2007-01-23T12:58:00.001-08:00

You are here: home > my Peru > My Cuzco

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And finally I am out of Lima, on my way to Cuzco... On the way, as you can see from the story telling pictures, we make the transition from deserts near the sea to mountains near the clouds...

Moment of sensory climax: I am on my way to cuzco inside the bus. The views are amazing with clouds around the mountains with a mist around.. I am inside a luxury bus on the front seat, which has a glass block between my seat and the drivers area. The glass acts as a mirror. I am seeing myself from the mirror there, haven´t shaved for 2 days as I didn´t have time to shave the last day and the bus trip takes an additional 20 hours. The music in the background is a music from cuzco, a local music with zampànas and andean athmosphere. All of a sudden ballade pour adeline starts playing from Richard Clayderman, a cool piano song which is a love song, which I have been playing for years in my memory and is still one of my favorite piano songs even though simple to play... Interestingly the cuzco music is still playing in the background too, all of a sudden I look out, I look front. My face is not only unshaved, but also much darker than I have ever seen before in my life... I have been on the roads for 2 months by now, travelling under the sun, getting burned more and more despite my 50 factor sun protection... Now I feel even stronger. I feel my change, the view in front of my mirror there is not only different than me 5 months ago in terms of physical appeareance, it has the difference in terms of my mindset too... I feel that I am understanding the basic instincts hidden under every human being independent of nationality, and even better understanding how different conditions redirect our attention to different forms of self completion which forms the culture of a country. I see that I am more willing to see what the people are avoiding to see and being a tourist with conscience and will to learn makes me understand why I should do the same with my own country in the future. And I understand that I am nothing much more than the experiences I go through... Simply saying I see my change, I see my change in my mind, I see my change in my appeareance, and I see the introduction of cuzquena music in to my ballade pour adeline.. Andean music with Richard Claydermann, this is my song for Cuzco....

Finally I arrive to Cuzco, the famous capital of the incas. The transformation in this city is fascinating, it transformed from a side city forgotten as a lower class area to the star of tourism in South America soo fast with the discovery of Machu Picchu in 1911. Everything around cusco serves somehow around tourism right now, and it is the most expensive city in Peru.. Inca trail costs around 250US$ for non-students (one of the few places where you will get prices in terms of dollars not soles), similarly overpriced jungle tours and other luxury agencies available for tourists with at least 100% commissions from the agencies.. The city is simply full of taxis, bars, discotheques, street trouts, street sellers, restaurants, internet cafes, hostels, hotels, many souvenir shops, money exchange stores, andean villagers with llamas waiting for you take their pictures for a price, massage parlors (especially active with people jumping on you to take you up for a massage around 7pm, the time when people return from inca trail) and every place has nearly one tourist information sign on itself, where they will simply redirect you to some place where they are getting commission from. Here the nights are always fiesta independent of the day of the week, as it is simply the tourists filling up the discos, not the locals, if we don´t count the hot blooded local delikanlis, trying to constantly hit on open minded liberal tourist girls!!

But I should admit that the city is really beautiful, especially at the nights, and its main plaza (plaza armas) is simply gorgeous, and this is not a fake beauty like Lima, those cathedrals were there for years with all the lighting and the fountain..

There are way too many people from southern america as it is the spring break for the schools there right now.. I met way too many people from Argentina, uruguay, paraguay, and chile... I find myself whirlpooled into the nightlife of Cuzco, forgetting that I am in high altitude and it is harder to breathe here!!! The result? After sleeping at 7 am, I spent the next day sleeping and waiting for the inca trail doing no sightseeing at all. Yes, the last picture is just before the night says goodbye with the welcome of the sun, before I slept..

Yes some more from the roofs of beautiful colonial cuzco... And the last pictures before my crazy inca trail....

As I didn´t want to separate the cuzco area, I break the rule of the chronology here for once. The rest of this page is for my exploration of cuzco area after my inca trail and inca massage, which simply was the best massage I have ever taken. I went to this place called Incas Massage, just on the second floor of a building before the historical stones in Cuzco, with suggestion from my friend Derek, who was with me on the inca trail.. He knows what he is talking about, he got 2 years of education in London about massage therapy and acupuncture, and he told me that he didn´t get this massage even in Thailand... I think he has right to say that after the massage I had there.... After my massage I feel more sleepier than anytime I have ever felt in my life, and way too ready for a damn good sleep...

I decide that I have spent way too much time in Cuzco, and so decide to rush travel for the rest of my cuzco trip hyperactively. My first stop is Tipón, which is one of the best ruins around Cuzco imho, but generally overlooked by the tourist information bureau as it is further from other ruins... I make a mistake here and decide that after the inca trail I am fit enough to climb up my way to the ruins, which is apparently an upward 4 km road!! It is no big deal, but still I lose time, and get tired faster not worth not taking a taxi at all.. But the bonus, obviously the views you lucky guys are seeing right now... These are the exact same clouds I fell in love with in Costa Rica!!!!

The Tipón ruins themselves are no less impressive than the mountain views though, with an amazing irrigation system, still working!!, showing how impressive engineers the incas were in terms of agriculture and irrigation. Those massive terraces were supported by those well formed irrigation systems.

I get some more views from the city and the irrigation system. I have no comment on the fourth picture here, I simply wanted to have a picture of me with the irrigation system on Tipón, having no additional thoughts... =)

Just after I leave Tipón, I decide that it is my time again for my second cuy in my life =)... This is the local place where I got the cuy from... It is a local home in the village, and very traditional. The guy there is playing sapo, the peruvian equivalent of tavla, which people spend ages during the afternoon just playing this game. The way it is played is that those metal blocks are thrown from a distance and you get the amount of points if you are able to put the block through some hole with points down there. The ultimate points are gained by throwing the stone inside the frog with the open mouth which is 5000 points. The last picture is the lady preparing my cuy inside a hot stove...

I also had a chance to see the local market of Huancharo which is one of the least touristy parts of cuzco mainly focused on locals, and the tourists rarely give a visit to (you can understand this when the people are staring at you when you are around the place =).

While walking back to the main plaza, a picture Qoricancha ruins inside cuzco, a local basketball match ( it was an obvious proof why peruvians are not successful at basketball =), palace of justice (definitely looks more beautiful than the one in Lima), and a view partly just partly religious.
The first is the famous 12 cornered stone, which is one of the characteristics of Inca buildings (Many of the colonial buildings in cuzco were unfortunately built from inca stones that were carried from inca structures to build the homes of the spanish conquistadors).. They brought all but the heaviest of the stones from Sacsayhuaman (known as the sexy woman as it sounds similar, but means satisfied falcon in Quechua)... The second picture shows a better view of the local building which was built over the ruins of inca cities.. It is interesting to learn that the spanish that conquered the inca empire of 12 million were only 170 people!!!!! This is just a simple proof in the importance of politics... They simply let the savages kill each other in their views...

Later the day I go ahead with the museum of the Inkas, which is the best museum in Cuzco imho.. The first picture is a picture of a puma carved onto a stone. The second picture shows how incas built their amazing temples with extraordinarily large stones. It is the exact same explanations Big Willy gave us while explaining machu picchu. (First they dig holes in stones, and use water and cool it down to get a relatively straight cut, after that using sharp stones they take out irregularities, and using friction they straighten up the surfaces. After the stone is perfected they use wooden cylinders to carry the stones onward)... Third picture shows throwable inca weaponry. The fourth picture is an examplary inca burial, in which the dead body is buried in the fetal position as they believe that in the after life they will be reborn...

The first picture shows different inca musical instruments. The second one . The third one is a list of portraits of inca emperors. The most important emperor of Incas where the empire flourished was Huayna Capac, yet he made a huge mistake before he died and divided the empire between his sons, Atahualpa and Huascar. This led to years of civil war within the empire resulting in Atahualpa killing his half brother. Yet soon after Atahualpa was crowned, spanish arrived, the spanish army by a huge chance met the imperial army and were just quick enough with their horses to kidnap the emperor. They asked a ransom of a room of pure gold for the emperor, and when the ransom was paid they killed the emperor. From that point on they used either old warriors of huascar against atahualpa or the other way and the inka empire effectively ended soon after as they entered cuzco... The second picture illustrates the murder of Atahualpa by the leader of conquistadors Francisco Pizarro. The last picture is another illustration of the advanced moche art that I couldn´t resist taking a picture =)...

That night I also went to the local dance center of cuzco as I was in my speedy schedule.. Yet I found it way much less impressive than the Pená in Lima.. Soo just for mentioning I put a few pictures here...

Some more views from the beautiful streets of Cuzco... Especially in the second picture you can see two bulls on top of the roofs of the houses. They are for good luck and put there during the construction of the house. There are two of them as they symbolize the duality of man and woman in the house.

The next day is sunday, and I start my rush tour with Pisac, which is famous for its huge ruins and sunday market.. As I am in a rush tour and ruins take way too long to climb and explore, I decide to skip pisac ruins, yet I spend some time wandering around the market for all kinds of goods. There are some really interesting stuff with interesting prices to match, and my guidebook says that even with hard bargaining the prices are comparable to that of cuzco, so I don´t even bother...

After Pisac, I go ahead with the ruins around Cuzco. I start with Tambo Machay and Puca Pucara. Those ruins are much less impressive compared to other ruins, but as they are close to cuzco they can be taken as candies...

In Tambo Machay, I meet again the two argentinian sisters I met the day before in the dance center of cuzco... They are cute and friendly we hang out together throughout tambo machay and puka pukara. We also visit a pueblito (small village) close by tambo machay, where I get a small session of nature as you see =)

Our next stop is Quenka, which is famous for its zigzagged structure made for taking away the blood after sacrifices of creatures, and stone carvings, which form a perfect puma, serpent and a condor during the equinoxes with shadows... (You can see the pumas head on the top stone in the corner (first picture)). The famous ruins of Sacsayhuaman which also homes the famous festival of Inti Raymi (festival of the sun) is just very close by, during this festival people dress as incas and sacrifice a llama for the god of the sun.. Just near the ruins of sacsayhuaman there is a small jesus statue which resembles that of the one in Rio, and it has a beautiful panaromic view of the city...

And now I am in the famous ruins of sacsayhuaman.. Normally the cusco is built in the shape of a puma, and sacsayhuaman formed its teeth, it is why the walls are build in a zigzag structure, it also forms a very strong structure for defense as someone climbing on the wall with armor has to at least give a leak on one side. After the spanish conquistadors invasion, Manco Inca once had a chance and captured weakly defended sacsayhuaman, it gave the conquistadors a very hard time to recapture it back causing in a lot of casualties and needed some more reinforcements from mainland spain to capture it back, yet even when the ruins were captured back Manco Inca was able to run away back to Ollaytantabambo (more on this later).. The second picture shows me in front of the ceremonial place for Inti Raymi festival. The third picture shows ruins of one of the towers which was used for storage for food or water for the army that was held in Sacsayhuaman. Its size shows the importance of the place and the strength of the defense there. The fourth picture shows the structural inca stones with polygonal shapes, assumingly forming a flower there. And the fifth picture is a more faraway look at the teeth of the puma.

I take a few more panaromic pictures. Sacsayhuaman is formed of three regions, the first one where we had all the pictures, the teeth or the fort. The second is the plaza, where inti Raymi is held. And the third is across the plaza with very well straightened stones also called the inca throne.. I am not sure about the purpose of them, but they make good slides (last picture) =)

A closer look to bulls of luck on the roofs... And some more from the colonial cuzco while returning back... The last picture is a special of cuzco, called olluco con carne, sort of a guvec which is eaten in Peru.. I ordered it specially the day before and on purpose I had it with Alpaca meat(llama) =)

That night as soon as I am done with the ruins I head to Urubamba, which is a small village close to cuzco, and although does not have that much to see in the city, it is logistically in a perfect place for exploring the other famous inca ruins around... The first inca ruin there is Ollaytantabambo, where Manco Inca retreated from sacsayhuaman. It is the largest ruin in the close by cusco area with Pisac. Here manco inca irrigated the front of the fort area during defense from the second attack of conquistadors, which really messed up their attack as their horses were stuck in the mud, and so they suffered a bitter defeat, on a last desparate attack to recapture the city lead by Francisco Pizaro and 50 cavalry they were able to take back, and if they weren´t it could have changed the destiny of the south america around that time... Anyways after the war Manco Inca was once again able to retreat to his jungle fort.... The terraces in Ollaytantabambo are made more for the defensive purposes than agricultural purposes. I was at Ollaytantabambo at 6:20, which is officially 40 minutes before its opening time. Sweet talk with the guard and a few caresses on his dog, I was able to get the early entry, which amazingly gave the whole site to only me without any other tourist interruption...

The view from the ruins to the city are again awesome. The third picture is from one of the religious temples there. It is believed that spanish arrived early and the incas were never able to complete the whole structure in ollaytantabambo.

After keeping all the site only under my supervision for more than an hour, I thank the guard and say a happy goodbye to ollaytantabambo ruins. The last picture shows the marketplace that will be ready for the regular tourists once they arrive, trying to sell them a bunch of itty bitty structures that will remind them of the ruins.. Not for me, I am faster =)

But I am still not fully satisfied.. I have to see the ruins across and also check the view from there to Ollaytantabambo.. There is not any information about those ruins in my guidebook, so I am even more curious and I push my chances a little bit forward. As the road to there proves to be very tricky mountain climbing, I am right that it is not really for tourists yet either... I am again the only tourist to enjoy those views and share with you..

My last stop before digging my way down back to Arequipa, Ica, and Nasca is another famous structure, which is generally overlooked by backpackers as it is hard to reach, and some of the tours take people there occasionally. But for me it is the second amazing structure after whole machu picchu and the inca trail in Cusco area. (Check Dan Cruickshank´s Around the world in 80 treasures). Those are the salinás, or Inca Salt Pans, used for extracting salt by incas throughout the history. The concept is very simple, there is a water coming from underground with very high concentration of salt. When the water evaporates the salt remains. Incas figured this out and redirected the water to nearby pools. As they noticed the more pools the more salts the site grew and grew, and formed this amazing structure which is nothing less than a perfect feast to the eye if not to the stomach... I am sorry, but I wasn´t able to delete any pictures from this breath taking structure. So you will have to choose what you want to see...

After the Salinas, my original plan was to see ruins of Moray, which is believed to be used by incas for experimentation on crop growing on the terraces. But I meet this shepherd who tells me the way to moray is throughout a mountain which I have no clue what he meant from his rapid and distorted spanish. And the hike was wet dangerous and 7 km. of walking, me being hungry it was not my best choice to go and see moray... So I preferred to relax and eat my cau cau (cow stomach with rice =) ), before leaving cusco forever for arequipa.. I should admit I didn´t like the touristy athmosphere in cusco, yet I should also admit that it homes a series of world class ruins close by that it is definitely one of the places to be seen on earth...

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