We had an early start as we had quite a busy agenda for the day: a few visits and getting ready for the Inca trail. First things first, we started with a nice breakfast at the hotel. We then visited the San Blas church, where our attention focused on the wood-sculpted pulpit, allegedly one of the nicest in South America. Unfortunately, as in most churches and museums in Cuzco, pictures were not allowed so here is a link and another with a closer view.
We then had our briefing with the Inca trail team. Our guides were in Machu Picchu so they could not be present unfortunately, but we will meet them early tomorrow morning: we will be picked up from the hotel at 6:30 am. We should start walking two hours later. The second day will be the most difficult with steep stairs, we will ascend about 1200m in a day. The challenge will be to keep up with the porters and cooks or simply to finish before the night. After the briefing, we rented sleeping bags, a walking stick and waterproof trousers. There has been quite a lot of rain lately as we are approaching rainy season. We may be lucky though.
We then visited the Basilica Catedral, which was very impressive not only for its size but also for the richness of the paintings, the gold (made with 22-carat gold leaves) altars and wooden-sculpted choir. We were given audio guides, which made the visit very enjoyable and we learnt a lot about synchretism between the Catholic religion and Andean traditions, and on the Cuzco school (altars and paintings). Paintings and sculptures were used by Catholic priests for evangelisation purposes. They brought paintings from Europe, which were then copied by local artists. Some of them included elements of their culture (e.g., the sun and the moon, Andean deities). Catholic priests tolerated some interpretations in the paintings in order for them to be closer to local population: the Trinity is represented by three identical depictions of Christ (traditionally, such representation was not allowed). One of the most worshiped is the Christ of the Earthquakes (or Senor de los Tremores), as the legend says that it prevented earthquakes in Cuzco. An amusing worship was that of San Antoine de Padoue for its abilities in finding a good husband. Unfortunately, you have to know the address of the person...Another interesting detail was the presence of bare-breast women sculpted on the arm rests of the choir.
We then headed to the Museo de Arte Religioso, where we saw a great collection of paintings from the Cuzco school (recognisable by the gold ornaments on clothes, made with gold leaves, and by their singular perspective). After lunch we had a quick visit of the Templo de la Compania de Jesus, and enjoyed the view over the city from the bell-tower.
View of Plaza de Armas, main square of Cuzco
We then headed to Qorikancha, quechua for Temple of Gold. Unfortunately, the Spanish have destroyed a great part of the temple and built a church on top of it. Nevertheless, impressive walls are still standing, and the impact of the last earthquake of 1950 is barely visible. The temple was an important place of worship (Cuzco being the capital of the Inca empire). The method used for its construction testifies to its importance: stones are joined together like lego, without the use of mortar. The strength of the construction is also due to the inclination of the walls and their thickness. We saw the same construction technique the day before in the sacred valley. It was reserved to important buildings, such as temples. Apparently, this technique was not used for Machu Picchu, which was only a provincial town compared to Cuzco. We'll get to see for ourselves in a few days...
View of Qorikancha with the Inca wall and the colonial Church above
Perfectly aligned Inca windows at the Temple of Gold
Church courtyard (ruins of one of the units of the Inca temple behind the arches on the right)
Arch of the colonial Church built on the Inca wall
View on Avenida del Sol from Qorikancha
We then headed back to the hotel to pack our bags for our 4-day trek to Machu Picchu, on the Inca trail. We will have our backpacks half full and hopefully not too heavy. We only need to carry clothes, a few medicines, sleeping bags, notebooks and 2 liters of water each (thankfully, the agency organises the tents and food) but it already takes up quite a lot of space. Now a few hours sleep before our early start.
Since time will be limited in Cuzco, we opted for a full-day tour of the Sacred Valley. The minibus was full withboth fellow-gringos and Peruvians, and at each of the stops we arrived as part of a fleet of buses. Nevertheless, our tour guide was excellent, with clear and interesting explanations, and we felt that we had just enough time at each of the stops to appreciate their grandeur properly (trying to ignore the swarms around us).
We were collected from outside the travel agency at around 8.30, and after a frustrating hour or so the bus eventually left Cuzco. On the way we passed by the Inca site of Sexywoman (I think it's officially called Sacsayhuaman), which we'll get to see properly later. There was then one tedious stop for twenty minutes at a market with products for tourists, and finally the interesting part of the tour started.
The first stop was Pisac, the ruins of an Inca citadel perched on the mountain amidst spectacular scenery, overlooking the colonial village of Pisaca. Leading up to the citadel were large swathes of Inca terracing. In the mountainside across from Pisac were the tombs where the Incas buried their dead, together with possessions to accompany them in the afterlife and idol figurines to guide them. We walked up the steps (which were not too perilous) to the top of the citadel, with its sweeping view over the Sacred Valley. We had worried that the tour wouldn't give us time to explore the site properly, but we didn't feel short-changed when we left after more than an hour.
View of Pisac (top right) as we approached from the other side of the valley
Terracing leading up to the citadel of Pisac
Terracing being repaired
Clem in front of the citadel
Clem focused on our guide
Incan tombs in the mountainside behind me
View of the valley from the citadel
After an hour's drive west, towards Machu Picchu, we stopped for lunch at Urubambo. This was similar to the lunch stop on the road from Puno to Cuzco, a large buffet place catering only to tourists, with the type of pan-pipe-over-recorded-drumbeat music that you'd find in Oxford Street or the Paris metro (we declined the offer to buy a CD). Nevertheless, the food was plentiful and pretty good, and the stop was brief, so it served its purpose.
Our second tour stop was at Ollantaytambo. This village, predating the Incas, is nestled between mountains at the foot of another section of Incan terracing leading up to the citadel and temple. Our guide told us that the terracing may have been used not only for agriculture, but also to support the great weight of the citadel and temple above, preventing landslides. He also pointed out, in the side of the mountain on the other side of the valley, buildings that were thought to have been Incan stores, and next to them the face of the Incan creator god.
View from the start of the terracing
Close-up of the store and face in the mountainside, barely visible in the photo above
We puffed our way up the terracing to the start of the temple, where we found the most impressive Incan stonework we have seen so far. Huge stones intersected perfectly, not requiring any kind of mortar for stability. How they managed to achieve such precision on such a grand scale, without the aid of iron tools, really is beyond the imagination. A little higher up was the heart of the temple, known as the Temple of the Six Monoliths. We were told that the purpose of this structure was unknown, but that it predated both the Incas and the Tiwanaku. From there we gazed up at the Inca fortifactions, keeping watch over the temple and the village far below. We were then piled into the bus, but not before stopping off at the market to buy a hat and walking stick ready for the Inca trail in a couple of days.
The Temple of the Six Monoliths, with the citadel towering above
Just us and a few close friends
View from the temple over the terracing, the village, and the sacred valley
The final stop, an hour or so back towards Cuzco, was Chinchero. Here the main attraction was a colonial church, built in the late 16th century atop the ruins of an Inca palace that had been destroyed by the Incas themselves as they retreated after defeat at Cuzco. The small church was decorated with murals and a beautiful painted wooden roof, similar to the church of San Pedro on the road from Puno but somehow more attractive (not ruined by huge Dominican canvases, for one thing). Inside the church, our guide pointed out numerous signs of religious syncretism to which we have by now become accustomed. On the pulpit was a traditional European rendering of Christ on the cross. Opposite was a canvas by an indiginous artist, depicting a broad, swarthy Christ wearing a skirt, with his head facing down to Pachamama (the earth) rather than up to heaven.
Chinchero church, plus lots of locals selling alpaca wool goodies
The entrance to the church; no photos allowed inside, as usual
Outside we had a wander around the ruins of the Inca palace as dusk fell, before boarding the minibus for the journey back to Cuzco.
The remnants of the Inca palace over which the church was built
We were woken up early by the bright sunlight coming through the window in the ceiling. In the morning, we did a quick update of the blog and enjoyed a really nice breakfast at the hotel (with homemade bread and marmalade). We then met with the agency with which we will walk up the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. We agreed to come back for a briefing with the whole group a few days later.
Although this agency also organised a tour around the sacred valley of the Incas, we decided to book with a much less expensive one for the following day.
John in front of an Inca wall in Hatunrumiyoc street (the wall is now part of the Archbishop's Palace)
After a late lunch, we visited the Inca museum, which held a great exhibition about various pre-Inca (Wari, Tiwanaku, Nazca) and Inca cultures. The Incas had a surprisingly brief period of ascendancy before the arrival of the Spanish. Still, they managed to built a great civilisation uniting a great part of what are now parts of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Peru. We learnt about Inca agricultural practices (some still used nowadays in Peru), clothing, jewelry, and weapons. Portraits of Incas dating from the 18th century were particularly interesting as some of them were still wearing their traditional clothes, while others only had some ornaments. All of them showed the coat of arms of the Inca families. Few such portraits are left as the Spanish ordered their destruction to avoid fostering pro-Inca (and therefore anti-Spanish) sentiment.
The next room had an exhibition on Incaismo, a movement of the 19th and 20th centuries for the preservation of the Inca culture. Such movement was present in paintings (for instance of all the Inca "kings"), photographs of traditional clothing for celebrations, and textiles. In the courtyard of the museum, women were weaving following the traditional method. Their products were offered for sale. This initiative is aimed at keeping the tradition alive.
We then headed back to the hotel for a visit of the projects created by a Dutch woman about 15 years ago. Moved by the poverty of some children in Cuzco during her first trip, she came back to the city a few later. She started by hosting a few children (soon becoming 12 ) in her apartment. She then managed to place another 24 of them with two host families, still providing for their food, clothing, medical bills and other needs. With a generous donation she had received, she bought a house and transformed it into a hotel, the profits from which she used to finance her charity. With the proceeds, she created centers for children from 6 to 12, where they are provided with food twice day and can have a shower twice a week. They also have support for homework, medical care, and a library. Centers are complementary to school, they either come in the morning or in the afternoon, when they do not have class (in Peru, class is either in the morning or in the afternoon). She is close to the families and tries to support them to the extent possible.
In 2008, this Dutch woman created another hotel (Ninos II) a few streets away, where we are staying. Nowadays, her charity takes care of 600 children. The proceeds from the hotel only cover a little part of the expenses, so the charity is still dependent on donations. We met some of the children, who were really friendly, and had a tour around the facilities of two of the centers. We enjoyed in particular the library (whose walls were decorated like a scene from a book) and the cinema (to which children can go to when they accumulate enough points for good behaviour).
View of Plaza de Armas, early evening
In the evening we had an enjoyable dinner with Adam and Donna (whom we met during our trip to Uyuni) and some of their friends from Australia, at the place we had been the day before. The food we chose was this time much nicer, a stir-fry with lots of vegetables.
No, it wasn't a two day trip. We just didn't do anything on Sunday except relax, plan and book upcoming weeks, and write up the blog.
We left Puno early on Monday morning, catching the InkaExpress at 7.30; two buses each loaded full with 40 tourists, not bad for low season. Not much in the way of suspension on the bus, which made for a bumpy ride.
Our first stop was Pukhara, around two hours north-west of Puno. This small village is home to an archaeological site (Pukhara culture, from 2nd Century BC til 4th Century AD) and museum. The plaza was lined with tour buses, and the museum was swamped with tourists. There were some impressive carved stones (including "the Decapitator", stood clutching a knife in his right hand and a human head in his left), but the museum was otherwise a quick visit. We also stopped by an imposing stone church built by the Jesuits in the 17th century, still in use by the villagers. After a quick and strictly timed stop, we piled back into the bus.
The Pukhara museum courtyard, with the church in the background
The Jesuit church at Pukhara
Next came La Raya, another hour and a half down the road, at 4318 metres above sea level. This was a photo stop, with stunning backdrop of snow-capped mountains. Clem was delighted to see an Alpaca and lamb (though resisted the temptation to pay to hold the lamb).
Mountain view from La Raya, the end of the altiplano
Alpaca, alpaca jumpers/hats/gloves, and lots and lots of tourists
After another half-hour's driving, we arrived at Sicuani, our lunch stop. By now we had descended from the altiplano into Cuzco province, and the scenery was almost immediately much more verdant. The restaurant was merely a tourist pit-stop, but its buffet was quick and decent fare. Another regimented 45 minutes and we were off again.
Food for tourists
Twenty minutes later we arrived at Raqchi, Inca ruins that had been partially restored. The focal point was the remains of a large wall, which had been built to protect the important Inca stores. We had a half-hour stroll around the fairly large site, which had a spectacular setting, although the rain cut our visit a little short. There was also a small church, housing more paintings of armed archangels (though these were very rough and ready).
The remnants of the Inca wall
Our final stop before reaching Cuzco was at Andahuaylillas, to visit the 16th century Jesuit church of San Pedro. The guide described it as the Sistine Chapel of the Americas, due to its elaborate 17th century murals and painted wooden roof. The comparison might have been a bit of a stretch, but the murals were certainly impressive. When the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish lands in the 18th century, the church was taken over by the Dominicans, who added some large canvas paintings to the walls that, although not unattractive in their own right, rather ruin the effect. It was almost as busy as the Sistine Chapel, as the guides for several tour groups whispered over each other. Nevertheless, an enjoyable stop.
The outside of the Sistine Chapel of the Americas; no photos allowed inside
On the last stretch to Cuzco, we passed the Inca gate, used to control access to their capital.
The Inca gate to Cuzco, through a dirty bus window
We arrived at Cusco and took a taxi to our hostel; except it turned out that we were booked into Los Ninos II, not Los Ninos I, so we had to tramp one block further along. The hostel is charming, in a colonial courtyard with (creaky) wooden floorboards upstairs. It's slightly expensive, but that is because it supports a childrens' charity that we will visit tomorrow. More about that then.
Incidentally, Cuzco is much larger than we had expected. We'd thought it was not much more than a jumping off point for Machu Picchu and the rest of the Sacred Valley, perhaps with a few Inca ruins of its own. Turns out it's a large city, with broad and beautiful plazas, and plenty of Inca and colonial sights to see. Trying to do everything in four days is going to be a bit of a squeeze.
We went for a walk around town, looking for a restaurant. We ended up at an Aussie-owned bar, where the decor and atmosphere was comfortable but the food was not great. Clem went for the adventurous option of Alpaca meatballs, but found them heavy and overly rich (though that might have had something to do with the passion-fruit and mint sauce).
The island tour started early, with a pick up from our hostel at around 6.30am. After a tour of Puno's hostels, we arrived at the harbour, boarded our small boat, and set off for the floating islands of los Uros. After about twenty minutes of chugging through a narrow channel with reeds on either side, we arrived at the islands. They had been described to us as a Peruvian Disneyland, and that was not far off. As we arrived, we were directed towards one of the 49 islands, so as to share out the tourist lucre among the different island-families.
Through the reed channel, pursued by more tourist boats
Greeted by the islanders as we arrived
After disembarking on our allocated island, we were seated on dried and knotted reeds. Our guide explained to us that each island belongs to a single family, led by a "chief", and that they speak Aymara. Our chief told us that they have a simple dispute resolution process: in the event of disagreement, they take a saw and cut off part of the island to create a new one. Using a small model, he then showed us how the islands are made. They cut blocks of earth under the reeds at the edge of the lake where the water is shallow, then tie the blocks together using eucalyptus stakes and nylon rope. This base layer of around a metre is then covered with 20 or 30 layers of reeds, another metre or so. Every 50 years or so, when the reeds' roots have decayed, an old block is replaced by slotting another block in its place.
Scale model of the island, with our boat in the background
There is a school on the island (though for high school they have to travel to Puno), and the local government provided solar panels so they have electric lights and TV (leading to a fall in procreation, the chief joked). They live from fishing (rainbow trout are the largest in the lake), hunting ducks (at which point in the explanation the chief ran to get a gun), and collecting ducks' eggs. The reeds even provide nutrition: the chief showed us how to peel back the root of the reed to expose the edible stalk, which was surprisingly tasty, if a little too fibrous. Every week they take fish, ducks, and eggs to the market on the mainland to barter for meat, vegetables, and the eucalyptus wood they need for anchoring the islands and building houses. Finally, he showed us how Lake Titicaca's shape resembles a puma (Titi) if you flip it upside down. Peru has the Titi, Bolivia has the Caca, he joked.
The first island
After the demonstration, we were shown inside their homes by one of the women, and then it was time for the goods to be brought out and the selling to start. The textiles were fairly impressive, but we wouldn't have had room in our bags, and the hard sell was a turn-off. We did want to contribute, though, so we paid to take the "Mercedes Benz" (a two-tiered straw boat) over to a second island, while unexpectedly being serenaded by small kids. The second island was even more commercial, full of shops and cafes. There wasn't much of interest here except a tower for John to climb.
Our choir atop the straw boat
Alouette Gentille Alouette, Uros-style
John up the look-out tower
View of the second island from on high, with a pond full of trout
The crowds of tourists, well-rehearsed presentation, and slightly over-the-top hawking of goods was off-putting, but this lack of authenticity could not detract entirely from our astonishment that their people had lived like this, floating in the middle of a lake, for more than a thousand years (they originally took to the lake to escape the aggressive Colla and Inca tribes).
As we left, we saw villagers who seemed to be cutting new base-layer sections
We then headed over to another island, about 2hrs away, called Taquile. This was a proper stone island, no reeds in sight. We hiked up to the plaza at the top of the island (this time feeling rather smug at our fitness compared to the tourists who had just flown in). The plaza was not overly interesting, and was full of tourists taking snaps of brightly-coloured kids (and in some cases, rudely, without asking permission or offering the one sol coin that the kids usually requested). We then hiked a little further to a small restaurant where we were treated to a good soup and another grilled trout, which was delicious, much better than we'd had in Copacabana. In the meantime we were serenaded with charango and pan-pipe by the "Pavarotti of the Island", including the traditional song "El Condor Pasa". We then walked back down the other side of the island and rejoined our little boat.
Approaching Taquile island
Spot the tourists
Heading back down the hill
The 2 hour journey back to Puno was calm until the last half-hour, when it became a race to reach harbour before the on-coming storm reached us. The storm won. The boat rocked from side to side, the lightning flashed and thunder roared on top of each other, and rain poured down (and in, as John realised when his window-side arm was soaked). The skipper managed to guide us into harbour through his smogged-up window, and we scurried off wrapped up in our waterproofs... only to find that our bus was not, in fact, waiting for us. After finding shelter, we were eventually returned to our hostel.
We woke to find that the storm had passed. To save the donkeys some labour we deprived ourselves of a shower, packed up quickly, and went down for breakfast-with-a-view.
We walked down to the harbour, and while waiting for the 10.30am boat we were hailed by Adam and Donna (our Salar de Uyuni friends), who had spied us from their boat, briefly moored at Yumani on the way north. Apparently we're easy to spot. We then made a new friend, Gloria, the three-year-old daughter of a lady selling tickets to the village. She took a great interest in my journal, observed that I was "grande", and looked bemused as I tried to point out Isla de la Luna on the map and the horizon. She then produced from her mother's bag two small Barbie balloons on sticks, shook them enthusiastically to sound the rattle inside, and bade us try for ourselves. She then pointed at Barbie as "gringo", and when I noted that Clem was also a blonde gringo, Gloria went over for a closer comparison. Sadly you can see only one blonde in the photo:
In return for the amusement, Clem gave Gloria the bracelet she had bought in Paraguay. As she did so, a host of tourists swept past us to board the boat. It didn't seem possible that we could all get on, but we did; until they realised that the boat was far too heavy, so asked for volunteers to disembark and catch another boat in 10 minutes. With limited cushion to catch our bus, we clung to our perch atop the boat. After the slightly unnerving manoeuvre of switching motor for a larger unit, we finally set off. Thankfully the lake was calm (as even moderately-sized waves could have caused issues) and we made it without taking a bath.
Returning safely to Copacabana (that's Cerro Calvario on the left)
After picking up our bags from the hostel, and grabbing a positively disgusting but thankfully quick lunch, we caught the bus to Puno, bidding farewell to Bolivia with its stunning natural beauty, friendly people, and low, low prices.
The three-hour bus journey was fairly uneventful, except for some interesting detours where the road disappeared in a cloud of dust from roadworks. Shortly before we reached Puno we bought from a guy on the bus our tickets for the InkaExpress bus from Puno to Cusco. This was the start of a saga that took up the rest of the afternoon. We paid $45 each; we found out at our hostel that we could get them for $30 each. After a trip to the tourist office, a call to the bus company, and a trip back to the bus station, we eventually managed to recover the difference. We then spent the $30 we had clawed back on a delicious parillada with an extraordinary amount of meat. Then to bed, and another struggle with the cold of a night at high-altitude.
After a night interrupted by an impressive storm at around 4am, we caught the 8am boat from Copacabana to the Isla del Sol. The weather had cleared up, so we started by sitting on top of the small boat, but were quickly sent scuttling downstairs when the rain poured down once again. This didn't promise much fun for a hike across the island, but thankfully the sun came out again to welcome us to his island.
Isla del Sol is the largest island in Lake Titicaca, where the sun was created according to Inca legend. After a brief stop at a very small museum by the harbour, we walked up the hill from the shore to the main Inca ruins. We passed through a small village, Challapampa, where they still grow crops on old Inca terracing, although there didn't seem to be much growing. The Inca ruins were clustered around the sacred rock, Titicaca, which bears the shape of a puma and the face of the Inca god of creation, Viracocha.
Barren-looking Inca terracing
Clem in front of the Inca ruins, with Peru in the distance
The puma on Titicaca, the sacred rock
The ruins were at the northern tip of the island. From there we took the trail southwards, following the crest of the hills through the centre of the island. At the highest point we stood at more than 4000m, with stunning views of Lake Titicaca, Isla de la Luna (Sol's smaller neighbour), the Peruvian shore off to the west, and to the east the ice-capped mountains of Bolivia. The disturbing altitude symptom of feeling breathless after walking up a gentle incline quickly wore off, and after a very enjoyable three-hour trek we arrived at the southern village of Yumani. This tiny village perched on the edge of the hill is home to a surprising number of hostels and pizzerias, and must be overrun in high season. At this time of year, thankfully, the village was fairly peaceful, apart from the braying of the many donkeys (which seemed to outnumber the village's human inhabitants).
Isla de la Luna
We soon realised why there were so many donkeys. The village tumbles down towards the lakeshore at an almost 45 degrees angle, and the only way to get supplies (including water) to the village is back up that slope. We saw locals walking down the "Inca Steps" to a spring near the shore, with perhaps seven or eight 10-litre water containers ingeniously strapped to their back, driving donkeys ahead of them. They then filled up the containers and loaded up the donkeys for the journey back up the hill. The donkeys endured.
At least the donkeys didn't have to carry anything on the way down
One of the hostels we had investigated had a notice asking guests to be considerate with their use of water. We now understood.
At the bottom of the "Inca steps" was a small harbour from which we would catch the boat back to the mainland the following morning. In the early evening the main attraction was the view of the Bolivian mountains, illuminated beautifully between layers of cloud above and below. We must have taken a dozen photos, but here is just one:
Snow-capped mountains in Bolivia to the east
For dinner we chose a small and cozy restaurant at the top of the mountain, with a view west. We caught the end of the sunset through large menacing clouds that were headed straight for us. The dark sky was streaked with lightning, and the swiftly-following thunder had our hosts rushing outside to gather in their clothing. Five minutes later and the downpour had us regretting that our raincoats were sitting on our bed. The meal of watery soup and chicken a la naranja was not particularly exciting, but it ate up enough time for the rain to pass, and we managed to scurry back to the hostel without a soaking (and, thanks to my headtorch, without stepping in donkeypoo). The rain returned just after we had arrived back, so we went to bed feeling fairly lucky to be dry.
End of the sunset over Lake Titicaca
We watch the storm roll in from our cosy restaurant
