Cusco continued

Wednesday 27 June 2007 I´ve been in Cusco almost week. Its one of the most attractive cities I've stayed in on the whole trip and caters very well for tourists. The buildings are mostly well preserved or restored Spanish colonial style with some remnants of Inca architecture evident, usually the foundations of the colonial buildings. Most building have had to be restored at some time following earth quakes. The most serious was in 1950 but occurred as recently as 1996.

Last weekend was dominated by the Inti Raymi ( the Inca festival of the sun) which marks the winter solstice. On Friday the main square was full of dancing groups with marching bands circulating through the square. Although colourful and noisy I have to confess that one hour of that was about enough for me, although I did come across it throughout the day as I wandered about exploring the city centre. In the evening there were more contemporary rock groups playing on a stage, including some good cover versions of Jimmy Hendrix, Stone Roses, Black Sabbath and Nirvana.

Most of Sunday was taken up with the actual Inti Raymi procession and ceremony, but much of it was actually waiting for something to happen. I got up at 7am for an early breakfast and walked to the start of the procession, just a few minutes from my hotel. I waited from 8.10am to 9.40am for the event to start and it lasted about half an hour There was huge crowd, 70% tourists, by 9.30 and you could soon lose your position if you didn't stand still. The event consisted of colourfully clad Inca warriors and temple maids running and dancing around the foundations of the Qoricancha, an old Inca temple which was built over by the Spanish as a catholic monastery. Some Inca chiefs spoke grandly from the ramparts to their people in Quechan, the old Inca language, to which the warriors and maidens bowed down.

I then moved onto the main square where I again waited an hour for half an hour of dancing and marching but it wasn´t a very good view so I made an early start to the steep uphill walk up to Sacsayhuaman (pronounced approximately as "sexy woman") and took the picture of a church and square overlooking the town on the way up. Sacsayhuaman is the remain of a very large Inca temple two kms overlooking the city. I was pleased hat the altitude didn't seem to be affecting my walking.

At the Sacsayhuaman site those who, like me, hadn´t paid the $80 for a ring side seat had to sit on one of the hills around the site and get a distant view from about 200m. I think the main cultural experience for me wasn´t the Inca ceremony but sitting in a crowd of Peruvians for 3-4 hours and seeing how the interacted together. Most people were keen that the crowd should stay seated but were tolerant of people who got up to go out or take a quick picture. But some fellows stood up for while and after shouted requests to sit down were ignored people threw pebbles at them. It wouldn´t hurt them but must have made them feel uncomfortable because they soon sat down or moved off.

I was sat leaning against a bush from when the crowd was quite thin, with plenty of space. But gradually the crowd increased and my personal space was invaded more and more until one man was gradually taking over my leaning bush and my legroom was encroached by others siting in front and wanting a slightly higher position. The crowd was well policed and they seem to discourage hawkers but some did make it up the hill unaffected. One woman with traditional dress carrying a large shawl over her shoulder arrived at my bush and opened her shawl to reveal a large tub full of roast whole guinea pigs and potatoes which she quickly sold in plastic bags to the crowd sat around me.

After a few hours sitting with a limited view (apparently I missed the sacrifice of a llama) and the possibility of a shower looming I returned down hill to the City and retreat to a favorite bar for dinner.

On Monday I took a tour of some of the city and nearby sites, including revisiting Sacsayhuaman, to see the ruins at closer range. The mystery of the Inca ruins is, like the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge, how they managed to quarry and carve such massive rocks and create such huge structures so so accurately that the stones fit perfectly together without cement, without the benefit of machines or even the wheel.

Other notable highlights were the interior of the Cathedral with much silver and gold on show accompanied hundreds of religious oil paintings, interior of the Qoricancha building to see the Inca architectural remains. This included a human sacrifice altar located in a small cave. The end of the tour was the inevitable retail outlet, this time an Alpaca woollens factory where we were shown how to tell the difference between baby Alpaca, Alpaca and man made fibres.

On the tour I met up with a bloke called Chris from Harrow who is on a quick tour to visit Peru as an addition to a wedding he´s going to in Brazil. We met up later for dinner and I decided it was time, for the purposes of research, I try guinea pig. Chris tried Alpaca steak. I can't say I was over impressed with guinea pig. It's too bony and short of meat to be very pleasant to eat. But this was washed down with some Cusqueno, local beer, in the ubiquitous Irish bar soon afterwards.

Next day I took another tour to the Sacred Valley of the Inca. This time the retail opportunity was the first stop; the market of Pisac. This was pretty colourful place and the locals were very welcoming. I enjoyed a couple of empanadas (pasties) straight from the oven.

After stopping to take pictures of these magnificent valley lined with some snow capped mountains we had a great buffet lunch (too great for later comfort) in a town called Urubamba. After lunch we went to more Inca ruins, this time Ollantayambo. Here there are stone great terraces lining the mountainside, providing a temple-come-fort at the top looking down over the small and pleasant town, alleged to have most inhabitants with pure Inca blood in Peru. After scrambling up and down the terraces for an hour we moved onto the small town of Chinchero where the tourist highlight was a colonial church with some remarkable paintings but for me the highlight was the baños next to the coach park.

In between these tour an visits I've been too many museums and galleries and one show of cultural dancing and music which I enjoyed more than I expected. However all of this is a prelude to the main event, the 4 day trek to Machhu Picchu on the Inca trail, which is principal the main reason for me coming to South America and which I start tomorrow