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Published: September 13th 2007
SAQSAYWAMAN RUINS
A tame condor struts it´s stuff....it was there to give awareness to the amazing bird and to raise funds for it´s conservationAfter getting back to Cusco in one piece from my Machu Picchu mission and finding myself a job at a hostel I managed to have a rather large week getting to know all the night spots in town. I then decided that if I was to stay here for a month with the aim of not spending money I needed to make sure that I had things to do during the day which then gave me an excuse not to go out at night. Along with the money issues I also thought that my body might also appreciate it and I decided that I would be too annoyed at myself if I spent my whole time in a dodgy smokey bar and not take in some of the sights. So one of my first missions was to get a tourist ticket which gave me entrance into many of the ruin sites that lay around the area. Not far out of Cusco there lies 4 ruins which are very accessable by yourself and there is no need to jump on an air conditioned bus and pay lots of money to see them. I decided to take the local bus to the first
TAMBOMACHAY RUINS
Looking down the valley at the ruins ruins and then walk the 12km back to Cusco visiting the other sites on the way.
My first site was called Tambomachay which is a beautifully wrought ceremonial bath, which still channels spring water that earns the site the title of El Baño del Inca (Inca´s Bath). They still don´t know where the water comes from and how the Inca´s managed to find the source. Again there is four windows above the bath that represent the four seasons. On my way into the ruins again I was amazed to find a lovely older lady, probably around 60-65yrs, carrying a child on her back along with a large package in each hand. Everyone else was walking past her, especially the men, without even giving a glance or seeming to care she was struggling up the hill. I offered to carry something for her and honestly by the time we reach the top of the hill and the ruins I have to say I was puffing. She was very grateful for the help but I am still amazed that a lady of her age is expected to carry the weight she was. It ended up being lunch for what I assume
was her daughter and other grandchild who had a market stall. I also walked a little further from the ruins to get away from the stupid tourists who for some reason think that if there is a roped off area that it is perfectly fine to climb over it to get a photo.......I had to move before I started telling people off again. Glad that I did though as just over the hill I found another lady and her son looking after their herd of sheep....just hanging out in the hills in the sunshine...it made me think that there is possibly not a lot of difference in how the farmer´s live their lives now in comparison to how the Inca´s lived.
The second set of ruins where called Pukapukara and they were situated on top of a small hill that looked out over a valley. The name means Red Fort...although they think that it might have been a hunting lodge, guard post or stopping point for travellers. These ruins were quite small but the views that you could get from the top were beautiful. Here as I was taking in the view I managed to drop my lense cap
TAMBOMACHAY RUINS
The ruins....this is a ceremonial bath used by the Inka´s. It still has water running through it from my camera which would you believe managed to land upright and started to roll. I didn´t react too fast as usual it just falls and I can take my photo and then pick it up, but the law of averages was against me and the cap continued to roll towards the edge of a small cliff and proceed to go straight off it. Well as I stood there in amazement that it had managed to roll for a good 7m whilst gathering more speed before flying off the cliff I realised that it is not something that is going to be easily replaced. I decided that I should go have a look for it, but as I made it down to where I had calculated that the damned thing would of landed I came across a rather large area of bush that had rather large prickles or you could call them spears they were that big on it. After about 20 minutes of precariously searching in the middle of the bushes I nearly screamed when I turned around to find 5 llamas that had crept up on me. It wasn´t such a bad place to be as there were
TAMBOMACHAY RUINS
More wild flowers no other tourist there and now I had the company of 5 llamas.....I managed to find the lense cap...mum you would be proud as I started asking St Anthony for help and he came to the party.
From the second to the third ruins was quite a walk but it was my favourite part of the day. I walked through a small village where I found a very strange thing....small pigs (not real) on the roofs of the houses next to crosses. I had never seen this before and I still don´t know the reason behind it.....I assumed it was some form of worship or something to do with the local people´s beliefs. I did notice that there was a much bigger population of pigs in the town than in other parts of Cusco....maybe it was just so that the pigs would be nice and fat for Christmas! Once I passed the village I decided to get off the road and take the path through the paddocks. The area is full of eucalyptus trees and made me feel like I was at home.....I couldn´t take the smile off my face as I was enjoying the sunshine and the smell
PUKAPUKARA RUINS
View of the ruins and the valley of the leaves that I had crumbled in my hands. The eucalyptus was brought to Peru last century by missionaries. It is used for building and also helps in the hills where landslides are common, with the trees there it helps to stabilize the area. Being an introduced species it does also come with problems for the endemic species in the area. Again no other tourists around and only one other person that I passed on my way to the next ruins......another little old lady carrying a large bunch of twigs on her back.
The third ruins were called Qénqo which means zigzag. It´s basically a large limestone rock that is has niches, steps and carvings....including channels that may have been used for ritual sacrifices of chica (an alcholic beverage made from yucca and drunk in the Andean area) or blood. There was also a cave under the rock that had an altar made from the rock which was still in amazing condition. On my way to the last ruins I passed a pregnant lady who was taking care of her herd of llamas with her other 2 children who were running amok in the fields....such a simple way
of life.
The final ruins were called Saqsaywaman, for us plebs just say Sexy Woman and it sounds something like that. These were the most impressive ruins for the day and even after being at Machu Picchu I was still blown away by the magnitude of what I was looking at. These ruins sit on top of a hill just above Cusco, so you also get an amazing view of the city. The area that remains today is huge but apparantly it is only around 20% of what the original site was....I really can´t imagine how damned big that would of been. Soon after the Spanish conquest the spaniards tore down the walls and used the blocks to build their own houses in Cusco. The Inca Pachachutec envisioned Cusco in the shape of a puma, with Saqsaywaman as the head, and the zigzag walls that remain as the teeth. In 1536 the fort was the place for a bitter battle that was fought between the spanish and the Manco Inca who used Saqsaywaman to lay seige to the spanish. The Incas didn´t win and afterwards the site was littered with dead bodies which attracted large numbers of Andean condors.
PUKAPUKARA RUINS
The valley and llamas´bums The tragedy was memorialised by the inclusion of eight condors in Cusco´s coat of arms. Other than the history the sheer size of some of the rocks that form the ruins was mind blowing....one was around 3000 tonne! Again the masonary on the stones was awesome and the fact that they had to brought in from another site just made me think that their faith must of been so strong and important to them....because there was a lot of sweat and tears used to construct this site. Again I had hit tourist hour and people just seem to be teeming in from the large amount of buses pulling up at the entrance....where do they all come from I was asking? Along with all the tourists came a tame condor that was brought out at the right time and put on display for all of us to take photos. It was a little sad to see such an awesome creature tame and with a chain tied to it´s leg, but the idea behind the display is to increase awareness of the bird´s fight for survival. If you take photos you are asked to make a donation to an organisation that is
PUKAPUKARA RUINS
Looking through a window of the ruins to the mountains doing research and establishing conservation for the animals.
So by the end of the day I was pretty ready to sit down and have a nice cold drink and trying to predict when my package from home would arrive containing Vegemite and Lucas´Paw Paw cream...just to complete my Australian/Cusco experience.
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