Cuzco

(May 28 - June 2)

Cuzco was chosen as our last destination before my departure from Lima. I was slightly reluctant in the beginning of this trip, to stop by Cuzco. The reason was that I thought Cuzco is just Machu Picchu, and I was scared by the tourist-ness of the area (with reason, as I will tell you later). As with most of the other destinations, I did not know much of what I was about to discover. But the risk of flying away from Peru and having to disappoint all those that, back at home, would ask whether I had seen one of the most gossiped ruins in the world, was honestly too big. I gave up my reluctance and me we jumped into a bus to Cuzco, from Copacabana.

Actually, on the way to Cuzco, we stopped for one afternoon in Puno, just to see the floating islands. Now, this was really nothing to write about in this blog. Pretty useless stop, good just to break the trip. 

So once in Cuzco we realized that there is much more than just Machu Picchu. I was eager to finally discover some ancient south-america culture and the Inca are popular, legendary and mysterious enough to satisfy all my needs. Besides Cuzco itself offering some interesting Inca ruins buried under the Spanish era buildings, there is plenty to see in the surrounding. What I really loved, was to able to hop in a bus or a taxi and head to one of the many destinations around the old capital of the empire. You get a nice idea of the possibilities you got, reading this National Geographic article. There are two main loops that I would recommend (see the numbers section below) : the 4 ruins close to Cuzco and the sacred valley loop. 

Now Peru was also a slight improvement in the food quality, with respect of what we had seen before. Nothing marvelous, yet. We tried the cuy (guinea pig). They stuff it with spices, cook it in the oven and put it on your plate as it is. I did not think I could have any problem with that, but the small legs and the claws, were too much for me. After tasting it, I happily gave it to Jasmin, that showed much less pity for the beast.

My tiny Jasmin

Oh and this was also the end of my paper. The deadline, June 29, was happily met. With the project report and the project deliverable submitter, I now only had a project meeting to take care of (May 31), but with the extraordinary help of Gabriele (with whom I will have an unrepayable debt for the rest of my life) we managed to do that smoothly, as well. So the last 4 days of my trip will be entirely work free!

This is the most typical product of the local textile artisans. It is also quite expensive  (from 130 soles to 200 for the small ones you see here), but it takes 1 to 2 months of manual work for each piece.

We did not go with organized tours. We wanted to have the freedom to choose things on the way, without having to wake up at a certain hour. We hired a guide once (at Quenko) and we bought a book to have an explanation of the rest. We heard local guides giving improbable explanations, pointing at mountains that should look like puma, or faces, or condor or any other sacred Inca animal. The best was one guide that showed a picture of a mountain, that when turned 90 degrees looked like the Inka face. They say there is not too much left of that civilization, mostly because the Spanish meticulously destroyed most of it. This being said, I am sure there are very experienced guides out there that can give you more than what we heard here and there. Also, the book we picked up (chosen because available on amazon kindle) was really nothing good. You can find my book's review here.

Machu Picchu was booked in these days, for Friday June 1. Coming up next on this blog.

Numbers: You can do a couple of tours around Cuzco that will keep you busy from 2 to 4 days, depending on what time in the morning you will like to wake up. The first loop is the one close Cuzco, comprising Tambomachay, Puka Pukara, Quenko and Sacsayhuaman. Now the order here is important. Take a cab to the first (Tambomachay) and walk down to Sacsayhuaman. You can do also the other way around, but it is all uphill. Nothing against that, but don't forget that Cuzco has an altitude of 3400 m. The second loop is the one of the sacred valley. This a bit longer, but waking up a bit earlier, you can do it all in one day. We were given an offer from a cab, 160 soles to do all the tour. We declined the offer and went by the extremely cheap local buses, at least partly. We visited, in order Chinchero (spent a lot of time in the market and local textile artisans) then took a cab to Moray and Salinas. We ended up in Urubamba, but it was late to continue, so we went back (by bus). The day after, we went to Pisac and Ollantaytambo, where we got the train to Machu Picchu (cheaper from here, than from Cuzco). With careful planning you can probably do this second tour in one day.

If you have to pick up a single one, I would say go to Pisac. Otherwise, do the 4 ruins tour in one day, do the Chinchero-Moray-Salinas-Pisac tour another day and finally go to Ollantaytambo the last day and take the train to Machu Picchu from there.

Moray	Salinas	Pisac
Ollantaytambo	Pisac	Superlative masonry