authenticity

Cusco is about as Peruvian as I am conservative. Walking around the Plaza de Armas, which is the main square, speaking Spanish is a taboo. Even the annoying people selling you everything from little dolls to sunglasses (doesn’t matter if you are wearing a pair of your own at the time) hassle you in English. Anyone who has only been to Cusco has not seen real Peru. This city is centered around tourism and does everything possible to keep foreigners pouring in. The city itself is a beautiful cobblestone colonial town built on Inca foundations. There are Inca ruins all throughout Cusco and the surrounding sacred valley. This is where my skepticism of any authenticity in Cusco comes into play. Early last week we were visiting ruins in a nearby town of Pisac. The ruins were absolutely gorgeous… an Incan citadel sitting on top of a mountain overlooking the valley and the small town that is now thriving off tourism from the ruins and its massive street market. After looking around for an hour and taking pictures of massive walls and terrace systems carved into the mountain side, we noticed something a little strange. I had to do a double take to make sure I was seeing properly. Sure enough, there were a bunch of men wearing blue hard hats building the ruins. I repeat: There were men building ruins. Does that even make sense? I mean sure you can build ruins, but don’t they have to be there for a long time before they can have that connotation? Intrigued, I decided to take a closer look and sure enough, I would say almost 95% of the ruins had been reconstructed. It’s quite obvious what parts are Incan and what parts have been hastily constructed by the Peruvian government. Incan stones are massive and fit together perfectly (the best explanation will be the pictures I post) and the reconstructed walls are just piles of stones sloppily piled on top of each other with mud slapped between them to fill in the spaces. Incan walls can withstand earthquakes, but I wouldn’t trust the new walls to support my weight if I attempted to lean on one. Speaking of Incan walls withstanding earthquakes; apparently, after a massive earthquake here in Cusco, all of the Spanish colonial buildings crumbled, revealing the perfectly intact foundations of Incan walls that they simply built upon (the few foundations and buildings that they didn’t destroy). Feeling slightly deceived about all these ruins surrounding Cusco, I now take a closer look to see whether I’m looking at something built by the great Incan empire or the equally powerful Peruvian tourism empire.

Let me take you on a walk through the Plaza de Armas. Before we even get into the main square, we will be offered socks, gloves, sweaters, cigarettes (and if we tell them we don’t smoke, they will ask for just money instead), dolls and postcards. After fending everyone off, we round the corner where we will be immediately surrounded by people begging us to go to their club because it is the best in town. Free drink tickets and happy hour announcements well come quite close to giving us paper cuts all over our faces. We make a run for the next street hoping to shed the screaming club workers and take a breather on a corner. Soon we realize that we are on the restaurant and tour agency road… not a good sign. As we casually stroll through, menus will be shoved in our faces and we will be offered to go to Machu Picchu 12 different times each block. Finally fed up with walking, we go and sit on one of the many benches in the middle of the plaza. Things are tranquil for 30 seconds until they all notice that you are an easy target sitting down and everyone will converge on you like the street dogs on the trash pile behind the butcher’s shop. That’s what it’s like in Cusco. It’s just too much to handle sometimes.

We took the Inca trail trek to Machu Picchu last Saturday. The trek wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. It was more of a moving 3-star hotel than a grueling trip into the wilderness. The views were spectacular and the meals were near gourmet. Daisy and I were the only people out of the 13 in our group that actually carried our own packs. The others just paid extra and weighed down the already overworked porters. Of the other travelers I saw on the trail, I would say that only 5-10% actually carry their own packs. Although the trail itself proved quite difficult at times (especially carrying a 16 kilo/ 35lb bag up 4 hours of stairs), I could have gone the entire trek without watering an entire tree. That’s right; they had at least 2 bathrooms a day in the so-called nature hike. There were even showers on the second and third nights. The third night, you could pay about $1.50 for a hot shower. Partly out of protest that there hot showers in the middle of a national park and partly out of being a cheap-ass, I instead paid all my fellow travelers an ‘I’ve been in the wild (sorta) for 4 days straight’ smell. On the third night, there were not only hot showers, but also a bar and club in the middle of the forest. That was just too much for me. I mean I really enjoy being in nature… the last thing I want to hear is Lil’ John screaming out “Yea” and having it echo throughout the mountains. The next morning we arrived to a Machu Picchu that was completely blanketed in clouds. We couldn’t see a damn thing. Luckily after an hour passed, so did the rain and clouds and provided some amazing views of the lost Incan city. I’ll let the pictures describe Machu Picchu because my words wouldn’t do it justice (plus I’m burning out on writing). I’m leaving for Puno tomorrow and going off on my own into Bolivia to visit Lake Titicaca. I will trying make an update next week sometime.


(Really sorry about the tease with the pictures. That one picture took 20 minutes to upload. I can´t get anymore to load. When I get to Puno or Bolivia, i will make an update with just pictures to make up for it. Sorry!)

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