So, Elsje and I have just come back from a much deserved dinner after an awesome day of exploring the ruins at Pisac, a small town about 40km from Cusco.
Now, regarding Cusco. I didn't have much to say about Cusco before because after the initial wonderment of being in an Andean city and the stark contrast with Lima, I found that this place left me thoroughly underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, it is an immensely interesting and unique place, and it's absolutely buzzing with energy and vibrancy, but there is an excess of tourists and tourist related activity going on here that in my opinion detract from the beauty and wonder of this city. It has obviously not always been this way, but the tourist industry is in full swing here and you know it as soon as you step off the plane into the terminal. Instantly you're bombarded with people calling you 'amigo' trying to sell you this or that tour, offering their particular hotel/hostel/backpackers as a place to stay. It just gets a bit much after a while, what with almost every street corner occupied with people trying to sell you something and the insane amount of tourists doing touristy things all the time.
The town is also at the moment, along with the rest of Peru, celebrating Fiestas Patrias, which marks the country's independence from Spanish rule, so there has been loud brass-band 'music' and fire-crackers (which echo like the bejesus off the mountains around the town) at all hours, along with the inevitable drunkenness that accompanies festiveness. It just burst my bubble of 'sacred Andean mountain-town quaintness' which I had, that's all. Ok, rant over, I just had to get it out.
It has been a good experience though because it forced Elsje and I to remember and reiterate our reasons for being here and to redefine what traveling means to us. Before we got to Cusco we agreed that we would do no packaged deals or tours here (the Inka trail is enough), that the Sacred Valley we were going to explore on our own. And I'm so glad we decided that.
Perhaps a little bit of background as to why we are in Cusco at all. It all started about five years ago when I first met Elsje. I was reading Graham Hancock's book 'Fingerprints of the Gods' in which I first came across the amazing architecture of Sacsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo and other sites in and around the Sacred Valley. For some reason these structures fascinated me deeply and I was happy to find out that they interested Elsje too. Ever since we have wanted to see these astounding feats of human engineering and ingenuity and we promised each other that if we ever got to travel Peru would be our first port of call. So basically what I'm saying is that our being here is the culmination of a dream five years in the making.
Yesterday we took a walk up to Sacsayhuaman, which is basically just outside of Cusco city limits, on top of the mountain overlooking San Blas, the district where we are staying.
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| Local kids using the smooth rock as a slide |
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| Just to give you an idea of the scale of some of the rocks |
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Yes, just a bunch of rocks really, but there's something about them that both Elsje and I find immensely fascinating. For instance, apart from the size of some of the stones, no mortar has been used to construct these walls and the joins are so seamless that you can't even get piece of paper between the blocks.
Pisac:
We took a taxi from Cusco (with a maniacal driver) and arrived in Pisac at about 10am. What we didn't realise is that the ruins are actually about 6km away from the town of Pisac, up quite a steep rise, but since we were determined to walk to the site we simply set off along the road, which is actually the more gradual route up. It turned out to be a good decision as we got to see the more rural side of the Sacred Valley. What was best was that we didn't see a single tourist walking on the road, they were all zooming past us in buses and taxis.
We went at a leisurely pace and it took us about two hours to reach the site, but once we were up our effort was rewarded with spectacular views of the terraces and the structures themselves, perched precariously on top of a mountain peak. We climbed to the very top only to marvel at the skill and expertise of the builders of this site. It is quite an extensive site and covers some almost ridiculously precarious and seemingly random areas of the mountains on which it is built. Some of the structures are built in areas that don't seem to serve a purpose at all and I couldn't understand why the builders would go to so much effort to construct walls at the most difficult, dangerous and least functional areas of the mountain, indeed I often got the impression that the builders were just showing off, a case of 'why build a wall there?...because I can.'
I must admit, I hadn't heard of Pisac until I got here and did a bit of research. It really is a vast and breathtaking site and we seemed to discover more and more of it as we walked down the hiking trail back to town.
Today was, for me, the highlight of our trip so far and I really don't know how much better Machu Picchu can be than what I've seen today at Pisac. One has to admire a culture that goes to such lengths to build in such a skillful and harmonious way, blending their structures with the natural contours of the land. The fact that these structures are still extant today and are in such good condition is testament to that skill. In comparison the buildings and the layout of the modern town of Pisac look a bit silly and childlike.
Ah so, Ollantaytambo tomorrow - yes, more rocks...
