Today is turning out to be yet another great day!! My dad and I got up early and caught a bus to Pisac a town about 40 mins away in the Sacred Valley. The bus ride probably took over an hour though because it kept stopping every time someone on the sidewalk indicated they wanted to get on. It took us a half hour to get out of town, when it should only take about 5 minutes. It was fun though!!
In Pisac we hit up the local market. Which was really neat, but quite similar to the market in Cusco, except it was outside but it was still nice to walk around and see what the locals had to offer. Today was probably the hotest day yet so it was really nice to be outside, however the shade from the stands was also very welcome. After we got sick of being hassled at the market we hiked part way up a mountain with Inka ruins to take in the view. We wanted to go all the way to the top, where there were Inka buildings but decided not to since we need to be in tip top shape for the hike tomorrow. After having taken a few pictures we rushed back down the mountain because the weather looked threatening. Luckily it only started raining with about 5 minutes to go in our descent.
Before my dad and I left we read that on average it rains 18 days in Cusco in January. We were kind of worried that the poor weather would dampen our time here. So far it has rained every day but has not impeded on anything we have wanted to do. It hasn´t rained for more than an hour everyday and the rest of the time the weather is gorgeous.
We had lunch at a pretty neat place. They cook almost everything in a huge woodstove about the size of a small bedroom. When we got there, there were fresh epanadas that had just come out so we had those for lunch. Beside the woodstove was a pen of guinea pigs (Cuy in spanish). Unfortunately the fate of those Cuy lay inside the woodstove. It is very peruvian to eat Cuy and they are often sold fully cooked at the markets. I haven´t tried it and I´m not quite sure if I will, my dad plans on it though.
In Pisac we also took a ¨cab¨ to drive us around the town. The cab was actually a 3 wheel motorcycle with 2 seats side by side behind the driver. The driver ended up taking us on a dirt road to show us the construction of some houses. They make their own bricks out of clay, straw and water. It takes about 3 days for them to dry and be ready to be part of a wall. It was a very bumpy ride but was very interesting.
After the cab ride we caught a bus back to town. And here I am now.
Tonight we have an orientation for the hike and we are getting picked up outside our hotel at 5:45 tomorrow morning. We get back to Cusco on the 12th, and there will be lots to write about!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Inkaman is the new superman
I´ll try and keep this one shorter than last time, it´s hard though, so much happens every day!!
Monday and Tuesday were filled with visits to different Inka ruins! There are many ruins in the Cusco region and we took a bus to 7 different locations. I learned a lot about the Inkas by visiting these ruins. They were very ingenious and resourceful people. At the ruin called Saqsayhuaman (my dad and I like to call it Sexywoman) some of the stones weighed over 100 tons and were dragged by the Inkas over 5 km of harsh mountainous terrain. Sometimes even dragging the stone uphill for many km, in cases like this they would build ramps up the mountain to make dragging the stones easier. They did not use animals to help them, just man power. I can´t imagine how many Inka´s died in the construction of their cities. They were also known to use terraces, in order to maximize the agricultural potential of the mountain. Peruvians still use some of these terraces today and you can see fields almost reaching the peaks of the mountains. The Inka´s had two styles of building; one was with un-carved stone and mortar. The second style was with carved stone and no mortar, which is very spectacular! In order to get the stone to stay together the faces had to be perfect and fit perfectly against one another. They carved the stone with a harder stone, there isn´t space anywhere to stick a hairpin. All of the seams are perfect and many stones are more than just cubic or rectangular. There is a famous Inka stone in Cusco that has 12 different sides on one face and somehow the Inka´s managed to fit it together with the rest of the building perfectly. Ok enough about the Inka´s (I´m sure you´ll hear more after Machu Picchu too).
On Tuesday we also spent some time in the Sacred Valley a valley next to Cusco. It is very gorgeous and has a perfectly straight river running along it, the river isn´t naturally straight though. Guess who channeled it that way hundreds of years ago to maximize the amount of land they can use for agriculture! That’s right the Inka´s!!! In the Valley we had lunch and some of the ruins were there as well. The valley is at about 2000m which is quite a bit lower than Cusco (3400m) and I could really notice the difference. At one of the ruins we had to climb 200 stairs and despite the look on the red faces of some of the other people there, my lungs didn´t burn nearly as much as the one flight of stairs I have to climb in Cusco to get to my room.
Today we spent the day in town and didn´t have much planning. However since it is January 6th the epiphany (when the wise men arrived to Jesus) and since Peruvians are very Catholic there was much reason to celebrate (not that it takes much). We heard some type of small explosions happening over and over so finally my dad asked what it was to a local. He told us it was firecrackers at a fiesta and told us where to find one (there were many occurring at the same time). We arrived and were the only tourists in the entire fiesta, a few more arrived later, but it was definitely not a hot spot for tourists. Basically there were women cooking meals for everyone and lots and lots of beer. Some people would sit beside their crate of beer and drink all day. We arrived around noon and some people were already drunk. My dad and I sat down and decided to have a beer; however the smallest size they had was a 1L bottle, so we shared it. Meanwhile the guys beside us was knocking back a bottle to himself and I´m sure it wasn´t his first. We then bought a meal from one of the local women. It was definitely one of the greasiest meals I have had in a long time, but it was the safest in terms of risk of contamination. At one point a procession began in the little plaza and dancers and a band performed. After the performance my dad and I left but I can still hear them now celebrating.
Later in the afternoon we decided to go for a walk. They have a huge white statue of Jesus standing at the top of a hill, looking over the city. We decided to walk up to it which turned out to be an adventure of its own. First of all we couldn´t seem to get consistent directions from anyone. They would first point us to the bus stop and when we told them we wanted to walk they thought we were crazy. One local told us, ”it´s wayyyy too far, 1 or 2 km!!”. We were finally on our way and a sign directed to “El Cristo Blanco” up a long staircase going straight up the hill. So we took it (much more than the 200 stairs we did the previous day). At one point the staircase just ended, with nothing but shrubs,dirt and a steep hill ahead of us. So much for the sign telling us where to go. Just as we were trying to figure out where to go from there a kid came down the hill above of us. My dad asked him for directions and since they weren´t clear my dad offered to pay him to take us part way up the hill. Finally after having paid the little boy we made our way up the rest of the hill to the statue. It was a great workout and a warm-up for the Inka trail. The walk back down was much nicer and we took a different way to explore the city a little more.
Tomorrow we are heading to a market in the Sacred Valley and the next day we start our 4 day hike to Machu Picchu!
Monday and Tuesday were filled with visits to different Inka ruins! There are many ruins in the Cusco region and we took a bus to 7 different locations. I learned a lot about the Inkas by visiting these ruins. They were very ingenious and resourceful people. At the ruin called Saqsayhuaman (my dad and I like to call it Sexywoman) some of the stones weighed over 100 tons and were dragged by the Inkas over 5 km of harsh mountainous terrain. Sometimes even dragging the stone uphill for many km, in cases like this they would build ramps up the mountain to make dragging the stones easier. They did not use animals to help them, just man power. I can´t imagine how many Inka´s died in the construction of their cities. They were also known to use terraces, in order to maximize the agricultural potential of the mountain. Peruvians still use some of these terraces today and you can see fields almost reaching the peaks of the mountains. The Inka´s had two styles of building; one was with un-carved stone and mortar. The second style was with carved stone and no mortar, which is very spectacular! In order to get the stone to stay together the faces had to be perfect and fit perfectly against one another. They carved the stone with a harder stone, there isn´t space anywhere to stick a hairpin. All of the seams are perfect and many stones are more than just cubic or rectangular. There is a famous Inka stone in Cusco that has 12 different sides on one face and somehow the Inka´s managed to fit it together with the rest of the building perfectly. Ok enough about the Inka´s (I´m sure you´ll hear more after Machu Picchu too).
On Tuesday we also spent some time in the Sacred Valley a valley next to Cusco. It is very gorgeous and has a perfectly straight river running along it, the river isn´t naturally straight though. Guess who channeled it that way hundreds of years ago to maximize the amount of land they can use for agriculture! That’s right the Inka´s!!! In the Valley we had lunch and some of the ruins were there as well. The valley is at about 2000m which is quite a bit lower than Cusco (3400m) and I could really notice the difference. At one of the ruins we had to climb 200 stairs and despite the look on the red faces of some of the other people there, my lungs didn´t burn nearly as much as the one flight of stairs I have to climb in Cusco to get to my room.
Today we spent the day in town and didn´t have much planning. However since it is January 6th the epiphany (when the wise men arrived to Jesus) and since Peruvians are very Catholic there was much reason to celebrate (not that it takes much). We heard some type of small explosions happening over and over so finally my dad asked what it was to a local. He told us it was firecrackers at a fiesta and told us where to find one (there were many occurring at the same time). We arrived and were the only tourists in the entire fiesta, a few more arrived later, but it was definitely not a hot spot for tourists. Basically there were women cooking meals for everyone and lots and lots of beer. Some people would sit beside their crate of beer and drink all day. We arrived around noon and some people were already drunk. My dad and I sat down and decided to have a beer; however the smallest size they had was a 1L bottle, so we shared it. Meanwhile the guys beside us was knocking back a bottle to himself and I´m sure it wasn´t his first. We then bought a meal from one of the local women. It was definitely one of the greasiest meals I have had in a long time, but it was the safest in terms of risk of contamination. At one point a procession began in the little plaza and dancers and a band performed. After the performance my dad and I left but I can still hear them now celebrating.
Later in the afternoon we decided to go for a walk. They have a huge white statue of Jesus standing at the top of a hill, looking over the city. We decided to walk up to it which turned out to be an adventure of its own. First of all we couldn´t seem to get consistent directions from anyone. They would first point us to the bus stop and when we told them we wanted to walk they thought we were crazy. One local told us, ”it´s wayyyy too far, 1 or 2 km!!”. We were finally on our way and a sign directed to “El Cristo Blanco” up a long staircase going straight up the hill. So we took it (much more than the 200 stairs we did the previous day). At one point the staircase just ended, with nothing but shrubs,dirt and a steep hill ahead of us. So much for the sign telling us where to go. Just as we were trying to figure out where to go from there a kid came down the hill above of us. My dad asked him for directions and since they weren´t clear my dad offered to pay him to take us part way up the hill. Finally after having paid the little boy we made our way up the rest of the hill to the statue. It was a great workout and a warm-up for the Inka trail. The walk back down was much nicer and we took a different way to explore the city a little more.
Tomorrow we are heading to a market in the Sacred Valley and the next day we start our 4 day hike to Machu Picchu!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
First few days in Cusco
It has been 3 days since my dad and I left Toronto and 2 days since we arrived in Cusco! It feels like it has been longer than that already! On January 1st, after having said by to Liam, my Mum and Grandma my dad and I drove to Toronto to catch our flight to Lima. We left nice and early because we wanted to be prepared for bad weather on the road as well as line-ups in the Toronto airport. Apparently the Toronto airport was one of the worst for lineups after the attempted underwear bomb attack on Christmas day. We arrived with plenty of time to spare, which was nice since the lineup through security was very slow. On the plane I was fortunate enough to be in executive class. Our tickets were booked on points and the only way for us to be on the same flight together was for one of us to be in executive class. I guess I lucked out!! I felt sort of guilty having my dad in the back of the plane but her reassured me that he was fine with it and I was planning on trading him half way through the flight. However the flight attendant told me that he could not switch with me and he couldn´t even come and visit me. Well he did anyways…which led to a little agitation with the flight attendant. Not even a 30 seconds after my dad came to say hi, the flight attendant has already moved in to tell my dad to leave. My dad, who apparently was looking for a fight, went out of his way to find the flight attendant and ask for his name so he could complain to Air Canada about how he had been treated. All talk if you ask me, but I had a good laugh.
Once we landed in Lima at midnight we had to go through customs and get our bags. It took about an hour and half to do so but we weren´t in any rush since we had a 4 hour wait at the airport anyways. We checked in with our next flight and then went and slept/read for the remainder of the time. The flight from Lima to Cusco was gorgeous!! I was so tired but couldn´t sleep because I was so mesmerized by the view out the window. After take-off we quickly ascended over the clouds however many peaks of the Andes were still above the clouds. I took some picture and when I figure out how to get them onto one of these computers I will post a few!
Once landed in Cusco at 6am, someone from our Hostel greeted us with a sign! We loaded our bags into the car and started the drive to the hostel. No seat belts and no rules of the road. Somehow though I didn´t feel unsafe, we weren´t driving too fast though. The sights around me was slightly shocking at first. Sidewalks turned to rubble, shingles (if existent) half falling off, windows=non-existent. I wondered what I was getting myself into. It turns out the airport in a less fortunate part of town. We then arrived downtown where building weren´t luxurious however they were maintained. We were dropped off at our Hostel and right away were greeted very warmly but the hostel reception. They brought us a mug of coca tea and we sat in the common area while signing into the hostel and finishing our tea. I then went for a nap right away since I had only had 3 hours of sleep on the plane. After the nap we walked around downtown, soaking everything in.
One thing I noticed very quickly is that everyone is trying to make a penny off tourists. Children and women walk around in traditional clothes with lamas and baby goats, asking “¿fotos?” to every tourist that walks by. Children buy bulk candy and sell it to anyone willing to buy it. Women stand on the streets with pamphlets offering massages. Children run around with portable shoe shining stands and offer to shine your hiking boots! Vendors set up stands everywhere and coax you into buying their products, which coincidently are exactly the same as the vendor beside them and the one before. “No gracias” has become my most repeated word thus far.
The architecture is also very interesting here. Having a lot of Inca influence a lot of the walls were built by the Incas and are very beautiful. The Inca’s were very ingenious and the size of the boulders that were used to make some of the wall is amazing. I will post picture of this too!!
The first evening went to a rather touristy and expensive restaurant which was good to do once but my dad and I agreed didn´t need to be done again. The food, aside from being expensive, wasn´t exceptional. We were basically paying for the view, which was a patio above the Plaza de Armas (the main plaza in Cusco) and the live music. There was a Peruvian band playing traditional music and dancers wearing various costumes performing. It was a very nice atmosphere. The last song of the night the dancers were dressed head to toe in a colourful outfits and were wearing masks. They went into the crowd and chose people to dance, and lucky me was chosen. For those of you who don´t know, I’m not a dancer and therefore felt as though I was making a fool of myself.
Today, we had pre-booked a tour of the city. We were told to meet outside the tour company and arrived with 10 minutes to spare. The tour company was closed since it is Sunday but we were told that someone would meet us at the time of the tour. 10 minutes went by with nothing, but that’s ok because there is no such thing as punctuality here. Another couple arrived for the tour and waited with us. Half an hour went by and no one showed. I guess we were stood up by the tour company. We are going to go tomorrow to see if we can get our money back.
We also hit up a very traditional market, where we were two of maybe a dozen tourists in the entire building. There were rows and rows of fresh fruit, bread, nuts and handmade products. Sounds great!! Well there were also the rows of rows of raw meat (where they sell absolutely every part of the animal) and rows and rows of unrecognizable and yet to be named items. The back of the market was dedicated to prepared dishes. Peruvians would sit on a bench facing the stand where a woman was cooking something. It appears as though it is very common for Peruvians to go there for lunch. I would probably never eat half of the stuff sold in the market but it was great to look at and we will definitely be going back before we leave Cusco.
Finally I just have to talk about the altitude here. Cusco is at an altitude of 3400m and you can really feel it. I am fortunate because I have not experienced any symptoms of acute altitude sickness. However my dad has a headache but thinks it is slowly going away. Breathing is bit harder and any form of exertion is noticed. Even going up the one flight of stairs to our room I can feel my heart beating faster. My lungs feel as though I have just had a high intensity interval run and at night my breathing rate is higher.
We leave for the Inca trail on Friday and will hopefully get one more post in before hand.
Thanks for reading!
Once we landed in Lima at midnight we had to go through customs and get our bags. It took about an hour and half to do so but we weren´t in any rush since we had a 4 hour wait at the airport anyways. We checked in with our next flight and then went and slept/read for the remainder of the time. The flight from Lima to Cusco was gorgeous!! I was so tired but couldn´t sleep because I was so mesmerized by the view out the window. After take-off we quickly ascended over the clouds however many peaks of the Andes were still above the clouds. I took some picture and when I figure out how to get them onto one of these computers I will post a few!
Once landed in Cusco at 6am, someone from our Hostel greeted us with a sign! We loaded our bags into the car and started the drive to the hostel. No seat belts and no rules of the road. Somehow though I didn´t feel unsafe, we weren´t driving too fast though. The sights around me was slightly shocking at first. Sidewalks turned to rubble, shingles (if existent) half falling off, windows=non-existent. I wondered what I was getting myself into. It turns out the airport in a less fortunate part of town. We then arrived downtown where building weren´t luxurious however they were maintained. We were dropped off at our Hostel and right away were greeted very warmly but the hostel reception. They brought us a mug of coca tea and we sat in the common area while signing into the hostel and finishing our tea. I then went for a nap right away since I had only had 3 hours of sleep on the plane. After the nap we walked around downtown, soaking everything in.
One thing I noticed very quickly is that everyone is trying to make a penny off tourists. Children and women walk around in traditional clothes with lamas and baby goats, asking “¿fotos?” to every tourist that walks by. Children buy bulk candy and sell it to anyone willing to buy it. Women stand on the streets with pamphlets offering massages. Children run around with portable shoe shining stands and offer to shine your hiking boots! Vendors set up stands everywhere and coax you into buying their products, which coincidently are exactly the same as the vendor beside them and the one before. “No gracias” has become my most repeated word thus far.
The architecture is also very interesting here. Having a lot of Inca influence a lot of the walls were built by the Incas and are very beautiful. The Inca’s were very ingenious and the size of the boulders that were used to make some of the wall is amazing. I will post picture of this too!!
The first evening went to a rather touristy and expensive restaurant which was good to do once but my dad and I agreed didn´t need to be done again. The food, aside from being expensive, wasn´t exceptional. We were basically paying for the view, which was a patio above the Plaza de Armas (the main plaza in Cusco) and the live music. There was a Peruvian band playing traditional music and dancers wearing various costumes performing. It was a very nice atmosphere. The last song of the night the dancers were dressed head to toe in a colourful outfits and were wearing masks. They went into the crowd and chose people to dance, and lucky me was chosen. For those of you who don´t know, I’m not a dancer and therefore felt as though I was making a fool of myself.
Today, we had pre-booked a tour of the city. We were told to meet outside the tour company and arrived with 10 minutes to spare. The tour company was closed since it is Sunday but we were told that someone would meet us at the time of the tour. 10 minutes went by with nothing, but that’s ok because there is no such thing as punctuality here. Another couple arrived for the tour and waited with us. Half an hour went by and no one showed. I guess we were stood up by the tour company. We are going to go tomorrow to see if we can get our money back.
We also hit up a very traditional market, where we were two of maybe a dozen tourists in the entire building. There were rows and rows of fresh fruit, bread, nuts and handmade products. Sounds great!! Well there were also the rows of rows of raw meat (where they sell absolutely every part of the animal) and rows and rows of unrecognizable and yet to be named items. The back of the market was dedicated to prepared dishes. Peruvians would sit on a bench facing the stand where a woman was cooking something. It appears as though it is very common for Peruvians to go there for lunch. I would probably never eat half of the stuff sold in the market but it was great to look at and we will definitely be going back before we leave Cusco.
Finally I just have to talk about the altitude here. Cusco is at an altitude of 3400m and you can really feel it. I am fortunate because I have not experienced any symptoms of acute altitude sickness. However my dad has a headache but thinks it is slowly going away. Breathing is bit harder and any form of exertion is noticed. Even going up the one flight of stairs to our room I can feel my heart beating faster. My lungs feel as though I have just had a high intensity interval run and at night my breathing rate is higher.
We leave for the Inca trail on Friday and will hopefully get one more post in before hand.
Thanks for reading!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)