Brett and Emily in South America: Cusco and the Sacred Valley

We arrived in Cusco, real early...like 5:30am. We did enjoy our bus ride from Arequipa on the true first class of Peruvian/South American Bus Companies, Cruz del Sur. We went to check in to our hostel but as it was only about 6am at this point our room was not going to be ready for another 5 hours, minimum. So what better to do then when you have to wait 5 hours for a room...sit in the hostels TV room which was absolutley covered in pillows. It was like a ball pit at McDonald's but filled with pillows. Needless to say, while Emily continued to work on her journal (trying to catch up on all her lost entries from her stolen journal) I passed out in the pillow/TV room. After resting for several hours we finally decided to walk around town and explore Cusco (additionally we needed to start researching and getting prices for our trek). We walked around Plaza de Armas and Plaza de San Fransico checking out the several large churches and the general architecture. Something that became apparent and continued to bother/annoy us for the rest of our time in Cusco was the annoyance of hagglers everywhere in town. If it was from the the dozens of men carrying around portfolios of watercolors, or women offering massages, men trying to sell sunglasses, to the kids offering shoe shines even though you are wearing sandles, the dozens of resturants offering there lunch or dinner specials, or tour agencies offering their prices for different trails or trips through the Sacred Valley or to Machu Pichu. It just by the end of our time in Cusco got extremely annoying and almost makes you happy to be leaving the city although you had an amazing time in both the city, Machu Pichu and the Sacred Valley.

One of Cusco´s main two churches (built on former Inca holy sites)

The other church

The next day we met up with our friends Sophie and Dean, from our Salt Flats tour. Dean was feeling kind of under the weather so we decided to meet up a bit later again to go to lunch and also discuss the possibilities of the different trails/trekking we could do. After lunch we finally decided on the Salkantay Trail a 5 day/4 night trek, that I will describe in more detail on the post about our trek. There are many of options of getting to Machu Pichu. First is to pay for a really expensive train ride and then taking a semi-overpriced bus to the ruins. Second, is the infamous Inca Trail which our tour guide like to refer to as ´The Commericial Inca Trail´ but in reality there are many ´Inca Trails´ still in existance today. This one is impossible to just show up in Cusco and book. You need to book this trail well in advance (6 months I hear is good) and you pay upwards of $800 for a 4 day/3 night trek. Additional, cheaper treks that you can sign up for once in Cusco also include the Inca Jungle trek, which is a one day mountain biking and then 2 days of trekking in the jungle before ending at Aguas Calientes (the modern day town just below Machu Pichu) or the the Lares Valley Tour which is a 4 day/3 night trail through the hilly Lares Valley. In reality I think it is kind of funny that a lot of people think the ´Commercial Inca Trail´ is the only way to go to Machu Pichu. We legit met people who were planning on leaving for the Inca Trail that were staying in our hostel is we astonished when they heard the fraction of the cost they were paying and that there were other ways to go to Machu Pichu. I think part of it is that companies abroad advertise it as the only option. And try to get people to think that when they say only 500 people (and in reality that 500 is actually only 200 tourists because the other 300 daily passes go to porters who carry your bags and cooks) can go a day, they mean it is only 500 people to Machu Pichu, which is not true, it is 500 people on the Inca Trail.

The fountain in Plaza de Armas at night

After reserving our spots for the Salkantay trail (which we were not leaving for another two days), Dean and I headed over to the Municipal Hall to buy the tourist tickets for sights in Cusco and the Sacred Valley. Here comes my next major complaint about Cusco. It is impossible to buy individual tickets to anything in Cusco, the Cusco area, or the Sacred Valley. They give you several options of mass ticket packages. The first is an overall ticket for 130 Soles ($45) of all 16 sites (they offer a 70 soles ticket for students but are very strict about giving it out, you can only use an international student identification card and it must have been issued in the last two years). The also offer 3-70 soles tickets for the three distinct areas of sites (Cusco, The surronding Cusco area, and the Sacred Valley). There were several complaints, and I agree, in the guest book at the Municipal Hall that it is very unfair to independent young travelers who come to Cusco. Just because wealthy American and European tourists (who are abundent in Cusco) can afford such high prices it is very difficult for young backpackers to do so. Because there was no true other option and the four of us wanted to see several sites not only in Cusco but also in the Sacred Valley we gave in and bought the 130 soles ticket, after they turned down my ´old´ student ID from both Minnesota and Tel Aviv. That night the four of us went to the first place on our ticket. It was the only place on the ticket opened at night so we decided to go check it out not knowing what it was. The Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo, ended up being a two hour dance performance of over half a dozen traditional dances from different regions of Peru. It was complete with regional dresses (they also ahad a seperate room filled with the amazing dresses that could be viewed during the intermission) and music. It was pretty amazing and quite a surprise because we really didn´t know what it was going to be. We forgot our cameras so no photos but if you check out this youtube link it is filled with peoples videos of the dances...YouTube Link. After the dance performance we headed noticed across the street a slightly expensive but interesting looking store filled with woven goods. Additionally, there was actually a group circle of traditional women weaving in the store. We found out the place was a cooperative that was founded to help teach the next generation about weaving techniques so the tradition is not lost in the modernized world. The store also had a small museum which explained everything about weaving from how it is spun, to colored, different styles, how the tradition is passed down between the generations and more. After spending almost an hour at this place until they were closing up we headed back to our hostel for an early night because we were waking up for the Sacred Valley Tour the next morning. We did though before going to bed tried the local drink, Pisco Sour, which is a combination of Pisco, lemon, and egg whites that when blended form a foam on top (we also the next night tried what our hostel called the Passion Soul, which is basically the same but with Passion Fruit juice instead of lemon).

Inca ruins (with a church built on top) inside the city of Cusco

The next morning we were picked up at our hostel at 9am to head out to the Sacred Valley. The valley is a collection of both modern villages (who still speak Quechua, the native language of the Incan Empire) and Incan ruins. After a quick stop in a small village (where I began to search, although never bought, a chess set designed to be the Spaniards versus the Incas) where we bought a small bag of sweet popped Mote, the local kind of corn/maize which grows throughout South and Central America. The corn is huge it pops to almost triple the size of normal popcorn. Also Emily tried the mote in La Paz in the steamed on the cob form and it was ok. It is really really startchy. They also dry the kernals and use it for either salty snacks or to add to ceviche (the local seafood delight that we enjoyed earlier in Puno). After this short stop we went to the first of three ruins during the day. Our first stop was to the ruins at Písac, the ruins were situated on top of a hill that overlooked several valleys. The whole top of the site was filled with army barracks. The ruins were amazing and much better then most of the Inca ruins we had seen to this point.

The Following is a collection of Pictures from Pisac

Amazing Scenery

Agricultural Terraces and buildings in the background (the roofs have been rebuilt)

The ruins from the top

After stopping in another small village that had large markets (and unsuccesfully still finding a chess set I liked) we went to the second site, Ollantaytambo. The site was pretty impressive and included a now half destroyed alter to the sun god (which the Spaniards destroyed when they invaded Peru), store house perfectly situated to receive the cold winds of the mountains to help keep refridgerated the communities goods, still functioning water fountains, great examples of smoothley polished and fitted Inca stones, and like all Inca sites dozens of agricultural terraces.

Next is a collection of pictures from the ruins at Ollantaytambo...

Agricultural Terraces at Incan ruins who would have ever thought?

If you look really closely right in the middle of the mountain there is a man´s face (locals believed it was a deity). Also on the left side of the mountain those straight lines were the store houses.

Destroyed alter to the Sun God. You can still see on the stone where the Spanairds broke and destroyed large segments of the alter. Also on the other side of the valley it is possible to see the query where this rock was removed from.

Emily pondering how exactly the Inca´s were able to smooth and shape rocks so well

The way the rocks were fitted is amazing

The little cubby areas is where they use to put little alters to various dieties.

Our final site we visited for the day was Chinchero. After walking through the small town which houses still display the fact that there bases were built on top of Inca house ruins we arrived at a magnificant church. Like many other churches in this region, it was built on top of a Inca holy site. The amazing part was around the church were large areas built with amazing examples of inca carved stones. Additionally, a large field next to the church was actually used by the Inca army to rally troops before defending the city against the Spaniards. After viewing the church and the structural ruins we headed back in to the small town and were taken to a store and display place that had several local showing us how they spin the yarn (evidently many women just do it all day long as they walk about doing errands), how they clean the fabric (they use a natural shampoo of sorts that they grind up and then mix in water before hand washing the alpaca wool), and also the coloring techniques of how they use several natural plants, flowers and berries to color the wool (they also explained how in recent years more people in the region are starting to go back to the original dye colors instead of using synthetic coloring). After watching the display and sipping some coca tea we looked around (Emily bought a new belt) we headed back to Cusco. When we arrived back in town we had a quick talk at our tour agency about the hike for the next day and then went back to the hostel to go to sleep as we knew we had a tough few days ahead of us hiking the Salkantay trail.

The remaining photos are from Chinchero and the weaving place...