like little oblong apples, passionfruit and a dessert-like huge bean (whose insides was creamy and delicious).
After a couple of hours of this we did some shopping - after all it was market day. By this time it was too late to head up the nearby mountain to see the Inca ruins, so after having a late lunch, we walked back to the bus stop for Cusco
Cusco Town (04)
. Being the end of the day the first bus was very full, so we waited for next one (which was just as full!). Glenn managed to get rid of his falso coin on this bus!The full day out in Pisac was too much for Christie and she felt horrible again the next day. Lucky for Glenn he had met up with a Danish couple, Barbara and Henrik, a couple of days before who had asked him along on a day trek to some nearby Inca ruins.
So with Christie stuck in bed again, Glenn set out with Barbara and Henrik to hike to visit four Inca sites nearby to Cusco. We snaked our way through the back streets of Cusco, winding our way and puffing up the steep streets and stairs to the control gate for the site. Glenn bought a 10 day ticket (needed later to do the sacred valley trip) but Henrik realised that they had left their tickets back at the hotel, so he had to run back down to get them... the walk up was bad enough!
The first Inca site, also being the biggest and most impressive was called "Sacsayhuaman", also nicknamed "sexywoman" due to the pronunciation. This site had huge stones, seemingly impossible to lift, carved precisely to fit the stones around
Cusco Town (05)
. This was not a case of dumping rocks on top of others - this was precision stonemasonry, and the size of the stones was the most impressive! It was not as if someone could simply lift them up to check the fit, some stones weighed up to 130 tonnes! Luckily Henrik and Barbara had a more detailed guidebook, so we were able to pick out a few of the important features - like the Pumaīs foot as part of the wall. We climbed the hill nearby, called the Incaīs throne, and to our surprise on the other side, some local kids had found a better use of the rock face - a huge slippery slide! As tempting as it was, we noticed the ragged state of their jeans, so thought better of it (as we still had a few more months wear out of them!). Maybe we are just getting old!
We continued on to "Q'enqo", which is an Inca temple and amphitheatre, but we werenīt able to understand a lot. A few tour groups arrived, so we tried to listen in a bit, but the rain decided that we werenīt being fair and started to bucket down. Standing on top of the ruins - carved into the rock face, wasnīt the most stable place to be with rain. We didnīt get a lot out of this site, except to note the zigzagging drainage lines running down from the top - like an alter site, where perhaps blood or Chicha (corn based alcohol) may have run
Cusco Town (06)
.With the rain, the prospect of hiking the 7km or so to the next site was not so inviting, and with a taxi waiting there offering his services - well, it was too good to turn down.
We arrived at "Puka Pukara", also called the red fort, due to the colour of the stone, and we had a pretty good view around the valley, but other than that it was not so exciting, so we continued a short way down to "Tambo Machay", with its natural spring water flowing through the Inca stone work. Legend has it (from what Barbara and Henrik had learnt) was that those that drank from the spring would live to be 100 years. So of course we had to have a drink!
Walking back to the road, a bus was passing, so we flagged it down and got a lift back to Cusco. Too easy. With the rain before we had been dreaming of hot chocolates, but by the time we got back, we were starving, so ended the day with a feast of "Chifa" (Chinese)!
The following day, with Christie getting better, we walked up to the San Blas area of Cusco. After visiting the local church, which was quite beautiful inside (but no photos allowed :( ) we tried to walk up to the highest point for a view and it wasnīt long before we were met by a little helper, a young boy wanting to show us the way. We couldnīt shake him, so we had a bit of a chat to him instead - he was really a nice little guy who just seemed like he was really bored. We found the viewpoint and took some photos and then said goodbye to our little mate before heading back down to do some shopping
Cusco Town (07)
. After spending a day organising all of our tickets and transport needed for Macchu Picchu, we decided to join a tour of the Sacred Valley the next day.
On the tour we visited the main sites of the valley, including Pisac again (we got to see the ruins this time), Ollantaytambo, Urubamba and Chinchero. It was great to see some Inca sights and actually get some decent information on them, our guide was very informative. It would help us out when we visited Machu Picchu in a couple of days. Ollantaytambo and Chinchero were our favourite places of the day and we were glad that we would be visiting them later on our own. Chinchero just had the most amazing light when we visited (as you can see in the photos).
