Inca Central at Cusco

Trip Start Mar 01, 2008
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Trip End Feb 28, 2009


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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Once the centre of the Incan Empire, with its four roads radiating to the corners of the Incan world, Cusco was again charging up for the spectacular Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun). We were greeted at our hostel by the familiar twang of Aussie accents echoing around the inner courtyard accompanied by the distant drumbeats of festive preparations. Soon found ourselves in the queue for a friendly barbie at a neighbouring establishment as we discussed our plan of attack. First port of call was the train station to organise our overpriced tickets for Aguas Calientes. Our chosen route would see us move by local transport into The Sacred Valley and after a few days off to the tourist Mecca of Machu Picchu. Just needed to procure the papers at late notice. A well spent hour or so watching futbol bloopers and our mission was successful - thankyou anonymous cancellation crew of two.
Soaking in the city and one cannot help but be struck by walls....old walls of perfectly cut stone fitting without mortar. Laneways twisting upwards with all manner of tourist trap and gaggles huddled around a stone of twelve sides (Hatunrumiyoc). The drumbeats....the parade started at around 10am with numero uno current Inca dudes at point, followed by an extensive procession of brightly costumed peoples from surrounding towns and villages. Some time later...at approx 2300hrs, numero 214 brought up the rear. This was the preliminary for the following day whereby the central plaza was awash with ancient ritual as the reenactment of the great Inti Raymi commenced. Dignitaries
Dignitaries
 We scooted ahead of the main procession and headed up to the ruins of Saqsaywaman with the hoards. Planted ourselves on a hillside as close as we could to the main event and watched from afar as the Inca arrived and neighbouring spectators consumed their guinea pigs.
This was the first year that the hill closest to the ceremony was deemed off limits, much to the chagrin of the locals, particulary as the best seats were reserved for those with cash enough to suggest that they didn`t reside in Peru. Not suprisingly, halfway into the show the locals took the hill and the cheering was far greater than the Inca had received. We could but smile...it was their hill after all.
Numb of bum and wary of mass exodus the group of us decided to leave before the llama sacrifice and head back to the city, at which time we agreed to regroup at an Israeli trance party. What else can one do after watching the better part of an Incan ritual?
After a slightly foggy morning (yes morning) of exchanging of books and idle chatter we settled for a quiz night held at an English pub run by an expat pommy chap raising money for local homeless kids. We were pipped of first place by half a point, but a substantial dish of currency was collected - good night, great cause and fantastic beef pies to boot. Smiles all round as we get prepared for the Sacred Valley.
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