Cusco – (pronounced as Cosco) – more than a starting point for Machu Picchu
Photos to be added
We landed in Cusco mid afternoon after a flight in the clouds over the Andes mountains. The pilots need to be very skilled to land here and honestly it is best not to look out of the window. We had not pre-ordered a taxi as it seamed most people had so picked one up at the airport. We gave the driver the address and sat back for our planned 30 minute journey to the hotel. After about 15 minutes the driver pulled over to look again at our hotel location. He did a quick search on google and headed off in a different direction to the previous one. We drove down unpaved road up and down hills with half finished building on the sides of the road. I was a little skeptical as I had booked a nice hotel/ apartment and expected it to be in a good area. On arrival this looked nothing like the place we had booked and not a hotel in sight. Fortunately by that time we found the phone number of the hotel and gave it to our driver who then realised he was in totally the wrong area and that in fact we had been quite near when he changed direction. We now headed back to the San Blas area that we had asked for originally. San Blas is the in the old historic area of the city and has many small cobbled road, some are 2 directional but in reality there is only room for one direction which then involves a lot of reversing. The driver was on the phone complaining to his boss! Finally he got near to our hotel only to be at the end of a 2 directional street with a car coming the other way at this time he decided this was enough for him and unloaded our bags, pointed in the direction up a cobbled street and drove off. We then dragged our bag up the street till we got to a set of steps which was the last challenge. Barrie, being a man, picked up one of the bags and went up the steps, 5 minutes later he reappeared breathless with 2 young girls who carried my bag between them!!
Our accommodation in Cusco is called a hotel but it is actually a one bedroom apartment with the bedroom up more stairs. The apartment is lovely and very well fitted out. We have a large lounge and kitchen and an upstairs bedroom and bathroom.
We headed out to find some food and came across a very local cafe called Monkey which served great sandwiches, falafal wraps and fantastic coffee. We then set off to explore the area a bit and look for things to do in the days before we were to head off to Macchu Picchu. We opted for a half day “City tour” on Thursday afternoon and a full Sacred Valley tour on the Friday.
The city tour started as a walking tour in Cusco and we went to Qurikancha the ruins of an ancient Inca temple which a catholic covenant Santa Domingo was built on top built on top when the Spanish took control of Peru. In 1950 when there was a major earthquake all the newly built parts of the covenant fell down leaving the Inca temple still standing. It is incredible how the Incas built such solid structure so many years ago. We learned a lot about Inca history and it is evident the Peruvians are very proud of their heritage. After the city part we headed out by bus to some ruins just outside Cusco which were the site of an Inca town and where one of the battle with the Spanish had taken place. We were surprised at the size of the site and as the day went on we found there were so many more Inca sites. Before this morning we had wrongly thought Maccu Picchi was the only remaining Inca site.
We visited 3 more Inca sites near Cusco each with its own story to tell unfortunately the rain marred some of our visits and we got the last site it had started to get dark which made it difficult to really take in all the details. The final stop on our trip was a visit to an Alpaca / Llama wool factory where we had the opportunity to purchase goods. As it had got cold I found myself a pair of baby llama gloves.
We ended our evening at a Vegan restaurant, Green point, we had seen advertised in a book earlier that day and were delighted at the meal and presentation we had tasted nothing like it before and thoroughly enjoyed our meal before our climb home.
Friday was the time for our full day tour. We set the alarm for 5.30am as we needed to meet the guide at 6.30am. We boarded a bus with our fellow travellers, mainly Spanish speakers of our age group and travelled to a small village outside of cusco where we had a demonstration of traditional wool dying and spinning. It was interesting to see and note that they still follow the same traditions of many years ago. Yet again we had the opportunity to buy and this time purchased 2 woolly hats that were likely to come in need over the next few days.
The next stop was the remains at Moray which are thought to have been an ancient agriculture research centre. Here large circles of terraces were build by the Inkas to grow crops on. The crops would start on the lowest level, the warmest and work up to the upper layers. Only when they were ready for the tough elements were the seeds then taken to the agricultural terraces in the mountains.
We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant with all the other coach tours for a great buffet lunch of salads and hot dishes. After lunch we followed the sacred valley , the Rio Umba Bamba and the Inca trail to Ollantay Tambo, here were climbed over 300 steps to the Temple of the Sun. The Inca worshiped the sun and thus as much as they could build nearer the sun the better it was for them. Our guide explained how the rock were quarried in a nearby mountain and brought over on logs in a similar way the Egyptians built the pyramids. Ollantay Tambo itself is the starting place for the 4 day Inca trail to Macchu Picchi and was a lovely little town with shops and restaurants etc. It is also a stop for the train to Macchu Picchi so some of our group left at this time to get the train later that day.
We then drove west to another massive Inca site Pisca where yet again there were many agricultural terraces surrounded by a great fortress. Unfortunately by now it was raining and climbing rock in the rain at altitude is not easy so we were not able to explore too much.
Our 2 days in Cusco had been an eye opening introduction to Inca history and prepared us for our visit to Macchu Picchu. We were also surprised how lovely Cusco itself is, it is much more than just a starting point for a trip to Macchu Picchu.