Cusco and the Sacred Valley


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South America » Peru » Cusco
February 28th 2009
Published: March 8th 2009
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From Saqsaywaman.
After 5 months of travel I've learnt not to trust opinions in the Lonely Planet. Their books are useful for maps and other factual information but that's about it. The tourist bus from Puno to Cusco, highly recommended by the Lonely Planet, is a good example of why. Sure, the scenery is very pretty but you can see that from any bus, so why fork out the US$25-$45 for a "tourist bus". We (Sam, Olivier and I) took the First Class tourist bus from Puno to Cusco; the service was good, the guide was informative but the tourist stops, which differentiates the tourist bus from a normal bus, were pretty dull. I can remember visiting some church, some ruin, some museum about a ruin that we never saw and lots of markets. Seriously, they're not worth it, just get to Cusco - there are better stuff there.

Cusco is a beautiful city, definitely the prettiest I've been to in Peru. I was there for the Inca Trail but there's more to Cusco than just Macchu Picchu. The place was the old the Inca capital, so there are Incan ruins all over the place, mostly knocked down by the Spanish and sometimes built over with grand cathedrals - the Spanish were pretty brutal when it came to wiping out the Incan civilisation!

Around the Cuzco are the Incan ruins of Tambomachay, Pukapukara, Q'enqo and Saqsaywaman (or commonly referred to as Sexy Woman). I did them in one day (taking the bus to Tambomacay and walking abck to Cusco). They are basically just piles of rocks on top of stoned-walled terraces, not much to look at and a basic introduction to the Incan ruins, so I'm glad that I did them first otherwise I'd be disappointed. Saqsaywaman is the most impressive out of all of them, because of its size and also because there is has a great view over Cusco.

Then there is the Sacred Valley, towns of Pisaq, Ollantaytambo and Chincheros around Cuzco. Olivier and I took a tour because it was cheap, only 25 soles including a guide and transport, but I'd recommend DIY. The whole day was very frustrating. Most of the people on our tour were middle-aged South Americans (I was the only one who didn't speak Spanish) and they seem to be more interested in buying souvenirs than seeing the ruins. I lost count of the time we lost waiting for people to return from yet another market. Another lesson: avoid tours if at all possible! Ollantaytambo and Pisac are much more impressive ruins that the ones I saw the day before. They are larger and offer great views of the surrounding steep mountains - savage geography for moving tons of bricks around. Clever Incas! However, by the time we got to Chincheros it was almost dark and we only had time to visit some textile market. Crap.

To visit all these ruins I had to buy a Boleto Touristico, which is 70 soles with a student discount, pretty extortionate. To get my money's worth, Alex (who I met at my hostel) and I went around the remaining sites in Cusco covered by the ticket. Two words: don't bother. Obviously, whatever is valuable around Cusco was long taken by the Spanish or grave robbers, or whoever, before the museums came along.


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Town of OllantaytamboTown of Ollantaytambo
Town of Ollantaytambo

From top of the ruins.


6th June 2009

month in Peru
Hi, I came across your blog in search of more information about the Sacred Valley. I'm staying with a local family for 2 weeks in Cusco while brushing up on my Spanish. I was thinking it would make sense to get the Tourist Ticket and use my 1/2 days of free time to see the ruins and make bus runs to different towns. Based on your comments, it sounds like this would be a good plan. Like you, I would be annoyed at being stuck with a tour group. I'm more interested in the local culture and history. I've been told it's easy to pick up a guide in the town center. I'm sure there will be other students at the school interested in seeing the sights, so perhaps we could hire a guide/taxi driver to show us what matters to us. Ideas and thoughts? btw, I agree on TLP guide uselessness. I bought the 2nd ed. of the Viva Peru guide based on the table of contents at Amazon and I'm thrilled with it.

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