Down and out in Cuzco

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Its not all fun and games this travelling lark. After the initial honeymoon period I´ve crashed back to earth with 4 very poor nights´ sleep and a bout of dodgy guts. That said, its not all bad. I've had an interesting few days.

I went on a cool trip to the Colca Canyon up in the Andes outside of Arequipa. Soph was very ill the night before we were due to go and was up being sick every few hours. That accounted for one of my bad nights. How selfish of her. Anyway, she was feeling a bit better in the morning but not good enough to go on the trip so I ended up going on my own. It was good though; there were a number of other backpackers on the trip. We also had an excellent Peruvian guide who had a wealth of information about the Inca and pre-Inca civilisations. We travelled up from Arequipa, which is about 2000m above sea level to the Andean region which is approximately 4000-5000m above sea level. It was my first time at that height but fortunately I wasn't affected by altitude sickness too much, aside from being a little out of breath. The best way combat the altitude sickness, according to our guide, is to chew coca leaves. I gave it a bash and it certainly did the job. It doesn't taste great and makes your mouth go a bit numb but its certainly better than the effects of altitude sickness!

The change in altitude also brought about a change in scenery. As we moved into the Andes the barren desert disappeared and a far more pleasant green landscape developed. The mountain scenery was unbelievable and as we travelled further into the Andes, we began to see the agricultural terraces that make this region so famous. The terraces were first developed around 2000 BC by, I think, the Nazca culture. As you can appreciate, its a bit difficult farming the side of a mountain so what they did was create a ´step´effect down the side of the mountains so there were lots of little fields (or terraces) one after another. In addition, they create a system for funelling the mountain streams so that each terrace received sufficient water. The technology was so successful that it was used by subsequent civilisations such as the Incas and even the Spaniards, who seemed hell-bent on destroying anything remotely indegenous. The terraces are still used today by the Peruvians, who are are largely dependent on agriculture for their economic well-being. Aside from the practical qualities, the terraces are an unbelievable sight. There are literally thousands of them covering mountains on all side, as far as you can see.

The trip to Colca Canyon was for two days and we stayed the night at this little mountain town called Chivay, at about 4200m. Up until 5 years ago, this town had no electricity. Tourism has kicked in and now it has internet access and a bloody Irish pub! Generally though, Chivay retains an isolated, other wordly feel to it. There was a hot spring centre nearby where we chilled out for an hour or so and then went to a local dance show. I ate Llama and Alpaca which is like a llama but a bit smaller (and a bit more tender, I think).

After that..... well, we went to the Irish pub. In my defence, I did drink Pisco Sour, which is the main Peruvian cocktail. It involves pisco (obviously), lemon juice and egg white blended together. It tastes like a margarita. Very nice. That said, its not very conducive to the 5 o´clock wake up call we had the next day. I therefore take some of the blame for my lack of sleep.

The reason for the sadistic wake up time was that we were heading to the Colca Canyon for two reasons; firstly two see the canyon (of course) and secondly, to see the Andean Condor which is the largest bird on the planet. Ok, there are larger birds but none that can fly. Its so big in fact that it can´t fly like normal birds by flapping its wings; it has to glide up in a spiral on thermal currents. To cut a long story short, the Canyon was awesome and we saw a couple of Condors and they are MASSIVE.

A 6 hour bus journey followed over mainly unpaved roads and I was starting to feel a little worse for wear. To top it all, having arrived back in Arequipa at about 5ish, we then had to get the night bus to Cuzco at 8 o´clock. I got some sleep on the bus but nowhere near enough. We checked into the Loki Hostel in Cuzco which seemed really nice (at the time). It is an old Spanish colonial building, typical of Cuzco, which is filled with narrow cobbled streets and old, picturesque buildings. I wasn't up for much yesterday and was counting down to bed time. I just needed a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, we booked into a dorm room and our room mates had other ideas. I'll spare you the details but suffice to say I checked out pretty darn quick this morning. Fortunately, we've found this lovely little hostel called Casa de la Gringa which seems a lot more chilled out. Its got a real hippie vibe to it and I've already had a conversation with a woman about exploring your inner self through the use of various halucinegenic plants. Thanks but no thanks. I overheard another girl going on about the healing qualities of dance. Still, its a chilled out place and thats was I need right now.

Feeling a bit happier about life, we explored Cuzco today. I must say that Cuzco deserves its reputation as one of the top destinations in South America. It really is a beautiful old town which combines a lot of Spanish colonial architecture with remnants of the Inca civilisation. There are lots of steep, narrow cobbled streets with quaint old buildings all around. We are staying in an area called San Blas which is probably the most cobbled, narrow and quaint part of the whole town. I also found a place that did a mean English breakfast. Cuzco itself is situated in a valley with mountains on all sides. To be fair, I'm not doing it justice; visit it yourself... you won't regret it.

Cuzco was the capital of the Inca empire before the Spanish invaded around 1525. I expected the Peruvians to be a little cheesed off with the almost complete destruction of the Inca culture following the invasion however they seem pretty chilled out about it all. Despite the Spaniards best efforts, Inca archetecture is still evident in the town. There are numerous Inca walls which are identifiable by the precise carving of the rocks so that they sit together neatly without need for any cement. There are also a lot of Inca ruins in the surrounding area (the so-called Sacred Valley), Machu Picchu being the most famous but certainly not the only one of note.

Sorry if this blog has been a bit factual (ie boring) but I'm off to the jungle for 4 days on Monday so luckily you won't be hearing from me for a little while....

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