Cusco and around

Tuesday 12^th April. Lima to Cusco

Early breakfast and car to the airport at 8.00. Don't envy the driver, it took us a full hour through heavy traffic on a complicated route from Miraflores to the airport. Check in and flight with Avianca were fine Window seat with good view over some of the Andes. At Cusco the taxi tout proved to be 10 sols cheaper than the official taxi desk at 30 sols and he proved very chatty in English telling me where everything was. The Hotel Tierra Viva is lovely, with a room overlooking pretty courtyard and a multi-coloured quipu hanging on the wall behind the bed; maybe they use it to calculate my bill. Have to admit the bed was very tempting but managed to resist and head out into Cusco. Just as I reached the main commercial street pointed out by the taxi driver there was some sort of carnival procession coming along with lots of women in traditional dress interspersed with boys in gorilla suits, young women in fishnet tights and men only bands playing the same few notes over and over again. 

Street Procession

Traditional Dress

Not so Traditional

After the procession passed by went on to explore more of the town which is incredibly picturesque with just a few wide boulevards and many narrow cobbled streets lined with lovely ancient buildings and squares with beautiful. intricately carved churches. Outside the town the mountains rise up magnificently. 

Old Building

Window Boxes

One of the Many Churches

Went to the Tourist Information Office where a helpful young guy told me about tours to the Sacred Valley, how much I should expect to pay and gave me some names and locations of travel agents. Eventually found one and booked a tour for tomorrow. Also found a place that sells stamps,  6.50 Sols, about £1.50 or US$2 which is a lot cheaper than Ecuador. Had a coffee and apple tart in cafe on Plaza San Francisco but by late afternoon it was a bit too chilly to sit outside.

In the evening was feeling quite lazy so went to nearby Italian restaurant where I had a Fettuccine Alfredo and a Coke.

Wednesday 13th April

Picked up for tour soon after 8.00 and met our guide Puma who speaks pretty good English. First stop was a small market which I wasn't too happy about but things improved from there on. Next stop was an Inca site built on a hilltop at Pisac. Puma explained that the Incas tended to put their dwellings and temples high up partly to keep the fertile valley bottoms for food production and also to avoid flooding. The hillsides were terraced to support food production. According to Puma, much of the modern town of Pisac along the river was flooded or washed away a few years ago as a result of El Nino associated heavy rains and floods. I was very happy to take the bus most of the way up to the Inca settlement or temple. Much of the knowledge of the Incas was lost as a result of Spanish looting and deliberate destruction of Inca culture considering it to be pagan, coupled with mass murder of many of the nobles. I could have done with a bit less explanation and time in the market and more to explore the temple complex. 

Agricultural Terraces at Pisac

The Incas Liked to Build on Steep Hillsides

Inca Masonry

More Inca Masonry at Pisac

Mary had a Little Lamb

From there we drove to a jewellery factory which I could have well done without.  Then it was time for a buffet lunch which was surprisingly good with lots of tasty dishes tempting me to pig out. Chatting to couple from Kentucky, both nurses. She is originally from Puerto Rico so Spanish is her first language although her English sounded perfect to me. Her husband looks Afro-American but is actually Kenyan Asian and speaks Gujarati. The other two guys in our lunch group are from Leipzig; one of them travels on business and tells me how much he likes Pakistan, saying how different it is from the image portrayed by the media. Back on the bus we headed to Ollantaytampo where we climb up more agricultural terraces to a temple, probably dedicated to the sun, at the top. Climbing up all these steps is making me breathless. Is it the altitude or would I still be breathless at sea level? Belief is that it was still being built at the time of the Spanish conquest and was never finished. But here at Ollanta, as it's known to its friends, the Incas won their one battle against the Spanish. Didn't do them much good in the long run. On the almost sheer cliffs opposite the temple Puma pointed out an Inca watchtower and food store. Food production, storage and distribution seem to have been controlled centrally. There's no evidence of any market economy or use of money.  

Terraces leading up to the Temple.
Lots of Steps to Climb

Close Fitting Masonry in the Temple.
The protuberances are believed to be for handling  the stones and would be chipped away on completion.

Food Store Clinging to the Cliff Face

Probably More Pilgrims to the Temple than ever Before

Puma showed us some Quinoa growing and showed us how you can get the seeds from the little green flowers. Although Quinoa has been grown in the area for a long time he told us it only became popular when Western health food enthusiasts embraced it. Part of the reason is that as traditionally prepared it has a bitter taste. Modern preparation methods involve more washing steps.   Back down at the bottom of the terraces there is, of course, a market. From Ollanta we headed off to Chinchero where a catholic church had been very obviously built on top of an Inca temple. The church was surprisingly ornate inside considering it is in a small village. Noticed that many of the older houses were built of adobe, dried mud, bricks and asked how long they could expect to last, considering the climate here is far less arid than Lima. Quite surprised when he told me they could last up to fifty years, although he did point out that usually the foundations and first foot or so above ground level are stone so the mud bricks aren’t directly exposed to water on the ground. 

Our Guide Puma in Front of Chinchero Church
on Top of the Remains of an Inca Temple

Later we had a demonstration of cleaning, spinning and dyeing sheep and alpaca wool. Of course the hope was that we would buy something and I felt quite guilty about not buying anything after the three charming girls had put on a show for us so I did put a few sols in the tip box. 

Dyeing with mostly vegetable dyes

Always a Kettle on the Boil for Coca Tea

From there we headed back to Cusco. We hadn't been to all the sites in the sacred valley the guy in the tourist office had said would be included and we could have done with less time in handicraft markets but for me I think it was as intense as I could cope with. Any more temples and I would have been templed out. In the evening had a vegetarian wrap, cheese mushrooms and several other ingredients I don’t remember in a popular little kebab place.

Thursday 14th April

After breakfast and dropping off my laundry at a place near the hotel, spent the day exploring the city which is totally fascinating. Many narrow cobbled streets some of them still following the Inca street pattern with the distinctive Inca stonework visible. And at the end of the streets views of the surrounding mountains. 

Narrow Streets

Inca Stonework

Surrounding Mountains

The main square, on the site of a larger Inca ceremonial plaza, is dominated by the cathedral on one side and the La Compania, a Jesuit church on a second. The rest of the square is formed of Spanish style buildings with covered colonnades. In the centre is a pretty garden around a fountain on top of which is a golden statue of an un-named Inca. 

Main Square, Plaza de Armas, with La Compania on the Right

Cusco Cathedral

Statue of the Inca

Walking up a side street near the cathedral I found the Inca Museum where I had hoped to use the ticket I bought yesterday on the tour but looking at the list of places it covers there aren’t many I am interested in. So paid 10 sols for entry. It’s in an interesting old building and is informative but not particularly well laid out with artefacts poorly displayed and lit, and it wasn’t always easy to find the information in English. As with most museums and churches in Peru there is a blanket ban on taking photographs of the exhibits. One of the guys on the tour yesterday reckoned it was because thieves posing as tourists had used photos to identify items to steal; not totally convinced. Looked round the cathedral, which I thought was more impressive than Lima's, although still not up to Quito's standards, again no photos allowed. Interesting that in the cathedral there are posters explaining some aspects of the Inca belief system and how parts of it have been incorporated into Catholicism with, for example, the Virgin Mary identified as the earth goddess Pachamama. One building which I didn't go round, the Museo Arzobispal is largely built on top of an Inca building and has particularly impressive Inca masonry. The story goes that during Cusco’s several earthquakes the Inca walls have remained standing while the buildings on top of them have been damaged or collapsed. Another museum not covered by my ticket was the Machu Picchu museum, also in a lovely old building, and well presented. Hopefully it will help me make sense of Machu Picchu in a couple of days’ time.

Lady with Llama

Pretty Traffic Lights

But Don't Think I Would Want to Live in Calle Purgatorio

In the evening found a restaurant where I had an alpaca steak, similar to a beef steak but more tender. All around Cusco I seem to be hearing Andean  pipe versions of Simon & Garfunkel songs and  the theme from Titanic. Do they have qualities that makes them particularly suitable for pipes? And if I hear “Quanta la Mera” once more I’ll scream.

Friday 15^th April

Checked out of the hotel at eleven, leaving my big bag at the hotel and taking only my backpack for the next couple of days. Realised that my cathedral ticket covered the Museo Arzobispal so had a look round that. It’s a beautiful building with pretty courtyards. It has an extensive collection of religious paintings, mostly from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Apparently there was a specific Cusco style. Interesting that many of the biblical scenes were painted with very European medieval buildings and streets, even an inn with a hanging Inn sign. I wonder whether the artists really believed that 1^st century Palestine looked like 15^th century Europe, or whether they just chose to paint it that way.

Spanish Style Courtyard in Museo Arzobispal

From there went to the Santo Domingo Convent which is built over the remains of possibly the most important Inca temple, Qurikancha (golden place) in Cusco,  dedicated to worship of the sun. From outside it is easy to see the transition from the smooth dark Inca masonry to the later 16^th century building but what is most amazing is that several parts of the original temple were incorporated into the cloisters of the convent. Later additions have been removed so that they can be seen and walked round. There has also been some restoration but based on the information displays most of it is original. Needless to say all the golden bits were removed immediately after the conquest. It's tempting to have a rose tinted view of the Inca civilisation. There is a description, written shortly after the conquest, of the twelve Inca months divided into agricultural and ritual activities. The Spanish version is quite long but it is summarised in the English version. For the month corresponding to our June it states "The month is the time of the 'small festival of the sun'. Young boys and girls are sacrificed. The big annual population census takes place.  In the last few years more has been discovered about this chilling practice.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children/

http://www.livescience.com/38504-incan-child-mummies-lives-revealed.html

Santo Domingo Convent Built over Inca Temple

Courtyard inSanto Domingo Convent

Part of Original Inca Temple

Part of Original Inca Temple

By now it was mid-afternoon so time to get the minivan (collectivo) to Ollantaytambo. Since I was first on the van I got the front seat which I shared with a young woman who I think was the girlfriend of the driver. It soon filled up and we were on our way leaving the centre of Cusco on a road alongside a dual gauge railway track which I later learnt was used to connect the Standard gauge Wanchaq station, which is the terminus for the line to Puno, to the narrow gauge station at San Pedro station which used to be the terminus for trains to Machu Picchu. Is this how they got the locomotives and carriages to the Machu Picchu line? The journey took longer than I expected so it was pitch dark by the time we arrived in Ollantaytambo but it was a fairly straightforward walk up Avenida Ferrocarril and across a little bridge to the Hotel Tika Wasi Valley.