After a hearty breakfast, we were in a taxi and on our way to the Plaza de Armas in the historical centre of Cuzco. Having had a change of plans overnight, we are staying another night at Hotel Torre Dorada and spending the day sightseeing in Cuzco.
Cuzco was the capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th until the 16th century Spanish conquest. It is the 7th largest city in Peru and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, currently receiving more than 2 million visitors a year.
Machu Picchu
The metro population of Cuzco is a little over 500,000. It is, however, packed with tourists, here to visit Machu Picchu, which now limits the number of visitors to 4500 per day. Our first stop was the Ministerio Cultura, where tickets to Machu Picchu are sold. As we rather expected, we were told there were no tickets available until November.
From online exploration it seems a very complicated ticketing system with 4 different circuits of the site and 10 different entry times each day. Most people seem to buy a package which includes their train fare to Aguas Calientes, the closest town to Machu Picchu and bus fare onwards to the site entrance. All is not lost, though. There are, apparently, 1000 tickets available every day at Aguas Calientes. You must queue and purchase them the day before, though.
As you can only reach Aguas Calientes by train, we will drive to Ollantaytambo tomorrow morning. It’s 61kms closer to Machu Picchu than Cuzco. We can camp in Ollantaytambo and leave Poki at the camp site. Early the next morning we’ll catch a train from there to Aguas Calientes. We’ll then queue and try and purchase Machu Picchu entry tickets for the following day, spend the night in a hotel in Aguas Calientes and return by train to Poki after the site visit. Well, this is the plan 🙂
Cuzco is the most sophisticated city we have visited in Peru. Mainly due to the influence of tourism. You are constantly stopped by someone selling something. Excursion tickets, paintings, jewellery, trying to coax you into restaurants or shine your shoes. They are polite, though, and not persistent.
We were asked by a lovely guy, Ramon, who spoke excellent English, if we would like to do a “Round the City Tour”. A good idea we thought. It was a beautiful sunny morning to sit on the top deck of a bus and lazily enjoy the city. The 10am tour had just started so we were rushed into a taxi to catch the bus up.
City tour by bus
The tour started just outside the historic centre. Some of the streets could hardly cope with Poki, let alone a double decker bus. The tour took us outside the city and to the important site of Saqsaywaman. The Quechua name means ‘Satisfied Falcon’ but tourists refer to it as ‘Sexy Woman’.
The immense ruin is of both religious and military significance. Today only about 20% of the original structure is visible. The conquering Spaniards tore down many walls using the blocks to build their own houses in Cuzco.
In 1536 the fort was the site of one of the most bitter battles of the Spanish conquest. Two years after Francisco Pizarro’s entry into Cuzco, the rebellious Manco Inca recaptured the fort and used it as a base to lay siege on the conquistadors. Manco was on the brink of defeating the Spaniards, when a desperate last-ditch attack by 50 Spanish cavalry succeeded in retaking Sacsaywaman.
Manco survived but thousands of dead littered the site, attracting swarms of carrion eating Andean condors. The tragedy has been memorialised by the inclusion of 8 condors in Cuzco’s coat of arms.
Our next stop was in a small village noted for its production of garments produced from llama and alpaca wool. We were given a presentation on the different grades of wool. Baby alpaca being the best. Not coming from baby alpacas, but being the first cut. The second grade is from later cuts and the third grade from a mix of alpaca, llama and/or cotton. We weren’t persuaded to buy any sweaters or ponchos.
We were then given a presentation by a Quechua gentleman from a nearby mountain village. Most residents of Cuzco are Christian, converted to Catholicism by the Spanish. The indigenous people still keep there own beliefs and traditions. The Quechua worship Pachamana, the goddess of the earth. She is the provider of everything. Water, plants and animals for food, shelter etc. The sun and moon are also worshipped and mountain peaks are seen as protectors. We were treated to various ceremonies with coca leaves, jasmine essence and ashes, accompanied by chanting.
Finally we were treated to some traditional dancing, which some of us were persuaded to join in at the end. Back on the bus and back to the city centre.
Dennis chatting with Tony. Tony and Sue from Dorset, in the UK.
It was now after 1pm. I was desperate to get a haircut so we wandered out of the historic part of the city into streets with more everyday shops. Stopping at what I thought was a shop selling beauty products, to ask where we could find a hairdresser, it turned out to be a hairdressers. 75 Soles, about £15 later, I emerged with reasonably decent looking hair. Not having had it cut since we left NZ, it was an embarrassment.
By this time it was mid afternoon so we thought we would have a late lunch and not cook this evening. Finding a local restaurant, Dennis asked for the menu. No menu arrived, but two bowls of soup were delivered to us. We then realised they thought we wanted the Menu Del Dia (Menu of the day) All the locals were eating this. At 10 Soles (£2) it didn’t break the bank.
I can’t say it was brilliant. Vegetable soup with, what looked like chicken necks, floating about and chicken with oven cooked noodles and a sort of cold potato dish. The best part was the accompanying drink. A warm fruit juice of indeterminate variety.
Getting a taxi back to the hotel was challenging. The driver obviously didn’t know the hotel or the street. We showed him on Google Maps, but he preferred to use the map in the hotel brochure we had given him. We arrived safely, eventually and spent the rest of the day relaxing and discussing our plans for the next few days.
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