Land of the Incas


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South America » Peru
April 3rd 2004
Published: January 5th 2006
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We arrived into Cuzco, which is the hub for Inca tourism. It is the oldest inhabited city in the Americas. As soon as one starts walking in town, you can feel the effect of thin air, due to the Cuzco's altitude of approx 10,000 ft. To cope with Altitude, we were offered Coca Tea. I drank quite a lot of it, but didn't get high :-)

Cuzco, especially the San Blas part of town, is a beautiful city filled with cobblestone streets, art galleries, cafes, beautiful ornate churches and of course, tour operators and trinket sellers. We spent the first day visiting prominent churches and inca ruin near Cusco. La Cathedral and La Compania are two catholic churches from the 16th century that are filled with gold plated sculpture and hundreds of amazing canvases. We visited Coricancha, once the richest Inca temple and excellent example of fine Inca stonework, and Sacsayhuaman, sprawling inca ruins just outside of Cusco that is in the shape of a puma. The ruins are huge with their zigzag walls and the site is still under excavation.

Next day we went to the Pisac, a small town 1.5 hours away from Cucsco for the Sunday market. Local native Amerindians dressed in colorful garb buy and sell everything from vegetables and meat to alpaca sweaters and hats. I spent the day improving my negotiating skills, buying trinkets including my fabulous Indiana jones hat, enjoying the lively market, spending some time in a catholic sermon and taking an exciting local bus ride back to Cusco.

Next , we embarked on the trek to Macchu Picchu. We opted for the 2 day/1 night hike starting at Km 104 ruins. It was a steep climb up the canyon, with the fantastic views of the Rio Urubamba. After an ardous full day trek, we stopped at the Winaywaman ruins that are located precariously on a mountain side. After going around the ruins with our guide, we called it a day at our camp site.

The next morning, we got up at 5am and started our hike by 6am. After couple of hours, we reached Inca Sun Gate and lo and behold, you see the spectacular view of Macchu Picchus down below. We climb down to Macchu Picchu ruins, which is nestled in the Andean mountains that is covered by fog giving the entire scene a surreal feel. We crossed a few Lllamas along the way and walked around the sprawling, magnificient ruins that were built by the Incas in the 15th century. The city was lost to civilization until early 1920s when spanish rediscovered this magnificient ruins.

After visiting the ruins, we walked down the valley to Aguas Calientes. We took the infamous train ride back to Cuzco. The train ride takes a zig zag path down the mountains, therefore it goes back and forth down a steep incline. It is a must experience for train aficianados.

After Cuzco, we headed down to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We visited the floating village of Uros. People literally built islands out of reeds and live on it. It is an interesting experience, with the bouncy feel due to the reeds. Every year, the lay new reeds on top, as the bottom rots away. They were mainly fisherman on the Lake, but nowadays they make their living through tourists. We look a boat ride on Titicaca in one of their dragon like reed boats - a touristy thing to do !

We then headed to Amantani Island in Lake Titicaca. We stayed with a host family, enjoyed their home cooked meal and participated in the village dance that evening. Even though we were tired and little bit of nausea due to the altitude, we enjoyed that evening. The next morning, we took the boat to Taquile Island. We hiked around the island, enjoying the terrace fields, churches and a fabulous lunch overlooking the beautiful lake.

Our next stop was Arequipa. Arequipa is nestled betwen volcanoes. We toured around the Colca Canyon seeing Lllamas, Vicunya and Alpacas. We spent the evening at Chivay eating local cusine (Cuy Chactado!!), seeing local dances and Arequipenas.

We then headed to see the Condors at Cruz de Condor. It was amazing to watch these graceful giant birds swooning around the canyons here.

After the condors, we headed to Lima. We spent an evening in Lima, witnessing the night life on a weekend and reluctantly made our way back to the airport to head back home.

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