Cusco, the Navel of the World, and the Festival of the Sun

Sitting in a pasta restaurant with Denise during the height of the Inti Raymi Festival parades at 9 o'clock at night in Cusco the ancient capital of the Incas, I look out the window onto some curving stairs to find umpteen men peeing in a steady stream, which cascades down the hill into the ancient Inca drainage system! One can imagine this has been the practice since the 1400's! Now I know why they built it with such meticulous detail! Fortunately Denise is facing the other way.

We arrived early in Cusco as we had to prematurely evacuate Bolivia during the campesino protests. We flew from Cochabamba, via La Paz in Bolivia over the highest navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca, and the towering Andes, and swooped down into Cusco like some great condor (an Inca god).

Cusco (Qosqo) meant 'navel of the world' to the Incas and it was here they built their capital (in the shape of a puma, another one of their gods) and began to expand their empire which was eventually to cover 3000kms (1800 miles).

From Cusco we did various trips to Inca sites, the huge fortress, Sacsyhuaman, just above Cusco; the steep mountainside of Pisac in the Sacred Valley of the Incas; the beautiful rolling hills of Chinchero; and last and most dramatic of all, the great lost city of Machu Picchu (see future entry for details and photos).





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