Day 58 - Sexy Women

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Today, our last day with Taryn before the Inca Trail, we all went to what is known as the second temple of the sun, the second most important Inca ruin in Cusco, Saqsaywaman (often referred to as sexy woman by the tourists). We had a rather over-enthusiastic guide, who could've had a great career on stage in the west end, over dramatising everything and leaving almost uncomfortable dramatic pauses after poignant and accusatory rhetorical questions. Taryn got the brunt of it - he directed most of his melodrama towards her, staring her out and invading her personal space. That said, he was very knowledgeable, but harboured a strong dislike for the Spanish and their destruction of the Incas and imposition of the Catholic religion (if I I had a penny for every time he said that...!)

He explained that most Inca sites were on 3 levels, representing the sky (stars, sun, thunder, rain; all important for agriculture), the land (lions and pumas; representing power and war), and the underground (the snake represents knowledge). The site is on a hill with fantastic views over the city, thus obviously a good defensive position. The altitude brought them closer to the all important sun.

The site was awe-inspiring, started in 1438 and taking some 50-120 years to build. Each huge limestone component took 5000 people to drag with rope, along ramps, the biggest measuring 7 metres above the ground and 4 metres below, weighing in at 130 tonnes. The site used to be 15 metres high, but of course the Spanish destroyed much of it, leaving only 20%. 250 tree species were reduced to 4, 34 gates reduced to 8, 300 representations of animals in the walls reduced to 3. I was dubious about said animal representations - I imagine that carving rocks in the shape of animals was the last thing on their minds, when they had to fit these 100 ton things together over 3 stories with no mortar and without the existence of the wheel! Everywhere we go, guides point out faces or animals in the rocks and buildings, which are usually very loose representations, and I'm putting it all down to coincidence and imagination!

After Saqsaywaman we had a date with Emma from our Kumuka tour, who was in Cusco as part of her new GAP tour. I convinced everyone to go to the English pub, the Cross Keys, for a drink despite previously mocking anyone who would want to go to an English pub abroad, because they had CIDER! It was an extortionate 5 pounds, but worth every penny after 2 months without it. We had a good catch up with Emzy (FYI GAP sounds infinitely better than Kumuka) but sadly had to tear ourselves away for our pre Inca trek meeting at our new hotel (Prisma).

The meeting was bizarre - our local guide launched straight into the 5 day itinerary without introducing himself or giving us the opportunity to introduce each other. The group dissipated as soon as the meeting had finished, which we were happy about as we had planned to meet Emma and Taryn again, with my only impression of anyone being that Christine, one of 3 middle aged Canadian ladies, was going to be a hoot... how wrong I was...

Chris's Corner

Cusco was built in the shape of a puma with Saqsaywaman as the jagged teeth of the beast, you can see this on the map with the old city forming a body. It's amazing how many times you have to think outside the box to see the Inca representations. After Saqsaywaman we stopped at the posh Inca Grill for a cold drink. These were bargains considering the place, I had a frozen lemonade and Soph an iced cappuccino... to her delight with added Baileys. We followed this up with my first Skype date with my parents, a bargain for a long conversation once the initial confusion over the system was gone.

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Photos

Drinks with Emzy
First cider in 2 months!