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Published: December 5th 2009
Nasca desert
with signs of El Nino floodsHearing reports of scorching heat back home in Sydney had reminded us that the southern hemisphere Summer was almost underway, and here we were at the equator.. we needed to catch up some time if we wanted to make it down through Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina before Summer were over. So southern Ecuador and northern Peru were put on the chopping block. From Quilotoa we caught bus after bus after bus, finding ourselves on the side of the road in Piura at 5am, where we caught up on some sleep, then back on the overnight buses straight through Lima and the deserts of coastal Peru.
The highs and lows of bus travel
Bus bingo - Now you may recall that we both made a disatrous attempt at bingo in Spanish way back in Venezuela, getting numbers wrong, cards blowing away in the wind, etc. So when the overnight bus 'hostess' began handing out cards we were a little apprehensive. But our confidence grew as number after number was ticked off, and suddenly I had I diagonal line checked.. 'Does that count like it did in Venezuela?' I whispered to Jen..'I dunno...yeah..call out!' was her reply. So I jumped up yelling 'Si, Bingo...' and flashing the light above my seat (I think that's what you were supposed to do!?). The hostess ignored my calls, save for a glance of contempt. The friendly couple in the seat behind informed me that a diagonal didn't count, you needed all the numbers. So I gave Jen a mouthful, then returned to the numbers being called. Several minutes passed without anyone having claimed victory, and all of a sudden I had only 1 number left - 'please don't call it...please don't call it...' And she called it. So I repeated the flashing lights/yelling combination, the couple behind asked 'are you sure??'. So I handed in my card for confirmation of my newfound spanish-numerical skills and waited nervously. She CONFIRMED!! However, as this was being done 3 others came up also claiming bingo on the last number. So the winner of a free bus trip was decided by picking papers from a hat and sadly the winner was not I. But at least I could gloat about my Spanish skills!
Kirk Cameron must die - We have now seen countless movies played over countless long distance bus trips. At first there was a
disturbing trend of Kevin Costner, but that has faded lately. Instead 'how to save your marriage' type films produced by a US Baptist Church have started popping up. The worst of these is entitled 'Fireproof' and it 'stars' former teen funnyman Kirk Cameron. Basically he has a horrible wife and he can't manage to save their marriage until he discovers the bible... Horrible characters, terrible storylines and zealously religious preaching -aaaaaaarghhh!! We have now been subjected to the torture of this movie THREE times. And have since learnt that Kirk funds all these films himself. For this, Kirk Cameron must die
After all the fun and games we found ourselves dazed and confused in Nasca, a town right in the middle of the desert. Now Nasca refers not only to a town, but also a region, a pre-Incan people, and if you were paying attention in the Galapagos blog a scary type of booby! All of these (except for the booby) are famous nowadays because of the very mysterious Nasca lines!
Thought to have been fashioned some 2000-3000 years ago, the Nasca lines comprise hundreds of large, individual figures and shapes in the ground. These ranging from
simple lines to some pretty good representations of hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys and possibly even an alien/astronaut figure. They were made by removing the surface rocks and dirt, revealing white earth underneath. Whilst impressive in itself, the figures can only really be seen and interpreted from the air.. This raises a few question. The first is why? Followed by, could the ancient Nascans fly? Did aliens have a hand in this?? and so on and so forth. Perhaps if we saw the lines for ourselves we could crack the code. So we booked a joyflight to witness some of the more impressive lines.
Now it wasn't the best start to the day when I woke up feeling horribly sick. But we continued on to the airport, and I kept it together. We were strapped into the tiny 5 seater plane and soon soaring above the lines nearest the airport. To the left a whale to the right a monkey . And infront, the sick bag!
Jen says that the rest of the lines were also amazing. Unfortunately I only had glances out the window, but Jen was kind enough to take the camera so that I, just like you
dear readers, could appreciate the amazing designs and lines at a later stage. And yes, they really are mysterious and amazing!
Still feeling pretty ordinary later in the night, we took another night bus this time to Cusco - capital city of the Incas. We had to take a long, unannounced detour through Arequipa and some other towns which we had decided to miss due to time constraints, but finally landed in Cusco some 20-something hours later.
Our first day in Cusco was spent sleeping, eating and getting massaged. After all that bus travelling a massage was always going to be very well received by us and it was great! In a relaxed daze we then wandered along streets lined by massive Incan walls, spotted colonial buildings with Incan foundations and visited a whole lot of museums, churches and cathedrals. Cusco is also amazingly touristy, but it has so much charm that that doesn't even matter.
In the heart of the city we visited Qorikancha, thought to have been the Inca's centre of power. Large stone blocks remain unshaken by countless earthquakes at the sites foundations, whilst the walls of the church the colonialists built above (after
Qorikancha
Incan foundations, Spanish middle section, modern building on top raising the Inca structures of course) have succumbed to several quakes.
One day we took a horse riding trip of major Inca sites on the outskirts of Cusco. Turns out the horses only take you a part of the way to the first sites, so you have to jump on a bus to visit the remains of an important bathing site called Tambomachay and across the road the fort of Pukapukara. Back on the horse we made it to the ceremonial site of Q'enqo, before finishing up at the clear highlight of the day, Saqsaywamán (pronounced a bit like 'sexy woman'). The sexy woman was a massive fortification, perched above the city of Cusco. Massive stone walls, arranged in a zig-zag line offered great defence against attackers coming from below, however it wasn't enough to prevent one of the bloodiest Inca loses to the conquistadors in 1536.
One of the big items on most backpackers itineraries for South America is trekking around Cusco and Machu Picchu. Now the famous Inca trail was out for us as you have to book this weeks and months in advance, and lets face it, that really ain't our style! So instead we
were thinking of the well recommended Lares Valley trek. Unfortunately however, Jen's ankle was still not 100% after her multiple falls down the Quilotoa crater, so the difficult decision was made to scrap the hiking altogether. The silver lining was the decision to make our own way to Machu Picchu through the Sacred Valley.
A short ride in a bouncy old microbus had us in Pisac, a medium sized town on the banks of the fast flowing Rio Urubamba. We headed to a resort on the outskirts of town, knowing that is was way outside our league, but having heard that they let you camp there so you can pretend to be rich. What a campsite! Well, it was actually like a country club playground - pools, ponds with pedalboats, gym, basketball and tennis courts, etc. - and a camping section off to the side. We had the place to ourselves as well for the princely sum of 6 buck each!
But we were actually in Pisac for another reason, that being ruins. Now maybe I was still in a good mood from the country club find, but these ruins were really awe-inspiring! Perched dramatically around the top
mum, dad and the family car
mum and dad are in the tree if you missed them of a mountain an entire citadel could be imagined. There were countless agricultural terraces sweeping down into the valleys, military housing, a tunnel through the mountain, commoners houses and even a hitching-post for the Sun. Amazingly we practically had this site to ourselves in the late afternoon, and we hurried from section to section testing our inner archaeologists for clues to it all. At previous sites the lack of any signage or information had left us a tad annoyed, but here we really enjoyed the challenge of putting it all together for ourselves. And what an Incan Citadel we created! There were also holes in the valley walls opposite the citadel - once the tombs of its inhabitants, but since plundered for jewels.
The next day we were found ourselves at higher elevation at Moray. Here a series of circular terraces were thought to have been used as an agricultural research station. The theory is that with at each level there was supposed to have been a unique microclimate that could have been used as a proxy for different parts of the Incan empire - and you could therefore tell which crops may be able to grow in each
place, judging by whether the seeds succeeded in the related terrace. We weren't completely convinced by this theory, and instead agreed with the one which suggested the deep terraces allowed the local Incans to grow varieties of corn that otherwise wouldn't survive at such altitude. Whatever the truth, this was a pretty interesting site.
Not far away we visited salinas (or saltworks), created by the Incans and still used to this day by the local salt co-op. Basically a highly-saline mountain spring is diverted into a series of small pools where the water evaporates and piles of salt are collected. We're not real sure what happens when it rains...
But the jewel in the crown of the sacred valley is Ollantaytambo. Arriving in an overly crowded local minivan, the first thing we noticed were the extremely narrow cobblestone streets. Ollantaytambo town was actually designed and built by the Incas! It was pretty spectacular just walking along the narrow streets admiring it all. The second thing you notice in Ollantaytambo are the ruins overlooking the town. Again massive terraces adjoin to the remains of various types of buildings, sun temples and defensive structures. It was here that the Incas
Saqsaywáman
and the view down to Cusco had one of their most important military victories over the conquistadors. Unfortunately for the Incas though a larger party returned for another attack a bit later and was successful. But today impressive ruins still remain, with the water temple and baths amongst the highlights. From here we jumped on the stupidly overpriced train to South America's most popular tourist attraction, Machu Picchu.
An early rise the next morning was supposed to beat the main part of the crowds at Machu Picchu, however it soon became evident that everybody else had the same idea. At a snails pace we began entering the site as the fogs thickened and the drizzle began. Just as we were thinking 'what are we doing here?' we finally got to the top of the hill, squeezed past some people and saw it - the first sight of Machu Picchu is it's most amazing. From a hilltop you look down on what was once an entire city, not destroyed in warfare like all the previous sites we had visited, but almost completely in tact...Wow!! Now not alot is known about Machu Picchu, but that didn't stop our friendly guide from sharing quite a few of his
Saqsaywáman
it is thought that less than 20% of the site has been uncovered so far own interpretations. There isn't much more to say, other than it was a beautiful site (despite the weather), and anyway the photos speak for themselves.
We returned to Cusco for a few days back of rest and recuperation, including a Saturday night out on the town for Dawson's (Jen's friend from school; member of legendary travelling trivia team 'The Magic Sausage') birthday. But then our adventures through the centre of the Inca world were to come to an end. The wealth of remains kept us interested and busy, despite the early colonialists pastime of looting and destroying. At so many of the sites we left amazed by the feats of engineering, attention to detail and just the existence of relics from a completely different time and culture. It is a shame that we had to move so quickly through Peru, but we definitely felt that we had seen some of South America's highlights!
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Jen n Jeff
Jen n Jeff
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