A Cusco 69er

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Kyle

What is a Cusco 69er I hear you ask? Well it's not nearly as fun as it sounds. When you're winding your way through the narrow cobblestone streets and admiring the beautiful colonial architecture of the buildings that border the impressive Plaza de Armas, you're confronted by a staggering number of touts, pushers and peddlers. It can be quite overwhelming, at times you find yourself fending off more than one person at a time. Being completely dumbstruck by the sheer number of people shoving their wares in your face, I decided to make a tally to see exactly how many of these cheeky bastards roam the streets preying on us gringos. In the three hours that Tahlei and I were wandering around trying to appreciate the sights, which is difficult when you constantly have things thrust under your nose, we were accosted by a total of 69 salepeople. Hence a Cusco 69er! The clear winners were paintings (14), massages (10), restaurants (10), sunglasses (9) and tour agencies (9). An honourable mention must go to the middle aged hippie gringo flogging his Psychadelic Newspaper. Under normal circumstance I would have thrown in the towel and moved on to a much calmer place, but Cusco has so much else to offer and easily makes up for this one, granted very large, shortcoming.

We stayed for a total of five nights in Cusco, and a big part of the reason we enjoyed our time there was the place we stayed. We tried our hand at one hostel on the popular Calle Carmen Alto, and were pleasantly surprised when our indecision was met with a reduction in price of 33%. This wasn't enough to win us over as although the room was nice and had a spectacular view the place was dead and it lacked any real character or atmosphere. This definitely can't be said about where we ended up, only a few doors down the road at Hospedaje Familiar Carmen Alto. There's no signage for the hostel, you have to rely solely on rough instructions, which are to find a blue door, go down the stairs into a small alleyway and knock at the first door on the right. Boy are we glad we found it. It's a tranquil oasis in the hustle and bustle of Cusco, with its leafy courtyard and relaxed vibe. It's also packed full of character. Each room is adorned with colourful embroidered bedspreads and wall hangings which complement the wooden furniture and gives the house a rustic charm.

It's called Hospedaje Familiar for good reason. Not only do you share the kitchen and living spaces with Carmen, her husband, and their four children, but Carmen really makes you feel like part of the family. A place this cosy and welcoming attracts a few long-termers. The long-termers we encountered during our stay were a bit kooky to say the least. We had Casey - the dangerously stoned American hippie who was cooking up his hallucinagenic cactus in the share kitchen. He later explained to us that this is only step one in what is a long and bizarre process which finally culminates in a "ritual cleansing ceremony". He likes to sing to his cactus and send it positive intentions, making the "cleansing" (aka a massive hallucinagenic trip) as good as it can be. Unfortunately we missed viewing the ceremony as we were on a trip of our own (to Machu Picchu).

Then there was Jesús. He had been staying at the hostel on and off for 16 years, no doubt enriching the experiences of many other the guests over that time with stories of his strange life. We was a crazy Frenchman who came to Perú as a professional treasure hunter, searching out Incan artefacts and gold. He spent a few years in prison for his efforts as it's illegal to remove such artefacts from the ground. Treasure hunting mustn't pay that well as he was forced to do seriously hard labour in the Peruvian jungle to make ends meet. His job was to carry 50 litres of petrol on his back 20km through the jungle to power machines used to search for gold in the river. She showed us photos of his living quarters - two planks of wood and plastic sheeting; his food - fried monkey; his entertainment - ugly putas; and his girlfriend - a 16 year old local. He assured us he could have got a 13 year old if he had wanted to. If Carmen treats the guests like family she treats Jesús as the runt of the litter, taking any money he earns and doling it out to pay for necessities so he doesn't blow it all on alcohol and women.

And let's not forget poor little Cussi. He was the family's eight month old puppy who had recently come down with pneumonia (hence the jumper). He was so cute when he wasn't coughing all over you. He would have been sad when we left as he got many, many good pats out of me.

Having use of a kitchen also made our Cusco experience a whole lot better. The restaurants charge exorbitant prices for what is largely the same old fare you get throughout the rest of Perú. I hate paying over the odds, especially when they water down their tomato sauce and mayonaise. We had wonderful home-cooked meals every night except one, when we splurged and had all you can eat Indian buffet. The buffet came with salad bar and a free call to Australia. Weird.

We didn't do an awful lot with our days in Cusco other than meander our way through the ancient Inca capital. The beauty of Cusco is that you can admire such fine examples of Incan stonework simply by walking the streets. Almost every street in the centre has remains of Incan walls or doorways. The only museum we visited was the Monestario de Santo Domingo, built on top of the Incan Temple of the Sun. It is said to have the best Incan stonework that can be viewed in Cusco. Tahlei enjoyed it, but I thought there was stonework just as impressive that could be seen on the streets for free.

One day when we were pottering about we decided to visit a few tour agencies and price the Inca Jungle Trek to Machu Picchu. The Jungle Trek is a poor mans version of the traditional Inca Trail, with the added benefit of not needing to book it six months in advance. It starts with a day of mountain biking, then two days of trekking through the jungle, and a final day hike up to Machu Picchu from Aguas Calientes. On the surface this sounds like a fun and exciting way of getting to the famed ruins, however once we scratched that surface we found that it's not really worth the asking price of 160 USD - not for us anyway. The first and third days sound awfully short, and you spend more time in the van than on your bike or hiking. The last day's climb up to the ruins from Aguas Calientes sounded great, but you can do this on your own anyway, so that's exactly what we did!

No roads go to Aguas Calientes, so those not doing a trek take a train from Ollantaytambo - a beautiful Incan town in itself. I couldn't enjoy it however, as I was severely hungover and the taxi ride there from Cusco nearly pushed me over the edge and left me spread eagled in the plaza unable to move. Tahlei was looking forward to our first South American train ride, and the views didn't disappoint. The train follows a raging river down the valley with the scenery changing from high, barren grasslands to lush, tropical jungle. Two hours later we were in Aguas Calientes - the gateway to Machu Picchu.

Aguas Calientes is in a beautiful setting with mountains rising up sharply all around, however the town itself is quite nondescript. Like Cusco, the food was overpriced and there were more hotels than tourists, which meant that we were able to get a decent room for a third cheaper than their original price.

We decided against a trek but in order to feel a bit active and worthy of the views we woke up at the ungodly hour of 4am to climb up to the entrace of Machu Picchu. It's common practice to arrive as the gates upon at 6am to obtain one of the coveted 400 places to climb Huayna Picchu. The first half of the hour and a half hike to the gates is flat, therafter begins one solid hour of steep stairs in humid jungle conditions. Not being much of an early morning breakfaster I soon regretted the two cheese bread rolls I scoffed down during the flat part of the walk. I feared my breakfast would revisit me but fortunately I made it to the top without incident. We didn't manage to beat the first few busloads and a line of 150-odd people had already formed. Having done the hard yards we felt entitled to skip the line and pushed in right near the front. This came back to bite us in the arse, as once through the gates we discovered that the person issuing Huayna Picchu stamps was at the end of the line. We were annoyed at the stupid system but luckily we were allowed to pass back through the gates and rightfully claim our stamp for the 10am ascent.

Once we finally entered the site we immediately came to appreciate our early start. A wispy layer of cloud passing over the ruins as the sun rose over the mountains added a mystic element and atmospheric effect. The hoards of people only slightly detract from the beauty of the ruins, and we were able to escape them early on by walking to the Inca Bridge. This is a stone bridge built right into the cliff face, but it's not particularly spectacular in itself. What stuck in my mind more was witnessing a German lady peeing in plain sight while her partner watched barely metres away. Minutes later when we passed them on the path I realised it wasn't her partner, but her twentysomething year old son. Once again I feared my breakfast would revisit me.

There's no point describing Machu Picchu - everyone's seen photos or postcards. Let's just say that being there in person is a wonderful experience and does not disappoint. As we wandered throug the ruins we tried to listen in to various tour guides, being too stingey to pay for a guide ourselves. Unfortunately there were more German and French tours than anything else, which didn't really help us.

Halfway through the loop around Machu Picchu we arrived at the entrace to Huayna Picchu, the steep peak you see in the background of all the photos and postcards. As we lined up to enter we watched people who had gone up at 7am return sweating and gasping for breath. We were a bit worried at seeing this, but they must have been the stragglers of the group as we climbed it with ease. Well, when I say ease, I mean as easy as it can be climbing steps that are almost a ladder. There is terracing and buildings on Huayna Picchu but the main attraction is the view of Machu Picchu far below, taking the shape of a condor from that height.

Once we'd descended from Huayna Picchu we had a sneaky snack that we'd smuggled in against the rules. Luckily they don't enforce their no food, no disposable water bottle policy, as the prices there are sky high. At $3 for a small water and $15 for a hamburger and drink we would rather wait until we got back to Aguas Calientes. That was quite a wait - the walk back down the mountain was just as hard as the walk up. Our legs started shaking from too many stairs in a day and we almost ran out of water. Somehow we made it back to Aguas Calientes and were able to have a nice hot shower and a good rest. We were glad we decided to stay an extra night and get the train back to Ollantaytambo in the morning. We can't imagine what it's like for the vast majority who take the train back the same day.

The next day we returned to Cusco for one final night before continuing our journey. That night we were invited round to Joe and Fiona's place for another great home cooked meal. Hopefully we can meet up with them again along the way. This might depend heavily upon whether Joe takes up Jesus' offer of going to work with him in the jungle. Jesús was quite taken with Joe; he thought he looked rather "sportive".

If there's one thing I'll take away from Cusco, other than the memories of the people we met and of course Machu Picchu, it's finger puppets. Having polished off a litre of rum one night my defences were low, and I finally succumbed to a hawker in the Plaza de Armas. It might also have something to do with the fact that she was a cute six year old girl. Yes, I bought four llama wool finger puppets, and no, I don't know what I'm going to do with them. I'll figure that out in Bolivia, our next destination.

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Photos

Tahlei and Carmencita
you'll also notice Jesús chillin in the background

Machu Picchu from Huayna Picchu
notice the condor form...

Comments

[Niki]

I met the highest llama his accent sounded fine to me

[joefrost]

hippie gringo
"Trip your nuts off in the Andes" - I loved that guy!