The Land of the Incas

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Cusco

The journey from Vilcabamba, Ecuador, to Cusco, Peru took us 3 days and 1 hour in total. First back to Loja for the afternoon before our midnight bus to Piura then a 7 hour wait in the blistering hot Piura and then onto Lima (18 hours) where several people had been killed in the preceeding days because of riots in the La Victoria area of the city. Thankfully at the bus station we had access to the VIP lounge which had free hot drinks and internet access. Big Nick had chance to lose a few chess games - he had been out of practice! 22 hours later after a comfortable journey in the Cruz Del Sur bus, we fnally arrived in Cusco, Land of The Incas - another South American city in a valley surrounded by mountains.

We stayed at Hostel Hatun Quilla which was about 500m from the Plaza Armas, and a perfect base for the next 11 days or so. For the first couple of days we did very little as we acclimatised to the altitude again. We pottered around the stunning plaza drinking coffee and scoffiing too much pie de Limon. We ventured out to the market at San Pedro where you can get fantastic fruit drinks and smoothies for muchas cheapness! Big Nick's favourite was Lucuma con Leche. Mrs P's favourite was the strawberry and banana con leche. On the 3rd day we finally got off our bums and set off for our first walk.

Walk 1

We took a mini-van from Cusco to Chincheros (cheaper on the bus - robbing bugger!!) we set off east along the top of Lake Piura (very illusive as we never actually saw it) the path/road went on to>>>>, where a path that didn't appear on our rubbish map headed SOuth. We took it and headed towards Ayarmaca before finally turning back to the road to Cusco. We were completely baffled as we had never seen the Lake thatg we supposedly walked around and we had walked on roads that didn't appear on our map. Still, we managed 10k and in that heat it was pretty tough. We then jumped on a much cheaper bus back to town (standing room only and certainly no room for the lady with the sheep). Our first walk completed.

The following day we skipped the walking in favour of.........

"South American Football Tour...part 14"

Real Garcilaso 3 - Juan Aurich 1

This may be our last chance for a footy match so we took it and we were glad we did. This was far better than any other match we had been to in Peru. The stadium was still only half-full which was par for the course, but given the size of the stadium, it was till a decent turnout. The game was pretty good, Juan Auruch were excellent first half with nippy forwards causing all the trouble and they rightly led 1-0 at half time. The 2nd half was all Real and they battered poor old Juan! 3 good goals with some bloke who looked like Tevez causing lots of problems. We really enjoyed it.

Walk 2

Off again on another walk, this time heading up from Cusco to Saksaywaman and then on to the mountains North of Cusco. Things looked bleak when we were told we couldn't walk on the public road past Saksaywaman, eventually we just ignored them and headed up the road much to their annoyance. We half expected the Police to come and pick us up. The reason they didn't want us to walk on was probably because you could drop into the site at any point along the road but that wasn't what we'd wanted to do and we continued up, and up, and up, past Qenko and eventually after 2 pretty dull hours, onto a path that led us up into the hills. A bit of rain and out came our new ponchos and we continued up and up some more until we finally reached the pass at 4200m. The views from the top were stunning, Mountains everywhere we looked and many of them snow covered. It was the perfect spot for a well earned breather. We found a 50 soles note on the path; the 3rd time we found money on this trip - 100 soles on Yurimaguas and 20$ in Banos - long may our luck continue! After four hours of walking, we decided to retrace our steps back to Cusco. A walk that started poorly but that ended fantastically. You do have to make your own walks up round here as there are no decent maps or walking guide books. All we have is our 20 year old Peter Frost book, even the South American adventures place that claims to have maps drew a blank. With just 1 week before we start the Inca Trail, Big Nick's boots have finally started to give up on him and you can see his toe through a newly formed hole in the left boot plus the sole on the right boot has started to come free..will they make it or do we need to break the bank and by some more. In the evening we had another potter around town and must have see 5,000 peeps dressed up for Halloween. The Plaza was full to the brim with Spider Men, Freddy Kruegers, Snow Hites, Pirates, Minnie Mouse characters, Witches, Vampires and a horse riding a motorbike....mad!! On Halloween (All Souls Eve), families take food and drinks to the graves of their dead relatives and spend the day with them, it is believed that the souls of the dead rise from the grave on All Souls Day.

Walk 3

Next was a walk from Chinchero past Lake Piura (yes we found it...it had been here all along) through Tauca and into the mountains. We started from Chinchero and this time, using the compass, we were able to work out where the lake was. We walked South of the lake and up to the little village of Tauca. We passed lush green fields and a delapidated church. it took us 2.5 ours of solid slog to get to Tauca and from there it was all up hill to the pass at 4,400m. The route up was stunning, initially little farms everywhere before reaching into the valley. The path wound on for an hour or so before we came to a cirque which was basically a wall of craggy peaks. The path ran up to the right and came to 2 huge cairns (like huge hairy pineapples according to Mrs P). We had gorgeous views east towards muchas montagnes and a little lake below us. Remembering Lari, we turned back as it as now 3pm and we didn[t want to risk descending into the unknown with only a couple hours of daylight left. On the route down, a little shepherdess came running down the mountain to say hello, she had been tending sheep high up on the mountain with her little brother. She was a real cutie pie, only 8 years old and spending her days on the mountains with just the sheep for company. We arrived at Chinchero just as the sun went down and night fell. Another good long days walk. We treated ourselves to a beer when we arrived back in Cusco. Mrs P was feeling it after 3 sips - cheap date!!

Walk 4

The following day, and we were back again, this time with the intention of making it beyond the pass and down into Lamay in the Sacred Valley. To conserve energy and time, we took a taxi to Tauca saving us 2.5 hours walking. On the way up, we were overtaken by a woman with a herd of sheep, llamas and a couple of horses with their legs tied together. Once in the valley we saw the same little girl from the previous day, she came running down the mountain, this time with her sister. In all their were 3 siblings aged 8,9 and 10. We gave them some toffee from Baños and their faces lit up...priceless!! The weather was colder and up in the Cirque, we had snow on the ground. Once over the pass, no views today, it was a gradual path down the other side of the mountain, past some Inca terraces and into the ruins of Huchuy Cusco. Stunning remains in a fantastic setting which we more or less had all to ourselves. We snapped some piccies of the llamas and ruins, sat on an ant's nest, got badgered to buy some "entrance tickets" (no thanks) and then made our way down the extremely steep gorge towards Lamay. The views down were fantastic, it was 800m of almost vertical paths leading down to Lamay and the views along the Sacred Valley towards Calac were out of this world and we imagine completely unchanged since the Incas trod these paths. We say plenty of locals travelling along the way, some of them on horses, it was some commute. Again, we arrived back to civilisation and Lamay, just as darkness fell, with only a 10 minute wait for a mini-bus through Pisac and back to Cusco.That was a toughie on the knees, good job I was nice and bought Mrs P a walking pole! Large Trigo beer to celebrate....day off tomorrow methinks!

The next day was a day for getting organised and sending Farmer John Happy Birthday messages. Big Nick's poorly boots were taken to the shoe mender in the market, SAS paid up (we are now officially skint) and importantly... Diarrhoea tablets purchased. We saw the list of fellow Inca trekkers today, the eldest is 33, we're the OAP's of our group. We finished the day with an Indian Curry buffet and a couple of Pisco Sours. Not exactly the healthy option!

Pisac

Today we had a day trip out to Pisac in the Sacred Valley. We passed some good looking Inca ruins from the bus. The town itself was quite quiant, with lots of narrow cobbled streets with small cnals running down the middle of the streets. There were some beautiful ornate doors and paving stones, some carved into a snake. The main plaza was packed with Artesenal stalls and there was a constant flow of customers being bussed in throughout the day. We purchased a few Christmas presents and treated ourselves to coffee and cake. We really liked Pisac - the setting in the valley surrounded by farmland with the backdrop of the mountains was stunning and quite special. Despite the large number of tourists, the town retained it's character and quaintness. We headed back on the bus to Cusco and felt quite emotional that our South American adventure was heading towards its close. We made lots of promises to each other that we would do all we could to enable us to come back one day.

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