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Published: December 22nd 2011
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Cuzco - By far the most touristy place I have been and by far one of the most interesting, mystical and beautiful places on the planet. It has it all; history, mystery, cathedrals, pride and blatant beauty.
You can’t get away from the tourists and every Tom, Dick and Suzanne trying to sell you a pedicure, massage (pronounced; maasaage) and a trek and every person you meet complains about that, I just smile, because honey, if you went there, you’re part of the ‘problem’. The city itself is absolutely gorgeous! You can’t help but just love it and you understand why some backpackers end up staying here for months, although I am sure the famous pub crawl that happens every night around the square might have something to do with it.
After a day or two you barely even notice the tourists anymore, because you get swept up by what the magnitude of what the Inca’s achieved the detail they built into everything and the beauty of their spiritual beliefs.
Naturally there are a couple of theories surrounding what they achieved, officially it was 400 years, but chances are it was a lot longer than that.
In
the 12
th Century Manco Capac was charged by the sun god to find the navel of the earth. He did and he founded Cuzco. The city is built in the shape of a puma, the Inca’s believed it to be a sacred animal and from a certain look-out and with a good eye, you can still make out the original city as it must’ve been founded by him. It has now expanded all the way up the mountains with locals building away from the city, I guess to avoid us.
Some of the rocks they used to build houses, cities, but mostly temples weighs up to 250kg. They pulled this from the mountain tops and made the strongest rocks the centre piece of every wall. The walls were built at an incline, to sustain earth quakes and many, many of these walls, still stand today.
There is a small little town on the way to Macchu Pichu, called Ollantaytambo, here they still use the water ways built all the way from the snowy mountain tops to the town to supply year-round water to the village. That is at least 5 centuries….
Why did they go through all
the effort of building these incredible holy temples? Because of the“I give what I get” attitude they had. If Pachamama (Mother Earth) can be kind enough to provide me with food, water and protection year-round, then I have to give back in the same measure… Maybe if we had that same measure of respect for this planet it wouldn’t be such a disaster?
Then the Spanish came in 1533.
The Inca Trail- I was disappointed and regret paying the money I did. Why? I was bored. People walk SOOOO slow! I was forced to rest every 15 minutes, which really was stupid. I also think it’s a big money thing, because if they are able to stretch something that any normal human being can achieve over 2 days to 4 days, they can charge you more. There is also the question of the porters, they are usually local men from the nearby villages that have to carry, tents, tables, chairs, food and every little thing you can imagine to entertain 16 tourists, up a mountain. These packs weigh anything between 20 and 30kg. They get paid per kilogram carried they have no proper shoes and have to take
their own food? What they do is incredible, they pack up after you had breakfast, by the time in the afternoon when you get to camp, your tent is set-up and hot chocolate is served!
Our guide was an absolute shocker as well, he did nothing, overslept we waited for him every morning, freezing our butts off at 5am, for him to grace us with his presence. I obviously had a lot to say, which made me feel betterJ
None the less, the history behind the trail is how the Inca’s basically built a high-way all the way from Columbia right through Ecuador, Peru to Argentina. It is a literal road built with stones and a zillion steps. The steps the Inca’s built are nice and small, the government, in an attempt to protect the original steps, didn’t really care and built massive steps that came up to about my stomach! You have to navigate pretty well.
Dead woman’s pass (the highest point on the trek) was the absolute highlight! It is gorgeous and you feel as if you are standing on top of the clouds, you are in fact looking
down on them.
I have no done enough hiking to last me a lifetime, thank you very much. It’s boring and all you have to do is put one foot in front of the other for 8 hours. “One of the top 10 hiking trails in the world killed hiking for me”….won’t be seeing me on no Killi!
Macchu Pichu- aaahhhh. Yes, it is that amazing….I was managing expectations like a crazy person after day 2 and the idiot they call a guide. But I was breathless seeing the full extent of it the first time. It is just that special.
There are a number of theories as to what actually happened at Macchu Pichu, every Peruvian has his/her own version. The one that makes most sense to me; the Inca’s believed had a group of girls and boys that were entirely devoted to workings of the holy temples. They were kept pure and separately from the rest of the population in nunneries. The girl’s nunnery was in Cuzco, when the Spanish arrived they raped most of these girls, leading to the girls eventually fleeing to Macchu Pichu to seek refuge in the boy’s nunnery.
By
then the Spanish had already transferred all their diseases to the girls, who then transferred all this to the boys. The entire village basically got wiped out and those who didn’t die, fled to the jungle. Up until this time the Inca’s were able to keep Macchu Pichu a secret and completely hidden from the Spanish, thus the reason it is still, until this day, so well preserved, the Spanish were unable to plunder it.
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