Cuzco

After returning from the Inca Trail, we spent 5 more days in Cuzco. It is a very pretty city, and an easy place to spend more time than you were planning. On Sunday, our first full day back, we bought a bus ticket to nearby Pisac, which contains an impressive Incan gaurd tower, temple, and terracing. On Sundays, it has a large market, both for locals and tourists. After buying our ticket, we got into a van which took us to Pisac. What the van driver decided not to tell us until we arrived though was that the ticket we had bought was not for his bus, and insisted we pay him again. After much arguing, I angrily paid twice, mainly because it seemed like the loss of the bus tickets ($0.70 each), wasn´t worth the fight. Both the market and the Incan site were great.







Monday we took it relatively easy. To see the site around Cuzco, you have to buy an expensive Boleto Turismo which grants you access to about 12 sites. We spent the day going to all the museums on the ticket which were, for the most part, crappy. The only good one was the Art Museum, which had an exibit of sculptures made from bones. We also went to the Chocultaya ruins (probably spelled wrong, I don´t have my book with me), which were very cool. Some of the walls are still in excellent condition and show the Incan abilty to create elegant and sturdy masonry without mortar. In some parts, you can run your finger along the lines between stone blocks and not feel the dip. In the evening, we attended the surprisingly good cultural show which was part of the ticket, and saw traditional costumes and dance.

Tuesday. we took a cab to still working Incan baths about 8 km north of the city. The best part was watching new age hippies sway around with their eyes closed and meditate before drinking the water. After, we walked back, passing an old army post and huge fortress along the way. We were supposed to pass another site, but got a bit lost and missed it. The fortress, know as ´sexy woman´(I forget the Quecha spelling, but it actually sounds like that phonetically, more or less), had a rock over 80 tons in wight. Alot of it was destroyed by the Spanish, however, as they used the smaller stones to build their own houses and churches.



Interestingly, we were approached by a group of Peruvian tourists who wanted to take OUR picture. It was a nice reversal of us sneaking pictures of women in traditional clothes. Since then, we have been approached three more times. We´re like celebrities!

Wednesday, we visited the main Cathedral, which was beautiful. In general, I have been underwhelmed by the religious monuments in South America. Most Churches and the like are in disrepair on the inside and not that interesting. This one was an exception. It was geourgous! My favorite part was the 80 or so wooden sculptures of Saints known as ´the choir´. Another highlight was a statue of the Saint women pray for for husbands (san Antonio de Padua, in case any ladies are interested). Later on, we saw the painting of the Saint men pray to to ward of the marriage prayers of women :-). We also were given an excellent audio tour to help explain what we were seeing.



For lunch, I ate a ´cuy´, known in English as a guinea pig. It looked like they just stuck it straight into a deep fryer. It still had its face and paws and a little bit of fur. The skin was very tough, and the small amount of meat on it tasted like Quail. In the evening, we saw an expensive but excellent performance which combined traditional dance and music with street theatre. Along with the costumes, I particularly liked the juggling :-).



Thursday, our last day in Cuzco, was slightly disappointing. We booked a private English guide to take us to some harder to reach sites, but he turned out to just be a Spanish speaking driver. We went to a small, pretty town to see some palace ruins, and to Moray, a large circular terrace ruin which is believed to have been a sight of crop experimentation. Each decending circle apparently has a different microclimate. It sounds cool, but was not as cool to see as I thought it would be, though it was very photogenic.



The highlight was the Salt pans we visited. Unlike the salt flats, this was a hill covered in what looked like Salt terraces.



That night, we caught an overnight bus to Arequipa to trek in the Colca Canyon, the second deepest Canyon in the world.