Back to Cusco and a plethora of Inca ruins

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The bus ride from Puno to Cusco was yet another terrible night’s sleep; this time the bus was actually quite comfortable, but it was so unbelievably cold on board. At Cusco’s bus terminal, there were once again hostel owners trying to persuade me to come to their establishments, and luckily the one I ended up going to was both central and very nice. I have been to Cusco before, back in March, but as Machu Picchu was shut back then, a return visit was in order. Plus I had yet to visit most of the Inca sites close to the city (the capital of the Inca Empire), so there were plenty of new things to see and do. And despite the over touristy feeling of the city, it is still an amazing place - one of the most beautiful in South America. The first site I visited back in Cusco was the Qoricancha, which during the times of the Incas, was the Sun Temple, and as such, was filled with golden artifacts which didn’t survive the arrival of the Spanish (Qoricancha translates as “golden enclosure”). After the conquest, the Spanish built a church on top of the Inca building, so what stands on the site today is a mish-mash of architecture. After Qoricancha, I bought from the tourist office the Cusco Tourist Ticket, which is pretty much the only way you can get into most of the city’s attractions. Somewhat expensive though (130 soles or around £30). Most of the attractions are situated outside of the city, but I spent most of the rest of the day looking at the museums in the city which were included in the ticket (as I’d paid for them, I thought I may as well). Nothing that spectacular though.

The next day I started my tour of Inca sites just outside of Cusco included in the Cusco Tourist Ticket. The first was Sacsayhúaman (more or less pronounced “sexy woman”), which sits on a hill 20 minutes away on foot from the city centre. This was a large fortress as well as a spiritual and ceremonial centre for the Incas dating to the fifteenth century (so really not that old). The Inca design of Cusco was in the shape of a puma, with Sacayhúaman as the head, which shows its importance within Incan Cusco. After the Spanish conquered Cusco, the stones from the buildings within the fortress were used to build the colonial city; consequently only the massive walls and the foundations of the buildings that were once inside the fort remain. Beyond the impressive walls lies a volcanic outcrop complete with an Inca throne, which would have been used for special ceremonies and festivities; beyond this is a large circular space which was probably a graveyard. After Sacsayhúaman, I then passed by the large white figure of Christ, which also overlooks the city and offers fantastic views. I came here in March, and the friendly person playing pan pipes and trying to sell CDs who was there then was still there. The next site on my list to visit was Qenko, a 10 minute walk from Christ. Essentially a large outcrop of limestone with a maze of tunnels beneath (Qenko translating as either zigzag or labyrinth), the site was of religious importance to the Incas, with a large rock, either representing a puma or a toad, being the most important relic. After Qenko, I headed back into Cusco for lunch, passing through the arty quarter of San Blas, which was very nice apart from the number of hippies trying to sell me marijuana. After lunch, I took a bus 11km outside of Cusco, past Sacsayhúaman and Qenko to Tambo Machay, which was the site of the Incas’ thermal baths. Not much to see at this site but a wall with some Inca fountains. More or less next door to Tambo Machay was Pukapukara, a small fort overlooking the Cusco Valley and which looked like a ruined European castle. From Pukapukara I walked back to Cusco (downhill all the way), passing by the Temple of the Moon, which I visited on horseback back in March.

Another site included on the Cusco Tourist Ticket is Moray, which is quite difficult to visit on public transport, so I took a guided tour from Cusco. This didn’t start well, as we left an hour late, but we couldn’t really complain as we were told that our guide had been rushed to hospital with an emergency and we had to wait for a replacement. When we eventually left Cusco, it took us about an hour to get to Moray. Moray was the Inca’s experimental agricultural centre, and it really was more interesting than it sounds. They recreated different climates and growing conditions to develop new species of crops here (hence why there are now 4000 varieties of potato in Peru) to suit the different areas of their empire, so it really was quite advanced for the time. After Moray, we stopped off at the nearby salt fields. The site is built around a brook which contains water rich in salt deposits. The brook is channeled into different pools, where the water is left to evaporate for 2 weeks, before the salt can be collected. These date to before the Incas, and are still in use today, producing salt for export as well as national consumption.

Back in Cusco, another place I could get into for free with my Cusco Tourist Ticket was the Qosqo Native Dance Centre, which normally I wouldn’t have dreamt of visiting, but as it was included in the ticket, I thought I may as well have a look. It was essentially a 90 minute show of traditional music and dance, which wasn’t as bad as it sounds. But not something I’d go to again.

The next day being Sunday, I headed to the nearby town of Pisac in the Sacred Valley, where there is one of the largest markets in Peru. By bus, Pisac is about an hour away from Cusco, and besides the market, is also home to one of the most complete Inca citadels. The town itself is not very big, but the market stretched from the main square along most of the roads, so it was actually a fair size and took some time to look around properly. After the market, the plan was to head to the citadel, which sits above the valley. Being principally a morning market, I had to visit it before the citadel, but this did mean I had to carry everything I bought to the citadel. From the town, it was a steep 45 minute walk to the outskirts of the Inca ruins. The views of the town and the Sacred Valley below were breathtaking. The ruins themselves were pretty interesting too. The whole site was much larger than I thought, and took a good few hours to look around. There were quite a few groups in guides going in the opposite direction to me, so I managed to pick up a fair amount of information from listening in. Even in the citadel itself there were a great many hills, with the city split in two by one such hill, with a tunnel linking the two halves. By the time I had finished looking around the ruins and had walked back down to modern Pisac, it was already late afternoon and time to head back to Cusco. The bus ride back was horrible - probably the most crammed bus I’ve ever had the displeasure to be on. I was crammed against the door, which at one point decided to open by itself, though luckily I was holding on to something. Even though the bus was jammed, they still stopped to pick up more people and try and squeeze them in. I was very much glad when we eventually got back to Cusco, just before sunset. The strangest thing was that the woman squashed next to me had a bag with what I thought was a nice looking jumper on the top, but then the jumper “woke up”, as it turned out to be a very young lamb. Probably going to Cusco for the tourist trade, as there are quite a few women in Andean dress walking the streets of the city with either a llama or a lamb (or both) and usually a young child too, trying to get tourists to pay her for photos.

The following day I had my last tour booked. This time it was to the “Southern Valley” ruins outside of Cusco. The first stop was the small village of Andahuaylilas, famous for only one thing - being home to the “Sistine Chapel of the Americas”. Essentially a very ornate church dating from the late 15th century with renaissance style paintings, a lot of gold leaf decorations, and Moorish style ceilings. One thing they had which I’m sure the real Sistine Chapel doesn’t was a stray dog sleeping under the altar, presumably unnoticed by the church officials. After Andahuaylilas, we briefly stopped off at the ruins at Piquillacta, which are the oldest ruins in the Cusco area (from the Huari culture, which preceded the Incas). The guide was very interesting, but as the town is in ruins and they don’t know too much about it, there was a limit to what he could tell us. The last stop was the main reason for coming along on the tour - the Inca site of Tipon. This is one of the best, if not the best preserved Inca site, with the Inca water channels still working after 500 years and with 14 agricultural terraces built into a gorge reaching high up into the mountains. The whole site was really interesting; the only disturbing thing was that it also attracts some New Age people who consider it a spiritual centre; consequently several times on our tour our guide was talking to us when all we could hear was a piercing, wailing scream from a woman who thought she was being reborn. That somewhat detracted from the beauty and tranquility of the site, but it was still one of the best Inca sites in the area.

With all the sites in Cusco visited, my next stop will be one last ruin in the Cusco area. A little-known citadel by the name of Machu Picchu. The next blog will come from there.

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Photos

The Qoricancha
Inca Foundations with a Spanish church on top

The Sacred Rock at Qenko
Is it a puma or a toad? That is the question...