Cusco - Walking in the footprints of the Incas (and millions of tourists!)

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We arrived in Cusco feeling decidedly hung over after little sleep on the overnight bus from Arequipa. We opted for the seats which recline the most but it didn’t really help us sleep. The bus though was very comfortable, movies with headphones so we didn’t have to listen to it, pillows, blankets and dinner. A taxi took us to the main square, still just waking up as it was only 6am. We didn’t have a hotel booked and planned to find one after breakfast. However it was too early for the cafes to be open so whilst we were waiting in the square we were approached by touts offering to take us to their hostals. We were both feeling very sore from our hike down the Colca Canyon so as neither of us was particularly in the mood to cope with them we left the square and thankfully found a bakery open. A good breakfast revived us and I left to find a hotel - still more touts so I ended up booking into a hotel down the road - the most expensive of our trip so far.
Later we left to explore the city. Our hotel was just behind the main square (that obviously added to the price!) and it was one of the prettiest square we’ve seen so far this trip. In fact Cusco was one of the prettiest cities we’ve visited. It sits at 3300 meters above sea level and is one of South Americas oldest continuously inhabited city. It was once the Inca Empires most important stronghold and is a beautifully preserved living museum. The entire central area is built on Inca foundations and the streets are very narrow and cobbled. The colonial houses all have intricately carved wooden balconies which overhang the streets. Cusco is the city from which tourists visit the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu (the most visited site in South America) so the city today relies heavily on the tourist dollar.
It certainly was a fascinating place to wander around in. The streets were lined with souvenir shops all selling the same cheap bits but every so often we found an artisan shop which displayed stunning wares, though most were very expensive. Touts wandering the streets selling paintings and tours became a bit of a nuisance - the worst we have encountered since India - but I guess they have to earn a living somehow. There were so many shops all selling the same things I would expect many would not earn any money some days.
The main plaza was dominated by the large Cathedral but we didn’t visit it as we never found it open. As entrance to it was included in a tourist multi site ticket for sale there must have been a separate entrance somewhere - it obviously wasn’t the main door. We found it interesting here that the Cross didn’t have figurines of Jesus on them - they were simply dressed in brocade robes. We saw them scattered through the city, both inside and outside the churches. The streets behind the Cathedral were lined with Inca foundations - the stones were very large and cut to fit perfectly to together. One of them had 12 sides around the perimeter to fit it snugly into the stones around it. The stones appear not to have anything between them but the Inca’s used an invisible cement to waterproof the joins. I saw one with 14 sides within the Temple of the Sun - an ex convent, now a museum but in Inca times it was used for religious ceremonies and observatory. In the Inca era it was also covered in gold - until the Spanish conquistadors looted it all.
We spent a total of four days in Cusco, two before going to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu and two after. It was very easy to fill our time there. We spent a very informative morning at the Inca Museum which was in one of the best preserved colonial buildings in the city. Full of Inca gold, silver, Inca textiles (the stitches are minute) and pottery. In the courtyard we were able to watch weavers from nearby villages create textile pieces. But the highlight for us was a temporary display of wind instruments. They were all replicas of many we had seen in the museums - many were jug like and I had actually thought they were jugs - but they were filled with water and then blown into. They were all demonstrated to us and the sounds which came from them were exquisite. They were all for sale but far too large for us to even consider purchasing one. Another museum we enjoyed was Cusco’s branch of the beautiful Larco Museum we enjoyed so much in Lima Again superbly displayed. Our first two days in the city went too quickly but we were looking forward to our time in the Sacred Valley and knew we could spend more time on our return. I’ll write about the Sacred Valley in my next blog.
We had prebooked a much cheaper hotel for our return visit - this was much further up the hill behind the Cathedral in San Blas area - lined with budget hostals and eateries. We spent a pleasant couple of days wandering the streets. I visited the Cocoa Museum, very small but interesting. Cocoa leaves are sold everywhere - all the indigenous people have wads of them in their cheeks. Cocaine is made from cocoa leaves - and Coca Cola also has a by product of the leaves in it. We also enjoyed the displays within San Catalina Nunnery mainly because all the rooms were set up with furniture and models. It was an interesting insight into the strict life of a nun. I found it interesting that as the nuns were married to the church they had to take their dowries with them when they entered. Many of the priceless artefacts within the churches around the world came to them via these dowries. We had been planning on visiting Saqsaywaman , an Inca site near Cusco which saw thousands of Incas die after a battle with the Spanish but after our week in the Sacred Valley we felt that we had seen enough Inca stonework Interestingly after the battle the majority of the site was torn apart by the Spanish who used the stones to build their own houses.
We spent another interesting few hours at the local market - we always love the colour and life within the markets. The day we were there they were hosing out the large hall where the meat was sold - there was water spraying everywhere and all the stall holders outside weren’t happy as their products were getting wet. Cusco was beautiful city just to wander in - lovely architecture, lots of tiny alleyways and pretty square with flowers and fountains. We ate some great food and found a restaurant which made the best Pisco Sours. We had been planning on catching a tourist bus from Cusco to Lake Titicaca and then onward into Bolivia - an eight hours trip which stops at some of the smaller ruins enroute and passes through some spectacular scenery - but there had been an ongoing dispute on the Peruvian side of the border. It had been going for three weeks and had been quite nasty with the immigration buildings burnt down, 30 klms of road blocks and tourists trying to get through being made to pay large fees, being stoned or even robbed. Plus they had the added problem of having no border stamps which created some pretty scary moments for some of them on the Bolivian side. We spoke to a group of young girls who foolishly went illegally over the border via a night time (and probably dangerous) boat trip across Lake Titicaca. They fronted the immigration office in La Paz to get stamps and had their passports taken off them. It was hours later before they got them back and only after a lot of tears.
The local people were protesting because a Canadian company was due to start mining silver close to Lake Titicaca. They weren’t happy about it as it would pollute the water of the lake. When we did get to visit the lake (from the Bolivian side) we found that the people living on the shores of the lake only get access to water from the lake for one hour a day - the rest of their water they have to truck in and pay heavily for. As the silver mine was going to be given an unlimited supply of water from the lake this probably had something to do with the protests as well. Anyway we were unable to leave Peru overland so had to fly from Cusco to La Paz. Our final Peruvian surprise was when we arrived at the airport early in the morning. The airport grounds were closed to all vehicles so everybody had to line up with their luggage along a dirty footpath outside where we were allowed in one by one after being searched at the front gate. Our luggage was searched again before check in after which we were directed to immigration which we found closed for another hour. Eventually we got through to the boarding area - no forecourt with coffee shops etc - just a big empty lounge - so no breakfast for us! We had really enjoyed Peru and were sad to leave but looking forward to spending the next six weeks or so in Bolivia.

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