Acclimatising in Cusco

---

No Gracias! I don't want a shoe shine, a massage, a pedicure, a manicure, a sweet, cocoa leaves, a photo of you and your Llama, a postcard, a painting, a hat, gloves, a pack of cigarettes or a finger puppet! Oh, and I'd like to pick my own restaurant thanks very much.

Cusco is a beautiful town slightly marred by the need to swat away street sellers more often than you would mosquitoes in the jungle. And there is no available repellant. We arrived from the Jungle about a week ago and spent the first three days doing nothing but watching telly in the hotel. They say you need to take it very easy as your lungs get used to the high altitude (3300mtrs), but I think we might have embraced this concept a bit too much! The attraction of english telly in a nice warm hotel with 24 hour electricity and hot running water was too strong. Thankfully, however, we didn't suffer any of the nasty effects of altitude sickness that some other people report. Bar a slight headache and being a little out of breath walking around town, we have acclimatised nicely. Sadly though, budget constraints back in reality meant that the plush hotel couldn't last long!

Cusco is the centre of the Inca nation. It is the the sort of place that you feel you can walk about safely on your own or chill out in the central plaza for hours. We quickly found Paddy Flaherty's (the Highest Irish-owned Pub in the world) and set about feeding ourselves up to get healthy in time for Machu Picchu on the 22nd. After downgrading to a hotel disaster for 3 nights, we were more ill than when we arrived. The room was damp, drafty and miserable. The upside of being in a hotel such as this is that we did want to spend a whole lot of time there. We found our Machu Picchu tour operator to pay our final dues and arrange sleeping bags for the trip. They offer some other local tours that help you prepare for the big trip, so we signed up for a one day bus tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas the next day.

As we waited for the tour bus to collect us at the tour office, we befriended another young couple: Ellie and Patrick from London. As a sweaty bus driver grunted at us to follow him, we looked at each other and wondered what we were in for. First stop was at a cute little family run local market. They welcomed us with free Coca Tea and gave us the hard sell for their many wares. I purchased a little wallet from a child who was no more than seven years old. It felt wrong to negotiate with a 7 year old, over what is essentially 1€, but the tour guide had told us that it is expected, so I bargained down to 50%!o(MISSING)f the asking price. We both left the deal feeling satisfied with the negotiation.

Back on the bus we headed to the first Inca site of the day. As the bus pulled up outside Pisaq the tour guide informed us that we would spend the next 20minutes climbing steps. First though we had to buy our boleto turistico or tourist ticket, for a whopping 130 soles each (about 35€). This ticket gets you into many of the cultural sites around Cusco. As we set off with gusto we soon learned the value of taking it slowly. Five minutes in, sweaty and wheezing, I was seriously contemplating trading in our Machu Picchu tickets.

Thankfully you recover quickly once you take regular breaks. With sheer grit and determination we eventually reached the top of Pisaq and admired the view of the surrounding mountains and fields. Pisaq is the largest Inca cemetary and you can see several holes in the mountain side where they buried the mummified bodies. You can also see the layers of fields where they grew their crops in micro climates and the irrigation system that they carved in the rocks.

Sadly, what goes up must come down. Chatting to our new friends we took our time in negotiating the downward steps. One false move and it would not be pretty. We were delighted when we reached the bottom unscathed, but it did force us to reflect on the enormity of the challenge of 4 days 3 nights of that! The next scheduled stop was lunch, however as we drove through a town that was celebrating the feast day of the Virgin Carmen we convinced the guide to stop so that we could watch the procession. All the locals were dressed up in costumes in a parade that looked like a cross between the St. Patricks Day Parade, Carnaval and the Mummers on St. Stephen's Day. It was the highlight of the day as we watched the colourful costumes on young and old, as they danced a traditional dance to a pounding beat parading around the town.

Lunch was an all you can eat buffet for 5€. When we pulled up outside Ollantaytambo 20minutes later and saw more steps, we were regretting being such glutons in the restaurant! During a pause we played Where's Wally looking for two Inca kings faces on the opposing mountain face. After scaling the steps we came face to face with massive 90 tonne stones at the top of the hill. These stones had been pulled from a quarry 12km away on a log wheel pully system (similar to at Newgrange). Once they got the stones up there, the Incas set about carving puma bodies in the rocks, however were forced to flee in 1539 when Pisarro and his Spanish gang arrived. I couldn't help but feel bad for the poor men who had to leave the results of years of labour behind them. We were starting to get a feel for the intelligence of these people. We wandered over to inspect the building where they used to store grain and textiles. They built these silos up high to keep the contents fresh.

Back on the bus we were heading towards our last Inca site of the tour: Chinchero. Before we visited the church, we had a detour where we learned about the traditional methods of spinning Alpaca/Llama wool and the various natural ingredients they used to clean and dye it (eewh, beetle juice!). Chinchero itself was an ancient Inca temple that was converted into a church by the Spanish when they arrived. It was a nice church with some impressive paintings, but the view of the sun setting as we emerged from the chapel is the image I will remember.

As we arrived back in Cusco in the dark we decided to book to do the city tour the next day. That done, a drink was in order with our new friends. First stop Paddy's. Enjoying good conversation over pints with good company in a proper Irish Pub made me a little bit homesick as I realised that we were away from home for over a month and are missing big occasions like friends engagements and family birthdays.

The next morning we were thankful that the tour wasn't until the afternoon as we woke up in the freezing hotel room with foggy heads and dodgy tummies. We got lunch and gathered ourselves together for another round of Inca sites. We met up with Ellie and Patrick again at the tour office and kept an eye out for sweaty bus man. No sign of him, but we were collected nonetheless and set off to the first site of the day. Qoricancha was an Inca temple and garden that was converted into a colonial building by the Spanish. The principal message from our guide was how technically brilliant the Inca were. They built walls in such a way that they survive earthquakes. They worshipped their Gods in the night sky, finding animal outlines in the milky way. They paid homage to the sun and the moon with gold and silver leaf covering the walls. At this point we started to realise the biased nature of our (Inca decendant) tour guide. Essentially the Spanish were bad philistines that destroyed his heritage, and the Inca's were great... at absolutely everything.

Next stop was the Cathedral on the central square. It was a beautiful church that the Spanish built to try and convert the Incas to Catholicism. But the stupid Spaniards didn't realise that the clever Inca artists had incorporated their own religion in the surrounding paintings and statues. In fairness, it was nice to see how the Virgin Mary was made to look like a mountain to symbolise Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) for the local people, and how guinea pigs and llamas cropped up in a lot of the artwork. However, this is our second cathedral in as many days, and we have decided to take a break from them for a while!

Back on the bus we headed towards Saqsayhuaman, pronounced "Sexy Woman". This is a place of worship that is located on the outskirts of the town of Cusco. It was built as the head of the Puma for which Cusco is the body when viewed from the sky. More hills, more stones, more walking... more stunning views. The remaining locations of the city tour were Tambomachay where they worshipped water and Q'enqo where they worshipped coffee, only kidding, they actually worshipped toads and sacrificed baby llamas!

Fully Inca'ed out, we were in need of a drink, and together with Patrick and Ellie we sampled a few and played a game of darts in Norton's, the English Pub. We said a toast to a special occasion back home that we missed, then took a turn around the square to see who could give us the best deal on eating in their restaurant. We ended up getting fantastic value with a three course meal, free garlic bread, free pisco sour drinks and coffee for 15 soles each. That's about 3.50€ each! It really makes you think what a rip off going for a meal back home is!

Becoming fond of having a social life in Cusco we arranged to see Patrick and Ellie on Saturday evening after their Inca trail briefing. We spent Saturday day time moving out of the hotel that was making us ill, into a Best Western Hotel that is so far beyond our budget, that we knew we were being very bold! Logic being that after a couple of nights of extreme luxury our health would be back on track for Machu Picchu. After bidding farewell to Ellie and Patrick, amid promises to catch up again, we retired to our palatial suite and decided that we really like Cusco.

Sadly they kicked us out after two nights as they had no more room, so we've decamped to a mid range hotel as we make our final preparations for Machu Picchu on Wednesday. In the meantime we've been weaving our way through the streets of Cusco picking up a rain poncho or snacks at various stores along the way. We also stumbled upon a fantastic local market that is definitely the best market we've seen so far. We visited an Inca museum where we saw actual mummified bodies and learned about the egg-head inca noblemen. They used to strap noble babies heads in a metal brace from when they were born for the first 5 years to achieve an egg-like skull to distinguish them as being of noble breeding. I think I'd rather be a commoner!

We've bought everything, seperated our bagpacks and booked our accommodation for after the Inca trail. Now all that remains is to psych ourselves up for the mammoth trek ahead of us. We will be out of contact for the next 4 days, but hopefully will return with some magnificant photos and even better memories.

Wish us luck!

(we have more photos of Cusco but no time to put them up!)

---

Comments

[daireann]

brialliant
sounds absolutly brilliant.... a hell a lot better than a wet 'summer' in ireland. speak to you soon.D