Cusco, Peru

Cusco is a lovely town in itself and there is plenty to keep you busy. Some have gone off trekking for a couple of days in the Lares Valley and others, me included have spent the time mooching around the shops, buying so much stuff that you don't have room for and eating lots!

Cusco

The Sacred Valley is a must do from Cusco so we spent a day packed on a mass tourist bus trip to see what it was all about. Our first stop, after the compulsory toilet and souvenir stop was to the ruins of Pisac. Pisac was built in the 14th Century as a means of growing food and storing it for the nearby villages. There are amazing examples of Inca terraces at the site, with each terrace being 7m higher that the last. The Incas were clever and through this terracing system creating irrigation with the water coming from the glaciers feeding the upper terraces first, they manged to create micro climates enabling 1500 species of corn and 3000 species of potato to be grown! Although a ruined site, there is a walking track which goes to Cusco so the locals are still using this area today to go along with daily chores.

Pisac

We visited the Ollantaytambo ruins after lunch which was the Temple of the Sun. The huge pyamidal ruin is unfinished as the Spanish invaded and interrupted the Incas' building. What was already there was started in the 1570's and took 8 years to build. It was massive!! Our guide explained about the 2 different types of building that we could see. Simple is where the stones are roughly cut and then fixed with mortar which is what a lot of the lower levels of the complex were. The upper levels were more complexly built as the stones were cut so that they fit together perfectly without any mortar. The Incas were also clever enough to earthquake proof the temple by cutting the blocks to a slight slope, and using large blocks of stone at the top of the temple separated with some smaller cut rocks to absorb shock. The temple itself was impressive but its location situated at the junction of the Lares, Sacred and Machu Picchu valleys was spectacular.

Ollantaytambo

On the way home we stopped briefly at a centre in which some of the Quecha speaking locals still living a traditional life showed us how they use create the wool used in their weaving and how they dye using national products. We also took a brief look at the Chincheros ruins which have had a colonial town plonked on top of them when the Spanish arrived. It was a great day and so far we haven't been too ruin-ed out!

Chincheros

The reason for visiting Cusco is to go to visit “The lost city of the Incas”, Machu Picchu. It is known as the lost city because the Incas abandoned it when the Spanish arrived in Peru in the hope of them not finding it. They didn't and it remained jungle covered until 1911 when an American found it after a local tip off. It was a hell of a journey to get there and back which meant getting the train (complete with sunroofs to see the top of the mountains) and then staying overnight in a town called Aquas Callientes. The next morning we awoke at 4.30am to then get one of the first buses up to Machu Picchu to try and avoid some of the crowds. Usually you would head straight to the “Sun gate” to see sunrise but as it was a cloudy morning we let the other tour groups go there and went to take photos of the city from a terrace. It was amazing to be able to take photos with no people in them!! We had a 2 hour tour covering some of the main things to see.

Temple of the Sun, one of the 4 temples in the city which would have once been covered in gold and the only temple which still has its gold rock brackets in place.

We also saw houses, a factory, the watchman's house and the temple of the Condor. The temple would have been used for sacrifice of young girls only as offerings to the gods. Sacrifice was popular on 21st June which is the winter solstice, when the sun was furthest from the city so the sacrifice was made as an offering for the suns return.

Some of us also took the opportunity to climb Wayna Picchu the cities Northerly sacred mountain. It was pretty steep but the top provided an amazing view of the city and allowed you to see just how remote it was.

It was great seeing Machu Picchu and worth the journey (on the train) as it was a nice suprise that it was half as crowded as I thought it would be.

Sadly I spent the last day in Cusco with a stomach bug which has wasn't the most pleasant but at least it stopped me shopping, gave me a duvet day and I seem much better now!