Cusco and Machu Picchu

---

Cusco was our first stop in Peru, I had loved it when I was here 5 years ago and it didn't disappoint this time around. Although it is very touristy, with street sellers calling to you constantly throughout the day, it gave us a few days to chill out before our tour to Machu Picchu.

First stop, a chocolate museum, it actually turned out to be more of a workshop (which was too expensive for us), and a cafe, so we took full advantage of the cafe and treated ourselves, I ordered a make your own hot chocolate, which involved them bringing you hot milk, liquid chocolate, cloves and cinnamon and you mix it up yourself, yum!
That night we treated ourselves (again) to an Indian at the Korma Sutra, Chris got his first taste of tandoori cuy ( guinea pig) and alpaca curry.

The next day we headed to Qurikancha (Quechua for golden courtyard). In its day Qurikancha was one of the most revered temples in Cusco, the walls and floors were once covered in 700 gold sheets, weighing 2kg each. However, when the Spanish required the Incas to raise a ransom in gold for the life of the leader Atahualpa most of the gold was collected from Qurikancha and melted down. When the Spanish colonised Cusco they demolished Qurikancha and built Santo Domingo church on the site using the Inca stonework as part of the structure of the building. This Inca stonework has survived many an earthquake that has destroyed other buildings in the city. We jostled our way through the many guided tours, trying to listen out for any snippets of English we could catch and then moved on with our joint ticket to Santa Catalina Convent, still home to 13 nuns. In Inca times the site of this monastery was occupied by the Aqllawasi, which means “house of chosen maidens” in Quechua. Girls chosen for their beauty and high lineage came to live here from a young age and stayed within the walls until their death. The museum part of the convent was laid out as the nuns home, showing them creating textiles and praying. Unexpected mannequins of the nuns made for a few surprises along the way, in particular the one laid out in the middle of the floor as a group around her listened as she confessed her sins.

A short wander around the city and we headed back for an early night before our Inca jungle trek began the next day. We hadn't heard of this trek before arriving in Cusco and had previously been planning on doing the Lares trek. However, it looked like the lack of popularity for the Lares trek had hiked the price up, whereas the Inca jungle trek was cheaper and looked a lot of fun.

So, the next day we started the activity upon a snowy mountain top, whilst he seemed as excited as us about the snow and was snapping some photos of his own, our guide, Ronald, told us it normally isn't snowing up here and the view is generally cloudy. We resisted the urge of a snow angel, jumped back in the van and it drove us to our starting point. We were cycling downhill from 4350m to 1430m, luckily with a dramatic temperature increase. Chris spent a lot of the cycle ride speeding up front with the guide while I was a tad more cautious and took my time, getting to know my brakes quite well. The views as we made each turn were incredible, and as we descended the landscapes spread out before us. At the bottom we were driven to a restaurant for lunch, and that afternoon we did our second activity, white water rafting. It was a lot of fun with the guide, Victor, having a lot of his own fun and jokes, some we weren't a part of, such as wielding his pen knife at another raft as we raced them down the river, splashing them as we went. I think he could tell from our shocked faces he had crossed a line and he hastily returned the knife to his jacket pocket. At times we felt like we were on a boot camp, as we struggled to know if he was joking or not as he shouted instructions to us. As we had an extra body in our boat, he thought the girls of the group might enjoy riding in the front of the boat, he was wrong, we didn't. Sitting here meant we got the rapids full on in our faces, the current was so strong it hurt, and Victor was right when he warned you not to open your mouth as we hit a class V rapid. Eugh! Finishing up just before darkness fell, we ate that night in another restaurant (turns out the Inca jungle trail with Lorenzo Expeditions was a very comfortable trip, and we ended up eating better than usual).

The next day was our first, and it turns out only real, full day of hiking. Ronald guided us with a map casually drawn in the sand. His lack of scale caused us all to giggle as it looked like we were taking a detour around the mountain housing Machu Picchu for no reason; the map made it look like we could just cut back the other way and be at our destination in minutes. I think you had to be there.

The climb throughout the day was only 500m, but it seems they had decided to put this all at the beginning and we steadily climbed up and up. Our guide broke the journey up with many breaks: stopping to buy snacks from a lady with a captive capuchin monkey; to have our faces painted and sit too close to a poorly taxidermied ocelot; to have a competition to win a pisco sour for the one who could blow the chaski horn the loudest (which no one actually received); to give us a full description of the role of the Chaski in Inca times; and for many photo opportunities. The trail led us to an Inca trail, not the traditional Inca trail, but a trail used by the Incas. There were plenty of narrow ledges and crumbling steps to negotiate, and as with the cycling, Chris spent most of the day ahead of the rest of the group, showing off his hiking skills. We were all spurred ahead by the promise of some hot springs to finish our day. After a quick trip on a cable car over the river (read, a small contraption made of wood and metal poles on a pulley system run by a couple of Peruvian children), the hot springs were near. They were a welcome sight after the long day, and we spent a couple of hours trying out the various temperatures, including the hottest one, hidden away, only just big enough for two.

On the third day we got a bit of a lie in as we decided not to join the optional excursion of zip lining, we met up with the group once they had finished the activity and started our walk along the railway lines to Aguas Calientes/Machu Picchu town. We had barely been walking 30 minutes when we stopped for a 30 minute break, Ronald spent this time talking to us about Inca traditions. Ronald liked to talk and though he had a lot of knowledge to share, sometimes he took just a tad too long to share it. He told us the correct way to start a new bag of coca leaves, making sure to offer the best 3 to Pachamama (mother earth); and how when you are finished chewing the leaves you have to place them under a stone as an offering; he explained how families can only have small coca plantations to avoid being under suspicion from the police for growing it for cocaine production.

The day turned out to be a relatively short walk, broken up by an extended lunch break, which involved playing football in the foothills of Machu Picchu and taking naps in hammocks. A flat route along the railway lines does indeed take you to Aguas Calientes, as Chris and some others in the group found after asking directions from some locals. Our guide however had become slightly slack in his hungover state ( too many cervezas while we were in the hot springs!) and as the group naturally separated into different walking speeds, the group of three I was in didn't think to ask for directions and just kept on walking. We were only alerted to the fact we had gone the wrong way when Ronald came running up behind us shouting Vamos! ('Let's go!' Or 'Hurry up!'). Turns out going through the active train tunnels isn't the designated tourist route, and perhaps isn't as safe as walking along the road. Walking through the tunnels, in the pitch black, trying not to loose your footing, while being told to Vamos! was quite the experience, and perhaps a more exciting way to reach our destination! However, it did result in the group being separated for an hour and our guide becoming apparently more agitated as the minutes ticked by with no sign of the other half of our group who had walked the correct way and waited for us on the route we should have taken.

After being reunited, we headed to the hostel for a shower and then a beer before a fancy dinner. Aguas Calientes is the town all visitors to Machu Picchu will end up in at some point during their trip. It is therefore only home to restaurants, hotels, bars, handicraft markets and ladies on the street offering massages to the weary trekkers. Natalia, a rather lovely member of our group, described it as an amusement park, and I think that's rather accurate, the only things there are the amenities you need before visiting the famous attraction. It served it's purpose well and the next morning we rose at 4am to make the opening of the gates to finish our trek. We were hindered in this part of the tour as our guide had failed to tell the hotel we would be wanting to leave at 4.30am and so the doors were locked and the staff all asleep. After numerous rings of the bell a sleepy staff member appeared to let us out and resume her sleep. The gates to the steep route of almost 2000 steps opens at 5am and it was just before this that we joined the queue of keen tourists to make the ascent. The path up roughly follows Hiram Bingham’s 1911 route, Bingham discovered the largely forgotten ruins of Machu Picchu during an expedition, and although many argue other explorers had 'discovered' it before him, it was he who exposed it and it's importance to the world.

Once again Chris headed up the group and reached the top of the steps before sunrise, the not so speedy, i.e. me, took our time and reached the top to join the rest in the queue to enter our treks final destination. Machu Picchu.

Being this early supposedly meant we beat the hordes, there were still plenty of people to fight our way through as our guide gave us an out of the norm tour. It was full of personal bias and definitely from a Quechua point of view. He included anecdotes about deaths at the site, tales of tourists soiling the site, his opinion of helicopter landings at the site, along with a healthy dose of anti-Spanish sentiment. We ended up learning very little about the ruins during the two hour tour, but lots about Quechua culture. One interesting titbit we learnt surrounds the pronunciation of Machu Picchu. The correct pronunciation is, in fact, Ma-chu Pick-chu. If you pronounce it Ma-chu Picchu, you are in fact saying penis mountain. (Apologies to the grandparents for using a rude word).

Ronald took us first to the Inca bridge, a very narrow pathway taking you away from the iconic ruins, it was here we were told about a fatality; a woman had plunged to her death from the bridge after an incorrect move caused her large back pack to take up the space on the ledge and her to be forced off. Because of this the bridge is closed to visitors, but teams from National Geographic travel here every year trying to discover the destination of the bridge and the onward paths. Apparently there are so many different routes it is still unclear where the route leads to. Ronald believed there are still Incas living hidden in the mountains, and perhaps the route wasn't intended as an escape route but simply a route to other settlements.

After some cliff edge, silhouetted, photo opportunities, we headed back to the main section of the ruins to explore. We saw the rock that is shaped identically to the mountain behind it, the Andean cross, which forms a perfectly shaped cross at summer solstice, the main plaza area, the terraces and much more. After the tour the group separated as some went to climb Wayna Pichu, a mountain that stands 360m above Machu Picchu. We had booked our tour too late to get tickets for this and so filled our free time with a trek up to the sun gate or Inti Punku. This is the point where the traditional Inca trail finishes and where those who complete the trail get their first, well deserved view of the familiar icon of Inca civilisation. After a 45 minute trek up some crumbling steps ( but nowhere near as steep as those we had ascended this morning), we arrived to take in the birds eye view. After lots of photo opportunities and witnessing an elderly Australian man scold a young guy for littering we made our way back down to catch the bus to Aguas Calientes. The other option is to walk down the 2000 steps we had been greeted with this morning, and for the whole of the trek Chris had been adamant this was what he would do. However, after an active four days and as many early starts, the heat and exhaustion pushed him onto the bus. We had a (very expensive) train ride back to Cusco, with an included fashion show of alpaca products, very odd. We spent the time resting our weary selves and enjoying the view. That night, back in Cusco we forced ourselves away from the comfort of our bed for dinner, and then headed back for a well deserved early night.

The next two days were relaxed ones, wandering around the coca museum and the Inca museum, watching some weaving. Chris spent a lot of the second day watching and photographing the Peruvian Independence Day parade, his highlights being the police dog display and the SWAT team recreating hostage takeovers aboard a bus. We also met up with some of our group from the trek and enjoyed some rather yummy ice cream and falafel with them.

We had spent our time in Cusco absorbing the celebratory atmosphere that surrounded independence day; treating ourselves to some delicious food; avoiding the numerous street sellers; meeting some cool people on our trek; and...oh yeah, visiting the forgotten civilisation of the Inca's. A pretty fun week had been had by all, but another night bus was next on the agenda, destination Nazca.

---

Photos

DSC01582
Our chocolate treat.

DSC01585
Tandoori Cuy

DSC01609
The snow at Abra Malaga

DSC01637
Face painting

DSC01714
Football in the foothills of Machu Picchu

IMG_18399163781984.
The cable car

DSC01790
The rock that matches the mountain behind it

DSC01795
Our group

DSC01819
At the sun gate

DSC01939
Independence Day parade