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Published: October 14th 2010
Hola amigos!
We celebrated David's 28th in Cusco, Peru and Machu Picchu was at the forefront of our minds. Cusco is a very pretty city, full of Spanish colonial churches, with many ruins of Incan settlements surrounding it and a Christ overlooking the city from one of the mountains. We sampled Peruvian food like alpaca but drew the line at guinea pig - that would just be too disrespectful to Roger and Mumm-Ra! From Cusco we boarded the train to the awful town of Aguas Calientes where we took some time out in the thermal baths and spent the night in order to get an early start on Machu Picchu.
Most people take the bus up to Machu Picchu but of course as we have our bus ban in force this meant a 4am start for us walking from town to the top of the mountain, all steps. We really wanted to climb Wayna Picchu, the mountain overlooking Machu Picchu that you see in all the pictures however they only allow 400 people per day to climb it. So this was the reason for the super early start, of course we only had the light of our tiny
torch and had to feel our way up the steps through the forest in the pouring rain until daylight came then halfway up the buses started zooming past us packed with people and we had to pick up the pace racing them up the hill so that we could be in the 400!
We made it and hiked up Wayna Picchu, a tough but fun hike that started out in the clouds and ended in a clear, beautiful day. I can tell you climbing Wayna Picchu is not for the faint hearted - steps all the way up with a sheer drop into oblivion at the side. There was a poor man who I have no idea how he made it to the top but on the way back down he was literally trying to slide down the stairs backwards, he looked like he was abseiling down! After that we headed back down and into Machu Picchu. Ok, enough... check out our picturessss!!!!
Cusco is the capital city of the Incan empire and Saqsaywamán (commonly known by many as sexy woman) is the stronghold of the last strategic fight of the Incan warriors. When the Spanish
laid siege to Cusco, the Incan warriors had their last stance in Saqsaywamán, but the Spanish with superior weapons defeated the Incan empire. Thousands of Incan warriors lay dead on the fortress of Saqsaywamán and condors came down to eat their remains.
The stones that make up Saqsaywamán are huge and it is difficult to comprehend how they were transported during Incan times. I subsequently learned that the stones are so closely spaced that a single piece of paper will not fit between many of the stones. Today, only 20% of the site remains, as the Spanish took many of the rocks and stones to build the churches of Cusco. Taking this into account, it is easy to imagine what a magnificent Incan ground this once was.
Inca Kola is the best selling soft drink in Peru. We tried it and it tastes exactly like Irn Bru except that it's bright yellow instead of bright orange! Now Irn Bru was introduced twenty or so years before Inca Kola so methinks someone other than Mr Barr also has access to that secret recipe. A bittersweet ending to our tale of Qosqo (Incan pronunciation of Cusco). Onwards to
Lima.
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Sam Constable
non-member comment
Hi! Myself and my girlfriend are leaving for SA at the beginning of November and following pretty much the same route as you guys. It's been wicked to get first hand information abt what everythings actually like, you've given us sum great ideas and saved us sum time on skipping the bad places! Was shocked to read abt your crash, hope ur both ok. Will think twice before using a Bolivian bus! Thanks again for all the tips!