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Published: January 29th 2008
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cuzco - coca tea
yep the leaf makes the hard stuff - the brew here is effective against altitude sickness Following our whirlwind tour of Peru (and brief foray into Bolivia) we were back in Cuzco for one final time. Cuzco, Cuzco, Cuzco, I freely admit that I thoroughly fell for all its ancient charms, peoples, history, cobbled streets, traveller friendly shops and colourful parades that seem to occur on a weekly basis here. Cuzco was the Inca’s capital city and it is believed that it was originally laid out to represent the puma, and although the invading Castilians raised the majority of its original buildings the Inca foundations are still clearly visible on numerous streets, proudly bearing the load of many a modern day construction and displaying all the finesse and skill of craftsmen at the top of their game. The Incas certainly knew how to make a building to withstand the seismic disturbances that this part of the world occasions on its inhabitants from time to time, the best surviving example is the 'Coricancha' or Solar Temple in the centre of Cuzco which looks like any regular 17th century catholic cathedral, but inside the full story can be seen. Apparently when the Castilian invaders found this place it was clad in solid gold, inside and out, and having conquered
the Inca peoples they set about destroying their religion too by stripping the gold walls and creating a place of worship in the European style atop the Inca remains. The gold ransacked was used to coat the new Catholic religious iconography in churches and cathedrals throughout the invaders new American Empire and Catholic churches supplanted Inca temples throughout the country. However, one thing the invaders hadn’t reasoned with was the regularity of earthquakes in this part of the world, and as such after time the earthquakes came and destroyed the Castilians cathedrals leaving the Inca ‘foundations’ still intact. This is all down to the superior trapezoidal and ‘tetris style’ building block methods the Incas used, able to sustain the earth’s rigors and toils and is a testament to the ancient builders knowledge and skill.
Cuzco is a truly vibrant city with local parades and demonstrations taking place throughout its ancient heart on a regular basis, whether it be the children, eco-groups, the disabled or workers unions they seem to flock to the streets in great numbers to either protest or to celebrate at the drop of a hat. Usually the parades were the tourist/camera friendly traditional costume and dancing
affairs that would end up in some kind of dance off at the city hall although we did find our selves behind some merchants boarded up gates when the workers unions started bricking shop windows through which could of got a bit hairy. Never once though did we feel unsafe in its cobbled streets, and we managed to find a piece of home early on in the shape of The Real McCoy an English restaurant ran by Andy & Helen serving up piping hot pots of PG tips, full English breakfasts and scrumptious roast dinners all day - a perfect remedy to the weary traveller. Although we were only in Cuzco for a few days before the long awaited Inca Trail we had previously spent a week or two here before our trek into Puerto Maldonado and as such had plenty of time to enjoy all this city has to offer. A must for any visitor is the Sacred Valley Tour & the City Tour, both readily available from any agent and we found them to be informative and offering very good value for money.
The Sacred Valley Tour takes you along the route of the Urubamba River that
runs the length of the sacred valley. First stop was the magnificent Inca terraces at Pisaq which included a brief tour up to some of the ruins there. Following this we dropped in to visit a local potter who made his wares in the traditional Inca way with a flat base and by using mountain sand to increase the strength of the final product ten fold, he demonstrated this claim by hammering a nail into a wooden block with a mug - hardcore! Following the demo we were offered the chance to buy some of these industrial strength wares before being taken for a buffet lunch in the nearby town. After our meal we re-boarded our bus and were taken around the fabulous Pisaq Market, a place that actually warranted a full day to uncover all of its very quaint and rustic handcrafted wares, yet we only had a solitary hour to indulge in a frenetic supermarket sweep through the place. Our tour ended up at Ollantaytambo, which happens to be the last town before the official start of the Inca Trail, and as a pre-cursor to our journey we witnessed the Trail Porters washing down tents and camping equipment
in the surrounding fields in preparation for the next group of intrepid travellers. Ollantaytambo really is as cute a town as you are going to find with stone built houses, small cobbled walkways and bridges, mountains, Inca ruins, market square and crystal clear Andean water running throughout the town in little causeways by the sides of the houses. Oh yeah we did actually stop off at another town on the way back to Cuzco, but by the time we arrived the evening was already encroaching and we couldn’t really see much, so we went inside a very old church who’s insides were hand-painted in gold in a variety of intricate styles, but unfortunately you couldn’t take any photographs - so it was bit of a photographic let down this one. All in all it turned out to be long old day trip and every one of the places we visited could have warranted further exploration but a brief piece of all of them certainly satisfied my curiosity for now.
The City Tour wasn’t the epic day out like the Sacred Valley tour but was still never the less a good half day out encompassing some truly spectacular places. One
thing I must point out is that you actually get a week long ticket included with this tour which enables you to visit museums and galleries free of charge after the days tour has finished making it even better value for money. The tour starts you off at the aforementioned Temple Of The Sun where you can see first hand the still existing temple structure within the new Dominican Priory and Church of Santo Domingo surround. Following this mini tour you are taken around four out of town archaeological sites that completes this long half days excursion. Starting with the closest, and in my opinion most impressive, were the ruins at Sacsayhuaman or as they are more commonly referred to ‘Sexy Woman’ by the tourists and locals alike. The ruins here were apparently part of a water storage/reservoir system that fed the city of Cuzco and the scale of the blocks the Incas used to make it are extraordinarily large in size, some weighing in at 60ish tonnes or so and all carved to fit snugly together with no mortar. Some of the gaps between the stones are so tight that it is impossible to even push a piece of
paper in between - no mean feat. Out of all the ruins I have seen to date the scale of the stone blocks used here set it apart, and unlike our Stonehenge in the UK the building material was quarried from the sites accompanying mine so the distances theses blocks travelled was minimal, but to actual cut, create and position these monolithic slabs is awe inspiring to see. Having seen this truly inspiring archaeological site at the beginning of the tour makes the following detours at Q’enqo, Pucapucara and Tambomachy unfortunately pale into insignificance in size and scale. The only other place I found of any real interest were the royal snake like passages and tombs at Q’enqo, and with light fading into evening the last site we visited at Tambomachy was shrouded in too much twilight to get any decent photos, so as they say ‘book early to avoid disappointment’.
So, with time eventually running out we had just one final excursion to look forward to, and after six weeks of waiting and travelling Peru’s delights The Inca Trail and namely Machu Picchu were now within our sights. A full report will follow very shortly until then Adios
Amigos :o)
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Carolyn Taylor
non-member comment
Great descriptions....
What a great description of Cuzco and surrounding environs. Thank you for making my decision to return there ( my 3rd. trip) such a no-brainer. My blogger name is 'gunga'.