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Published: March 10th 2013
Cusco
Plaza ArmasCusco is 3500 metres above sea level and situated in the southern Peru boarding the valley of Urubamba in the Andes mountains. Cusco was the historic centre of the Inca empire in the 13 th century 1532. According to legend the city was built by Sapa Inca Pachacuti, he was the man who transformed the quiet city of Cusco into the vast empire of Tahuantinsuya.
The first Spanish to arrive in Cusco was in 1533, they soon pulled down most buildings and then built on top of the Inca Foundations. The Spanish built many churches in order to convert the Inca's to follow their faith, they also built the cathedral, convents and a university. There was a major earthquake in May 1550 this caused localised damaged in Cusco. However the Inca buildings and foundations were undamged.
The Spainish built on top of the Incas' impressive Koricancha the temple of the sun the outside walls surrounding the temple had a 10 centimetre finish of gold and silver to represent their gods the sun and the moon, they did not know the value of silver and gold they only used these metals because of their colour which repersented the
The Cathedral
Facing Plaza Armas colour of the moon and sun. Sadly when the Spanish built on top of this building they stole the silver and gold and shipped it back to Spain it has been said 14 tons of silver and gold from this building only. They also held the Inca chief Atahualpa for ransom and ordered all the Incas' to fill a large room with all the gold and silver to free him but once the room was full they strangled the Inca chief any way and sadly he was the last Inca king.
We had to pass through the Santo Domingo Convent to reach the sun temple there are few structural remains of the temple with their tightly interlocking blocks of andesite stone, these walls had 10 centimetres of gold on top of them, before it was stolen. The inner walls before the arrival of the Spanish had beaten gold and silver hanging from them. Below the temple the Inca's had built an artificial garden which they had decorated with false llamas, shepherds, heaps of fasle earth with flowers, weeds, even with snails and butterflies too, all this was made in gold, silver and encrusted with precious jewels.The buildings built by
the Inca in Cusco are beautifull with smooth tightly fitting stones some are huge with many angles to them, in one particular street Hathun Rumiyoq there is a famous stone with 12 corners which fits perfectly into the lower wall of the old imperial palace, it is guarded by a Inca in costume, and yours truly thought it was a mannequin and nearly leapt into the air, when he said something to Michael for touching the stone in admiration. The blocks are so tightly fitted you would not be able to place a sheet of paper in between the joints.
The sacred city of Machu Picchu Our visit to Machu Picchu started with a 4 days and 3 night tour, which was not the world famous Inca trail, because you have to book many months in advance and we did not want to commit to a detailed travel plan, so we opted for another type of tour along with another 8 members to our group. It started with an early morning start with a drive out of Cusco up through scared valley and small villages high up into the mountains until we reached the drivable highest point in
the mountains approximately 4500ms high. Here we changed into our biking gear and helmets unfortunately it had started to pour with rain and our guide advised us on how to ride safely down the mountain side, we mostly freewheeled down the tarmac road passing several waterfalls spilling onto the road where you had to lift your feet high off the pedals to avoid them getting soaked from the river water crossing the road, though we were already soaked to the skin from the ever pouring rain.
We stopped after several hours of bike riding on the road side where we removed our soaking wet clothes and foot wear which was by now filled with water, and changed if possible into something dry.The bus/van then took us a short distance to Santa Maria our first over night stop. First we had our late local typical lunch at a family run restaurant, this consisted of a clear delicious vegetable and quina soup, followed by small piece of fried chicken, rice, fried plantain, large boiled corn and a small portion of salad. The lunch soon warmed everyone up and our spirits rose, we were shown our over night accommodation in a small
hostel around the corner, supper we were told was at 6.30. Michael and I draped our wet clothes around our room hoping they would dry by the morrow morning, as we only had 2 sets of basic clothing with us.
After a rest and supper which consisted of the same foods as lunch the younger members of the group who had already started with pre-supper drinks wanted to continue drinking, our guide told us of the local disco in the village, so we all followed his direction to the disco around the corner from the restaurant. The bar was filled with local young men and other tourists who were doing the same trek and celebrating completing the first day. We all brought a cocktail and joined the celebration, several drinks and a couple of hours later we made a our way back to the hostel, even if it was at a slow stagger.
Day two everyone met in the restaurant for breakfast nursing a headache or being rather quiet. We left Santa Maria and made our way along a rough track following the raging river Urubamba, and the mountain side which is covered with thick vegetation, the scenery
was breathtaking at times and soon everyone was cracking jokes and laughing as the hangovers disappeared. Lunch was at a tiny village down on the riverbed, we had 30 minute rest after lunch before setting off again along part of the dry river bed where lots of banana, avocado and mango trees grew along the track. We had to cross the river twice, first by a very rickety suspended wooden bridge, were we continued along the river for sometime before reaching another makeshift cable trolley system to cross the raging river again for a very small fee, the operator was a young girl and her sister they would assist you to cross the river with a pulley system, first our guide and member of the group went across the river then the two young girls pulled the basket back and the next customers got in and were pushed by the girls over edge of the river, the momentum of the push got the basket almost half way across the river, then the two people on the other side of the river pulled the rope to bring the basket back across. This took several minutes to get us all over, and
The Sun Temple
Looking through a window jokes of leaving someone left suspended over the river were made. Once we reached the other side of the river we could see the hot thermal springs in the distance this helped our tired achy legs to make the last hour of walking along the riverbed, then we followed a steep windy path up into the mountain side and this continued along the river before descending back down to the river level and onwards to the thermal springs. Where we all quickly changed into our swim wear and hit the lovely hot springs and relaxed for several hours. It was decided by the group members to take a taxi to our next overnight stop at the village of Santa Teresa, as we all felt quite exhausted after the hot springs.
Day 3 we left Santa Teresa to walk to Aguas Calientes the town below Machu Picchu. First we had to walk in total 7 hours, our first stage was a walk following a rough mountain side road, with the Urubamba river below, after 3 hours walking we came to the huge Hydroelectric power plant, here we had our lunch/rest break this stop is half way between Santa Teresa and
The Sun Temple
A wall which would of have the 10 centimetres of gold on top Aguas Calientes before we continued along a working railway track, once a huge (lucky) slow moving train passed us, we all had to dive into the hedge to avoid being hit. The going was quite tough as there was no path to follow and we had to walk on the big stones laid in between the rail-sleepers, or walk on the rail-sleepers for another 4 hours though the scenery was breath-taking as the huge mountain sides on the other side of the river and rail line were covered with thick beautiful green vegetation, with the jagged greys/blues of the huge rock face and some times you could see glimpses of part of the sun temple in the scared city this gave us all a good boost to keep going. Eventually the train station at Aguas Calientes came into view and with huge relief we walked the last 15 minutes up through the town to be then assigned by our guide our over night accommodation and arrangements for our evening meal. Our last meal together was to celebrate our long trek together and on reaching Aguas Calientes and the final trek up to Machu Picchu.
Day4 we awoke early full
An Inca stones
One of joints used to fasten the stones together. of intrepidation and excitement for the trek to one of the most famous places in the world, the sacred city of Machu Picchu, is built high up on the mountain slopes with the river Urubamba curving around it, with a back drop of dark green forested mountains some which are snowcapped, spiking up around the city, we had to be at the entrance to Machu Picchu park for 5.00 with our tickets and passports, as we went to leave the hostel we saw it was pouring with torrential rain, we were not dressed for this, as we had not heard the rain against the loud roar of the river which ran next to our hostel, we hastily found our waterproof clothing.Then with head torches on we retraced our steps back to the entrance in the heavy rain, at the gate lots of anxious people waited for someone to come and check our tickets and allow us through, but as it was pouring down with rain and the guard stood in this weather without any form of structural protection and only a dim torch to check our tickets and passports, all our important papers our passports!! got soaked and started to
turn into paper maché within a few minutes. However eventually we were given permission to start our trek, the path zig zag very steeply up like a maze with huge tall steps to climb, after half an hour you began to feel the exertion in your lungs and our already tired legs, the heavy rain continued, to make matters worse. Everyone going up gave encouragement to those who found it difficult to climb the steep steps, after another 50 minutes climb we happily reached the last step and met our trekking friends.
There we found the perviously arranged other English speaking guide to take us around Machu Picchu, as we entered through another ticket booth, we were met with the fantastic view (which we all had seen many times before in books, tv travel shows etc,) even though it was pouring with rain, it was still so amazing to see it with your own eyes, it was hard to believe you were really there " the city of "Machu Picchu " with the mountain of Huayna Picchu proudly standing besides the sacred city. The guide took us around to different parts of the city, the sacred plaza, the three
window temple which over looks the surrounding mountains and the Urubamba river. The guide was with us for hour before leaving us to freely wander around the site.
Our trekking friends and us decided to follow the slightly inclined stoned path, up to Intipunku this is the original Inca trail entrance into Machu Picchu, here we had an amazing view of the mountain Huayna Picchu in the background, and the beautiful worked slopped terraces to one side and the incredible buildings of the city. The photographs we took could never quite capture the design and beauty of Machu Picchu, after almost 9 hours of wandering around different areas of the city, sadly we decided it was time to leave. We wearily climbed the steep steps back down to the entrance of the park, and onto the town of Aguas Calientes. Here we had a meal before hastily going to the train station to catch the train back to Ollantaytambo where we were to be met with a bus which would take the happy and very weary travellers back to Cusco. However after boarding the train and settling into our seats the full train slowly left the station and went
for approx 45 minutes along the rail line before it stopped, everyone continued to sit quietly in there seats, on announcement was made, no passenger asked why the train was still, a porter gave everyone a small snack and drink, still the train stayed put with no explanation as to why the train failed to move, people began to nod off, and eventually fall asleep, either with their heads resting against the headrest or they simply rested their heads on the table in front of them and slept. We made our selves comfortable in our seats and thought, we will just shut our eyes for a few minutes as we felt so exhausted and rest awhile. Amazingly we woke 6 hours later in our seats to find the train still in the same place. The man who sat opposite us at the start of the train journey sat bolt upright with his walking stick clasped between his knees, he had slept in this position as he had when the train had started its journey, it looked very much like he had not moved during the night, he just opened his eyes as the train eventually started to move,and acted like
Sun Temple
A door way showing a single block with at least 14 corners nothing had happened at all. I think everyone on the train was so utterly exhausted from the trek to Machu Picchu no one had any energy to ask questions or complain, we finally arrived at Ollantaytambo 12 hours late, where our transport back to Cusco awaited us. It was an incredible journey with some lovely fun people to keep us company along the way.
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Paul Cottrell
non-member comment
Brickwork
Hey Mike, hope you are learning something from those Inca's brickwork!!!!