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Published: July 11th 2007
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Debating where to go and what to do when travlling can send two girls heads all a spin. However in a last minute decision where Stef and I opted to head to Cuzco from Puno, the cultural capital of Peru we made the correct choice.
While we were headed there one way or anther our rash decision allowed us to be in the city for the largest Inca festival of the year Inti Raymi. After another grueling, freezing overnight bus we stumbled to our hostel Luz Alba at 6am glad to be in proximity of beds and a private washroom, its the simple things that weary travellers enjoy the most.
Over the weekend Cuzco was a flurry of activty with all the main events taking place in the square. We spent our first day wandering around town, enjoying new brews and even managed to check out the monastery. Built on the site of what use to be Inca Sun Temple the colonials came along pilfered the entire site including the infamous thick gold walls and constructed their own religious dwelling. And this is pretty much how the story goes for the Incans.
Cuzco was the center for the Inca empire so
the entire city is surrounded by ruins and traces of their imperial empire which peaked during the 1450s. Our second day in the city we hopped a bus to Pisac to wander the ruins set high up in the Andean mountains. The workmanship placed in the construction of these citadels was phenomenal! At top high peaks, perfectly cut stone assembled without mortar and functioning aquaduct water systems all suggest that these Incas were well beyond their time or that there just really, really was not much else to do with ones time in the mountains.
Amongst the parades, drinking in the streets and alpaca poncho wearing dancers galore the culmination of Inti Raymi was on Sunday at the Sexy Woman ruins 20 minutes outside of the city square. Nursing our hangovers and working a couple hours of sleep we stumbled onto the bus upto the event. After feasting on street food we settled onto the hill over looking ruins and waited patiently for the big event to begin. Several hours later in the distance this performance began consisting of brightly costumed actors and dancers moving about the ruins acting out a story line we could not quite make out. After
2 hours of spectating the crowd got rowdy and we found ourselves right in the middle of a Peruvian food fight. While entertaining we decided we had had our fill and made our way back down into the city and the sanctuary of our beds for a little siesta.
The following morning we were up at the crack of dawn with our bikinis in tow prepared to head off on a 3 day white water rafting excursion with Swiss Raft Peru on the Apurimac River. Being my 6th river I was stoked to check out some class 5 rapids and to actually camp out. The trip turned out to be more than we ever expected. We ate well, laughed for hours, slept under the stars on the beach and rocked 10 hours of stellar rapid rafting. Defintly in our top tours yet!
After a couple days rest and a couple of nights on the town back in Cuzco we were off on our 5 day trek through the Salkantay pass to the infamous Machu Picchu. Having missed the boat on actually booking into hiking the Inca trail to the ruins the Salkantay proved to be immensely satisfying. Just the right
amount of strain and pain as we started in the highlands, hiked up over the 4600m pass and down into the lowlands and jungle. We bonded with our fellow 20 trekker through sweat and even manged to shared a few bottles of pisco in the hot springs of Santa Teresa as we soaked our weary muscles. Bonding us and inevitably all leading up to our 3:30am wake up on our final day in the town of Aguas CAlientes. As our aches and pains set in we commenced our final strech, hiking up the 1500 stone stairs to watch the sunrise over the peaks of the Andeans and shine down upon the extensive citadel that is Machu Picchu. The remainder of the day we toured the ruins and even managed to make it up one last peak to enjoy the full panaramic view from Wayapicchu. A hike down, train ride and bus trip later we were all back in Cuzco safe and sound thuroughly enjoying some cold brews and laughs at Paddy's.
A couple lazy days later we finally bid fair well to Cuzco. Our memories of this Peruvian city will be ones for the books. A town of late nights,
great adventures and many friends made it left us with that warm and fuzzy travelling feeling as we boarded another overnight 8 hour bus up to Arequipa!
xo Natasha
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