Bike day – 8 June

I have been itching to ride a motorbike for a while now, since my original plan was to travel South America by bike. There are a couple of bike rental places in Cusco so we got one for half a day to go see some ruins that are not easily accessible. You have to take multiple busses and then walk long distances.

We ended up only seeing three sites. The first was one of my favourite, called Tipon. It is the last working example of an Inca hydro-terrace system. The natural water flow is fed down the sides of the terraces. Only the one half works though and the difference is clear. The side with water is much greener than the other side. Almost looks like a line that has been drawn to separate the watered from the dry side.

The next site, Pikillacta, is pre-Inca with a huge wall around. Quite a large settlement with a medieval type feel to the streets. You can see this is not as popular as the other sites. Less people so its in “better” shape. Remember the nurse from the ambulance? On the way out we saw her again! She was stationed there for the day. Cool to see here again.

We stopped at an Inca gate/checkpoint that was used to keep control of the travel & trade route. Big, but it doesn’t seem to have been used as a military presence.

Remember Lisa from Arica? Well she made it back to Cusco and we met up for lunch. She suggested a vegetarian place, Prasada, and I wasn’t too keen to go. But what could I lose. What great food! The lady makes vegetarian burgers with lentils that taste just as good, if not better, as meat burgers. It became one of my favourite spots to go eat.

Biker mice from mars.

Tipon: Great masonry – The terraces are tended to by a group of workers – Big steps – Close to the water’s source

 
Tipon: See the dry patches? That's where the hydro system has failed – Caronlina chillin’ on the terrace

Pikillacta: Wall around the city with a walkway – Different building style. Those notches are for the top floor – At the Inca gate/checkpoint

Museum day – 7 June

With our “Boleta Turistica” (tourist ticket required for all the ruins around Cusco) we could enter some museums. The Inca museum was the most interesting. Its a collection of the university, but what stood out for me was the development of the Inca empire which is broken up into 3 main phases: Tribal (the start up), Expansion and Imperial. Not sure if I got the names right, but I’ll explain.

Tribal: Initially the Inca were like any other tribe. Centred around Cusco. A peaceful philosophy of worshiping nature and the elements.

Expansion: They were attacked by the Chancas and had to defend themselves. They did this so well that they realised that their were a strong people. Pachacuti, the king at the time, decided to expand the empire. Their takeover was not like Europe where you go in and take land by force. Rather they started with a political approach. If the other tribe joined the Inca empire, they would get benefits. The religion was the main draw card. Easy to follow as everyone knows the elements and how dependant they were on them. If this didn’t work, the benefits were increased, possible trade to make it more attractive. The last course was a violent takeover. Once part, the Inca would set up a post in the town/city and use the newly acquired people to run it. Freeing up the Inca party to continue to the next tribe. Within 90 years, the Inca went from a small group to the whole of Peru, large parts of Bolivia and parts of northern Chile and southern Ecuador. Not bad for a civilisation with no carriages, horses or written language (not sure how the experts know all this details though).

Imperial: Arrival of the Spanish. Inca’s conquered easily, partly due to the fact that the Inca thought the Spanish to be gods with all their shiny body armour. The king was easily capture on his way back to Cusco. Top half of all Inca buildings broken to serve as a reminder that the Spanish conquered this pagan people. Machu Picchu was not found and that is why it is still in tact.

Breakfast – Llama (pronounced Yama. Its a “ll” thing in Spanish)

 
The last Inca king killed. People say it was very eerie, as nobody made a sound. – Building (think its a church) build on the half destroyed base of an Inca building.

City tour – 6 June

After a chat with Paul, we decided to do the “City tour” on our own. The organised tour is very rushed. 2pm-6pm and see 4 sites, with a bunch of other (usually old) people. No thanks. This “tour” covers the 4 ruins that are closest to Cusco. All within walking distance. We figured if we needed some info, we could get a guide at the gate. If he was any good, we’d asking him to show us the other ruins too.

Sacsayhuaman is the first and our idea of finding a guide kind of back fired. Oh we got a guide…THE WORST GUIDE IN THE WORLD! Hands down. This guy’s English was bad, even though he said he could speak it, but his Spanish was probably just as bad. Those of you who know me, I like asking questions. Tricky questions. I want to know the detail. We checked with another guide, who I’ll mention later, and our guide was way off the mark. At one stage he accused Carolina of trying to trick him by asking a difficult question (yes I asked her to ask in Spanish). I almost lost it.
I posted a photo of the guy, can’t remember his name, so if you see him…RUN!

So needless to say we didn’t ask him along or get a guide at the next site, Quenqo. Plus it looked simple enough and we had fun making up our own interpretation. Lot of fun, but as we would find out VERY wrong! :)

Puca pucara was where we met Lucho. He was an anthropologist who now acted as a tour guide. BEST GUIDE IN THE WORLD! Instead of focussing on money, he started with a 3min intro about the site. For FREE! Nothing is free around Cusco! This was big. After his intro, he offered a more in depth tour for a tip. But I didn’t mind. I got a good vibe from him & he was really jacked up with his answers. Always calm and explained well…in English (he thought his English to be bad, not so). He told us that the info we got and thought up at the other sites were wrong. He was prepared with pictures and all.

We liked him so much we asked him to come with us to Tambomachay, the last site. Of course we set a price before :) He was so passionate about his explanations it was difficult not to get engrossed in the history. It was Lucho that really got our understanding going about the Inca ruins. They didn’t just build walls that are masterfully crafted and beautiful, but they made images with the rocks! Yes, look in the photo below.
There is an arm that is outstretched with a Condor just above. Admittedly these are difficult to see if I can’t point at them. A hunt for you :)

Oh I forgot to mention our travel up and down the hill. There is a bus that runs up & down the hill for tourists. We missed it, so stuck out our thumb. 3min and we had a lift! This was a guy in a double cab bakkie (pickup). On the way down we got a lift in an ambulance! Not because we were injured, but because the staff were friendly. We had a bit of a chat with the nurse (remember her for later).

As the day ended, we were very happy how the day ended.

 
Sacsayhuaman: “Pillow type” construction. Huge rocks. Imagine fitting them! – THE WORST GUIDE IN THE WORLD! – The sun gate

  
Sacsayhuaman: Posing – The “zig-zag” wall

Quenqo: The offering room – Random dolls in the tree. WTF?

Puca Pucara: Entrance. See the double frame? Depicts an important place – Lucho at a stone model of Machu Picchu. BEST GUIDE IN THE WORLD!

Tambomachay: The ritual place. See the hand & condor? Condor is in flight, looking left. Hand just below. – One of the few sites where the water system still works.

Looking down on Cusco

THE TOUR GUIDE TEST: After our experience I put together a few simple questions to ask a tour guide before you sign up for his/her tour.

• What is the significance of the “Pillow type” wall? See the first picture. (They are used a site that has religious/spiritual meaning. Most important site for the Inca’s).
• Why is a doorway build with a double frame and in trapezium form? See picture above. (Double frame = Very important entrance. Found at religious/spiritual sites. Trapezium forces you to pass sideways or bend down = Reminds you to be humble. You can’t just barge in.
• Why did the king wear a big metal “shield” or “disk” on his chest? (Reflects the sun back to the earth, thus giving back).

I’m sure there are more, but your guide should know this.

Sacred Valley tour map

I forgot to put a map in of our trip.
Click HERE to view.

Sacred Valley Tour

Big party last night….oooo, my head. We finally met up with Laura & Anna at the hostel where they were working. And, of course, too much to drink. Carolina seemed to do quite well at beer-pong, but I wasn’t up for that. I’ve had some BAD experiences with drinking games :)

To illustrate how much I like (love or might be addicted to) Coca leaves/tea: Got to bed at 3am. Up at 7pm. First stop on our tour (yes another organised tour) a little market selling touristy type stuff. I was dead by this stage, so got some herbal tea which included Coca leaves. 15min later I was like the Energizer bunny. “Look there. See the Llama? Great view, but wonder what that is. Do you see it? Do you? Do you?” Carolina was a bit shocked :) Did I mention that I love Coca tea?

On this tour we would go to three sites. Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero. First two have Inca ruins, last one a church. This is where Carolina and I, yes she shared my interest, started to piece together the Inca history & culture for ourselves. Ollantaytambo was more impressive/interesting since it was easy to see how the place was split up into its various purposes. We were able to walk up the “spiritual” side and overlook the grain storage, terraces (used in this case for herbs & flowers), fields for food production and the rock quarry. Pisac was just a nice intro to the Inca city with the terraces (used in this case for all kinds of food) just below. The royal would live inside the city walls.

The Inca were so successful at agriculture that modified potatoes to a few varieties to 1800 types! They were able to grow crops that would only grow at sea level (this is over 2500m high). Wish we could learn from this culture, but they had no written language. You would’ve heard of the Inca empire sometime in your life, but bear in mind that they did not have steel (as in iron), but only Copper (a very soft metal) and did not have the wheel! So no carts or carriages. In fact no horses, only camelids like Llama, Alpaca, etc.

At Ollantaytambo, there is a huge rectangular rock that looks out of place. This was an experiment by a professor to see if it were possible to move these huge stones. They cut out the rock from the quarry and moved it with the help of locals. Not big strong men, but rather normal men, women (some with children on their backs) and a couple of children. And not a couple of thousands. Less than 300 people! Apparently got to do with the slope. Our guide, Paul, was quite knowledgeable which was really cool.

On the way to Chinchero, I started to talk to Paul about hikes to Machu Picchu. By this time I was getting tired of organised tours, so wanted to hike alone to Machu Picchu, specifically Salkantay. We had heard from another person that this hike had been closed to the public due to safety concerns, so you HAD to take an organised tour. Fortunately he was up to make money out of us and told us that this is BS. “Do it yourself.” Great! This was just the lift I needed, because I couldn’t fathom why we couldn’t do it alone. I was amped!

Chinchero is a town know for its woven textiles. Carolina studied textile design and now has a interior decorating shop in the south of Chile. She was VERY interested in the textiles, but we were on a schedule. We arrived after dark, so a quick walk through to the church we saw many people selling on the path, much like Africa.

The church is quite small, but known for its paintings inside. Unfortunately no photos :( Got some pics from the outside to give you an idea. Typical stuff, with the exception that all the paintings were done by Peruvians! They were trained and then commissioned to decorate the church. Lots of subtle Peruvian influence. If you had a keen eye, you would spot one or two things that were out of the ordinary.

Got back REALLY late. The next tour to do was the “City tour.” This is the four ruins close to Cusco. Since we were on good terms with Paul, he recommended (since it was more our style) that we do this on our own. The organised tour is very rushed. With all the “info” places in Cusco, he was the first person to give us proper advice!

Tourists taking pictures. Very typical way for the locals to make money – View of the Sacred Valley – Cool water gulley at the Pisac Market

   
Pisac: Terraces – Tombs – More of Pisac – and me :)

Ollantaytambo: View of the mountains – Looking up at the ruins – Storage on the opposite slope

Ollantaytambo: The royal accommodation – Block that was moved as an experiment – View from the top

Chinchero: People selling goods – Entrance to the church

Arrival in Cusco – 3 June

Cusco is the original capitol of the Inca empire at 3400m. Now it is the heart of tourism in Peru. It is surrounded by mountains and the historic architecture, in the historic centre, gives the city a great vibe.
We were on a overnight bus, driven by a crazy person. We were sliding around our seats most of the time and this is the first time I voluntarily buckled up. So we were a bit tired after the trip and just wanted to chill. Booked into a great hostel, but expensive and noisy at night, and just slept. Later that night we went to see if we could find Laura and Anna. This meeting would have to wait until the next day.

Waling around Cusco, it is different to have SO many people on the streets. And on every street there is someone trying to sell you a tour or massage. We went exploring the smaller streets and noticed that everywhere they want to charge you to enter. As we were walking past a big blue door, I noticed “Free Entry.” Score!

This was a children’s art museum, with a twist. The Quechua people (basically remnants of the Inca’s), who live in the mountains, are not supported well by the government (according to this organisation). “Irqi Yachay”, the organisation’s name,  teaches Andean children by means of art. So art is only the medium to teach. They keep about 10% of the art to exhibit in this museum. I was really moved by this and asked if I could help, I have been hoping to do some volunteering while travelling. Unfortunately the children don’t speak Spanish, not that I’m fluent, so communication would be a huge problem. But we were put onto a community that takes in people for a fee, so that you can see what their life is like. At least that is something.

We noticed some children dancing and singing on a square to the beat of a drum. Inti Raymi is a festival that honours the sun god and the annual festivities would start in 3 weeks. It was great to see children being taught about their culture. Not something you see in public back home.

I was noticing that every afternoon I was tired. The altitude was getting to me. So a couple of days just walking around town was on the order of the day.

  
Patriotism – The children’s art museum - One of the activities done with the children

 
Street views and looking down to the main square

   
Children practicing for Inti Raymi – Traditional masks – Need a fix? Got to your local oxygen bar

 
The inside of our hostel – Couch in the hostel. Seen some action? Check the sign right above :)