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4- Cusco, Peru (part 2)
September
2, 2003
¿Que Tal(bot) me amigos? Once again, I am corresponding with ya'll from Cusco, the cultural capital of Peru. Cusco is so rich in things to do. It has everything a Gringo could desire; Inca ruins, loads of handicrafts, native culture, restaurants, great bars, nightclubs, and cathedrals (if that's your thing).
My second day in the "naval of the world" started off farily melow. I awoke to enjoy the magnificant view of the Plaza from the patio of my hostel with some cafe. This German guy was playing guitar and invited me to partake in a few tunes. Shortly afterwards, I returned to South American Explorers for some additional info and attempted to procure some descent maps and books on the Inca Trail. It was fairly difficult to find anything descent. I did however check out an cool travel book called Inca Kola, named after the tasty Peruvian nat'l soft drink that has a fluresant yellow tint(no, it isn't what you think) and tastes kinda like mountian dew. Inca Kola is the only soft drink on the planet to outsell Coca Cola per capita. The book is about this British bloke who stumbles arround many of the same locales that I have about a decade ago. It's good to know that some things, like Peru being completely backward in many aspects, have not changed. While walking throught the Plaza, some sort of parade involving a madonna, a band, and costumes of gorrilas and colorful demons was coming thru. I hung out for a spell but spent a good chunk of the afternoon reading and relaxing in my single room with a great view of the city. The evening would be a whole different beast. I decided to check out this movie on Cusco as an introduction. It was only 2 soles but entirely in Spanish so yo no comprendo mucho. Started happy hour at an Irish bar called Paddy O'Brian's. It was a little too tame, but I did manage to down two Pisco w/ Sprite that were really strong, two for one especial! I wondered around the Plaza and was given about 6 coupons for free drinks.
Cusco has as good of a nightlife as anywhere I have been with a big bonus. You can pretty much get buzzed for free cause there are so many touts on the Plaza trying to cajole the Gringo's dinero into their fine establishments. Tonight I had more coupons for Mama Africa's so that was it was the winner. It was jammed packed but really rocking inside. I started off with my free Rum and Coke and this Aussie bloke started up a conversation with me at the bar. He has been traveling to Peru for bussiness for a years and knew the scene pretty well. Lucas (I think) suggested that we change locations over to an Aussie owned bar called Los Peros (the dogs). Heather (up in huaraz) had mentioned that place so I agreed and met him there. It was closing time and there were two Irish Girls there that were going to do the Inca Trail the following morning (6am). I don't know what it is, but Aussies and the Irish have this irresistable magnetic attraction towards one another. Lucas somehow talked the girls into one last drink and before I knew it, we were on our way to Spoon, another late-night club. Spoon was as impressive as any club I have been in the States or Europe. It had a cool multi-teared floor that wasn't too big. After a few shots of frozen Pisco, I went to cut some rug to Daft Punk and returned to see the Irish girls on top of the bar-stripping off their tops! It appeared that Lucas had some type of mind control on the girls, and could get them to do whatever his bidding was. So much so, they kind of went of and did their own thing. I was pretty good to go so I just danced more and somehow got back to the hostal around 330 am, I think?
Waking up with an evil headache and weary feeling I slept in til about 1pm. I can´t remember the last time I did that in the States, but heh, I am on vacation-right? Since I had about 5 more days to kill until the Inca Trail, I was going to take it easy as far as the whole tourista thing was concerned. There will be plenty of time for that later. Cusco is the kind of city that you have to walk around and soke things in. The Plaza has two beautiful cathedrals and a fountain in the center area with park benches. I hung out there and read my book. One thing about Cusco that is a little bit of a pain though- all of the freakin touts. You cannot walk more than 1 minute without being approached by someone who wants to sell you something. "Scuse me sir, postcard?" "Hello, need to eat sir?" "Inca Trail for you, mister?" The kids are probably the most relentless with postcards and shoeshines. Now that I thought about, I really did need a shoeshine from my recent trek and got the best one ever- for about 4 soles. The kid tried to work me over for more, but had already agreed to the price. I was going to have the shiniest boots on the Inca Trail, damn it! The only other thing besides read and rehidrate was to see a movie at one of the bars. MAMA's by night was a roudy club, but during the afternoon, turned into a cine complete with the latest pirated releases. So I watched the never-ending, gratuitous, and woeful tale- "GANGS OF NY." Hated It. Went back to the hostal to read and crash early.
Hating to break a pattern up, I got up late on Sun and grabbed some lunch at Govinda´s, an Indian vegetarian restaurant. I had booked a city tour for Mon afternoon so I hiked up about 30 minutes uphill, past the hostel to the Inka ruin, Sacsayhuman. The best part of the place was in the pronounciation, SEXY WOMAN. Of course I am going to go there. I was out of breath by the time I reached the top, but man, what a vey of Cusco! Sacsayhuman was the last bastion of Inca resistance in Cusco. It was used as a fortress in the 1536 rebellion and with one look, one can easily see why. It is a huge complex with immense hundred ton, 5m high, limestone boulders that have been brought in and put in perfect fitting without metal or wheels. The stones are so well put together, they can even withstand earthquakes. They say that Cusco is shaped like a Puma, with Sacayhuman as its head. There is even a part of the wall that looks like a puma paw. An incredible feat that stands up to Stonehenge and Easter Island. I then strolled over to the Blanco Cristo the overlooks and protects the city. Tons of Peruvians were flying kites- it was a tremendously windy day.
That evening, I decided to return to Mama´s for another dose of Americana- "8 MILE", which I hate to admit to it, but I thought it was pretty entertaining. Before the movie began, I started chatting with this Israeli girl named Noa. She broke all of the stereotypes that have been set over my travels. As a matter of fact, that has been a topic that keeps coming up; Israelis. In Huaraz, it was discussed with the British blokes, and my guide for the Santa Cruz trek complained about them as well. Then in Cusco, some Aussies started to slag on them. Israeli´s have a reputation for being abrassive, erogant, and tough negotiators. Maybe it is because most of them have just come out of the army before they begin to travel. But Noa broke the mold. She was light-hearted, outgoing, and just plain fun. We agreed to meet later and do a little balimos (dancing). Met up with Noa around 930pm and Mama´s had morphed into a go-go bar with a bunch of dancers (chicos y chicas) doing the la lambada on stage. We met a nice British bloke named Charlie and his Aussie sidekick-Mark, who was built like a Mack truck and got behind the bar and danced with the help. A few local chicas started asking some questions. This one in particular was trying to set me up with her amiga, but it was really awkward. I barely spoke any Spanish and she didn't know a bit of English. We threw down mucho Cusquenos-the national lager, which is pretty good but a little on the fizzy side. I prefer the Negro version that is malty sweet. I stumbled back up the hill toward the hostal pretty late. You hear a lot of stories of late night muggings and theft, so that long climb back up to Hostal Resbolosa can be kiinda creepy. I have gotten in the practice of picking up a large stone, just in case. Hey , it might not detour a possible theif, but at least it gives me some sort of piece of mind.
I met up with the free City Tour that SAS threw in with the Inca Trail around 130 pm the next day. I am not much for orgainized tours but I figured it was free and I have been lacking in the tourista dept for the last few days. The tour began at Iglesia de Santa Domingo. When the Spanish moved into Cusco, they did not fool around. They burried the most important temple for the Incas in the center of town and built a church on top of it. Years later, the city decided to excuvate the temple and discovered the intricate rock walls that you could not fit a piece of paper through. The Iglesia de Santo Domingo is still a functioning convent with the dug up ruins as its bottom floor. The Spanish tended to use the foundation of Inca buildings and build whatever they wanted on top of it. The guide spoke broken English but I had arlready bought a good guidebook and figured things out. The tour proceeded to go back up to the hills behind Cusco. The first stop was Quenco. A stone outcrop that the Incas used for cermonial purposes. The Incas tended to respect nature and always take advantage of any natural rock formations by incorporating them into their structures. The most interesting feature was a snake-shaped rock carving that the Incas used to pour Llama blood into to determine the upcoming year's weather. The guide would have walked right back to the bus if I did not insist to everyone's applause,on checking it out. Tambomachay was the second stop. It had two parallel water fountains that are still working since the Inca's day. The guide explained that the Inca's used to bath in them for good luck. The one on the right was for fertility, and left one was for longevity. Guess which one I went for? Tambomachay also wins the award for the pushiest craft sales people in all of Peru. We stopped by "Sexy Woman"-again. The guide wasn't good at explaining what we were doing and managed to freak some tourists by losing their wives. Way to go-Jose!!!! The final stop was the Cathedral on the Plaza. It was interesting how the Spanish manage to both oppress the native population and incorporate the native's beliefs to convert them into Catholicism. A good example was the "Last Supper" painting that actually had native cuy (guinea pig) and sweet potatoes as the meal. There was also a black Christ on a crusafix. The guide explained that although most of the country claims to be Catholic, actually very few practice it.
I finished off the evening at Mama's for a movie (League of Extrodinary Gentleman) and pizza. Tuesday I decided to visit the famous market in Pisac, about a hour bus ride from Cusco. Pisac is a small village in the Sacred Valley on the Ullabamba river. It had a real charm to it, in spite of the aggresive venders in the main market. There is a much better selection there, not to mention much better deals than in Cusco. I window-shopped for a chess set for about an hour. Then took a taxi up to the clifftop ruins that overlook the village. What an ideal location. There were beautiful terraces that lined the valley. The locals say that the terraces combined with the clifftop ruins resembles a condor. It took about 2 hours of hiking about the cliffs to fully enjoy them. The best part was the Temple of the Sun, that contained some water fountains and tighly carved stones.
The walk back down
into the market took about 45 minutes and was rather steep through the terraces
on the cliff. The trail conviently returns in the market and I haggled with
a local to buy a cool little chess set for 12 soles. The bus back to Cusco
should have only fit about 25 people but somehow managed about 50! I was stuffed
in the front and tried not to look out the window where the 3000 foot cliffs
were waiting. It was a long hour back to Cusco. At 7pm I met up at SAS to
have a meeting on what to expect for the following five day Inca Trail Trek.
There was a goup of about 16 of us and I was starting to get excited. We were
told to meet manana morning at 7am. I stopped by a few shops for some final
provisions and crashed early in anticipation of Manchu Pichu. This is where
I will leave it and give the skinny on the Inca Trail and Manchu Pichu when
I return back from the Jungle next week.
Happy Trails and adios,
Talbot