Peru: Itinerary (1)
Peru: Lima and coastal Peru (2)
Peru: Amazon (3)
Cusco… how do I even start to explain all that this city stands for? A city so deeply steeped in culture and history, and a true testament to the human spirit—the determination and ingenuity of the Incas to build a civilisation at such incredible heights, more than 3,000 metres up in the immense Andes, with their own unique way of life - their unique traditions of farming, weaving, art, worship, architecture, and so much more.
Peru had been on my list of places to visit since I was a teenager. Mostly for Machu Picchu. But as our trip got closer, I started reading about the Andean civilisations, and I think I became more excited about visiting Cusco and the Sacred Valley, than the world famous Machu Picchu.
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Traditional dresses |
And I was not disappointed. I wasn't able to visit all these places on my trip. And most of the Incan grandeur I had read about had been destroyed 500 years ago already. But what I found was still incredible. Cusco was still alive, its Incan heritage still beating. And I enjoyed the few days I was there, trying to explore and uncover this Incan heart, long challenged by Spanish colonisers, but which is still intact.
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Cusco from above |
Getting to Cusco
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Flying over the Andes |
Cusco
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Tika Wasi Casa hotel |
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El Balcon hotel |
Cusco is located at a height of 3,400 metres, a height at which the human body has difficulty breathing due to a lower oxygen content. So we had kept the first 2 days for acclimatisation to the high altitude conditions, planning to just walk around and not exert much while we got used to thinner air. Still there was so much walking up and down involved, it was tiring. So we slept and rested a lot during this period while also exploring the town a bit.
We drank a lot of coca tea (every few hours). It's made by adding coca leaves to hot boiling water, and letting the flavour seep in. It is said to help with the high altitude. Locals generally chew the leaves on a daily basis, while tourists prefer to have the easier to drink tea version. It took me a while to develop a taste for it, but once I did, I was a regular. It also was very welcome given how cold the evenings got there. We also bought some coca candy for Cusco as well as the Salkantay trek later. It did help, but we still rested a lot more when walking around during the first few days. Also, it was difficult for me to fall asleep the first few days because of the thin air too.
For the next few days we explored Cusco, mostly around the historic centre, its lanes, its architecture, the food, the shopping and the overall feel. And also getting used to the mountain air. We did visit some historical sights like Cristo Blanco, the Convent of Santo Domingo and the fort of Sacsayhuaman but most of our time there was spent without a defined agenda, at the festivals around the Plaza de Armas.
Walking around
The Centro Historico is the part of Cusco where the Incan capital used to be. When it was destroyed by the Spanish, they built a Spanish style city on top of the old capital. So even though the feel is of a Spanish town, the foundations of the city are very Incan.
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Streets of Cusco |
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A square in Cusco |
There were some streets in town where the buildings had foundations different from the colonial structures above. The base would be made of huge boulders precisely cut and fitted together without mortar, while the building on top would be built in a typical colonial style. Apparently this was the Incan style of dry-stone masonry which was used to build buildings to survive earthquakes. They were so strong, so robust that the Spanish had been unable to destroy them. So they had decided to build their churches and other buildings on top of the old Incan foundations. Many of these were exposed in the earthquakes of 1650 and 1950 when the colonial structures collapsed but the Inca foundations survived and showed up. And since then, many of these Incan walls have been left exposed so visitors can imagine what the town would have looked like centuries ago. I had read about it in my book, and walked around town looking for such structures. There were many and they were impressive, really impressive.
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Streets of Cusco |
Sometimes it was tough to figure out what part of Cusco was Spanish, what was Incan and what was just touristy. It just had so much to offer, it was fun to walk around. In the centre, there was so much activity at all times, either with the tourists or with the locals. We criss-crossed these streets so much, we had already started remembering them π.
Plaza de Armas
Our favourite of course was the main square, Plaza de Armas. It is a grand square with a park in the centre, the Cusco Cathedral and the Church of the Society of Jesus on one side, loads of cafes and shops on another and then a row of wooden buildings with colonial metal balconies overlooking the Plaza.
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Plaza de Armas at night |
Corpus Christi festivals
In May and June, the festival of Corpus Christi is celebrated by Cusco for a week or so, with all the residents of the city taking part in it. And the whole town turns into a party town. Somehow even without timing it, we had turned up on the first 2 and last 2 days of this festive period! On the first day, the 15 saints and virgins from various other churches of Cusco are brought in a procession to the main Cusco Cathedral. What this involves is the residents of those parishes dressing up in traditional clothes and carrying their saints on elaborate platforms (known as andas), parading through town, all the way till the Cusco Cathedral. The processions move through town, with local bands walking in front providing music and the rest of the parade with hundreds of followers, dancing behind as the procession slowly snakes through town.
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Corpus Christi festival |
On our first day in Cusco, we could hear music from the morning itself. And by the time we reached the Plaza, we could see multiple processions with thousands of people passing through the streets. It was amazing to be there, just sitting in the crowd and watching all the happenings going on. And the after-party did not end till very late at night - we could hear music coming from the centre till at least 2 am. And every day till the 8th day, there is some or the other festival going on. I think we ended up witnessing many of those events.
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From the balconies |
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Last day of the festivities |
Qorikancha and Church of Santo Domingo
After the first two days in Cusco, we were off to Machu Picchu for 5 days, hiking on the Salkantay trek. After the gruelling effort of traversing the Andes, we were back in Cusco for two days of rest and relaxation. Now that I was acclimatised, I finally did some touristy stuff around, while my friends were still doing high altitude hiking to Rainbow Mountain (I was done with hiking for a while) and learning traditional Inca weaving techniques.
One day, I explored the local markets and the temple of Qorikancha. The next day I walked up to Cristo Blanco (the White Christ), a huge statue of Christ located on top of the Pukamuqu hill overlooking the city of Cusco. It reminded me of Christ the Redeemer in Rio.
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Street market |
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Convent of Santo Domingo |
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Inside the Convent |
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View from Qorikancha |
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Children's festival |
Cristo Blanco
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Ruins of Sacsayhuaman |
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Walls of Sacsayhuaman |
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Cusco from high above |
While I sat there watching the sun go down, I observed many people coming and leaving the statue. There was a Quechua woman there, dressed in the traditional Andean clothing, with an alpaca baby. She was selling some stuff to tourists. And I saw her approach so many of the people there, offering what she had. She was so so so softspoken, it was like her voice had humility. She spoke some English words, and said them so sweetly and softly, I couldn't help but notice her.
And I remembered excerpts from the book I was reading which talked about how the common Quechua people had always been very simple, believing in the goodness of the world around them. They were so simple, they easily became more vulnerable to exploitation by the Spanish than some other cultures. I don't know if it's a stereotype but I felt it at that moment, how simple and soft spoken the woman was. And I felt very sad for all this country and culture had lost over the centuries. And how the simplicity of the population made them easy prey to all the atrocities that were committed on them.
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Cristo Blanco |
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Walking down |
I just started walking down the stairs, walking past residential areas, and choosing whichever way looked like it would take me in the right direction. It was a bit scary as there were very few people around and some of the stairs were blocked. I walked past gardens and small houses and so on. It was an adventurous detour thought I am not sure if it was such a wise idea π.
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San Blas |
Shopping in Cusco
Cusco is a shopping paradise. The streets were all lined with shops, with all kinds of things being sold - art, souvenirs, spices and sauces, warm clothes, sweaters, pillow cases, blankets, bedcovers - the list was endless. And it was all very reasonably priced. We spent a lot of time shopping here. Surprisingly, there wasn't a lot of bargaining going on, just a little bit.
There were lots of vendors selling handicrafts in the streets, not just the shops. Most of the women selling stuff would be wearing their traditional dress, and there was just so much colour on them - I loved them. A lot of them also had small baby alpaca with them. They charged for taking photos with them and their alpacas, which felt a bit too commercial for me.
Textiles were the biggest sellers - warm clothes made of alpaca wool being the most common product. The local weaves and designs are quite intricate, and they look gorgeous. The colours of the clothes were so bright, red being the most popular in the stuff being sold. Also the alpaca wool is really really soft. It was tough to see those things and not buy them! We all shopped so much - I bought a red poncho with Inca weaving, two red alpaca sweaters with traditional designs, two alpaca shawls (which turned out to be Made in China!), and an alpaca throw. There was a clear domination of warm alpaca products in our buying preferences π. I generally don’t shop. But in Peru I did, and this was after already buying flip-flops, a headband, a tshirt, a hydra bag and a backpack already.
Eating
We had dinner at the Plaza most often. Restaurants there were our favourites, as they all were on the first floor, with balconies overlooking the Plaza and cathedral. The first day we ate at Morena. The food was good. I had a bout of mountain sickness though and had to lie down on the seat for a while for the nausea to go away. The waiter put some alcohol on my hand to smell, as apparently that helps with the mountain sickness.
One day we had lunch at a local eating place, called the 3 crosses (quite cute) near our hotel, one Indian dinner at Taste of India (we were really craving spice that day), and dinners near the Plaza in Ceviche and Don Pancho. It was always great to have a view of the Plaza festivities. Dinner for me was always the same for me I think - ceviche, I loved it. The food generally was good, though for vegetarians the options were quite limited.
Weather
The weather in Cusco was interesting. It was 20+ degrees C and sunny during the day, and would drop to single-digit temperatures at night. And it was the same every day, with very little variation. We enjoyed the warmth during the days, but always had to carry our jackets along for the cold evenings. The weather was perfect for enjoying though and was welcome after the freezing days in the Amazon.
It is very difficult to capture all that we saw in Cusco. A city so old, so steeped in a mixture of the old Incan culture and newer Spanish influences. A city that has existed for more than a thousand years at such a height, stood the ravages of Spanish rule, and managed to still hold its own identity, its unique charm. It felt like we had landed in a very different Peru than the last one week.
I fell in love with the city within the first few hours, and the love lasted. It was so tough to say goodbye as I felt I had barely touched its history, its deep culture, its deep mountain ethos. It was like I had only begun to uncover a deep reservoir of culture, history and life, but left without truly doing it justice.
I loved staying in Cusco and hope to be back there some time. To explore more, but also to explore the Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo, the Pisac, Maras and Moray terraces, Chinchero, and so many other places, which I couldn't visit because of lack of time. I will be back, Cusco!
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