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Monday, 22.04.2002: Puno - Cusco
Driving through Juliaca - on the way to Cusco
We left Puno at 8am and got into Cusco - the former capital of the Inca Empire (13th century-1532) - at 2-30pm. This city has some fascinating attractions including the magnificent "Plaza de Armas" and colourful markets and museums. Our hotel was only two blocks away from the Plaza de Armas.
We went for a wander around town and got constantly hassled to buy postcards, tourist crap or get shoes cleaned. It got really on our nerves! So much that we ignored our own group people thinking they were street hawkers too!
Cusco has many cheap and good restaurants. Our favourite one was Los Perros - great cakes, smoothies, fabulous meals and lovely relaxing sofas!
Tuesday, 23.04.2002: Cusco
Helen made a sign saying "No Gracias!" on one side and "Fuck Off" (for the real hard cases!) on the other. It already came into action while we were still sitting at the breakfast table. A woman stood outside the window of the breakfast room and tried to sell sweaters to us. Everyone was shaking their heads but she kept standing there. So Helen lifted up her sign - the woman smiled and walked off. Everyone was laughing.
We went on a 5 hour (!) city tour at 9am. It started to drizzle when we went into the Temple of the Sun. Very impressive! The only remains from the Inca times are the massive outer walls (the Spanish Conquerors built the Santo Domingo church on top of them) and the inner walls of the temple. During the Inca days they were covered in gold (about 2 feet thick!).
Afterwards we went on another guided tour through the main Cathedral (with an impressive silver altar) and the two joining churches. It was not allowed to take photos so we got run over by postcards sellers when we left the churches.
Then we drove out of Cusco to see the Inca fortress of Sacsayhuamán (pronounced Sexy Woman!), the Qenko ruins, another fortress called Puca Pucara and finally Tambo Machay - an ancient Inca bath.
Sacsayhuamán is a walled. The site, at an altitude of 3701 m, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983. It includes its great plaza and its adjacent three massive terrace walls.
The stones used in the construction of these terraces are among the largest used in any building in prehispanic America and display a precision of fitting that is unmatched in the Americas.
The stones are so closely spaced that a single piece of paper will not fit between many of the stones. This precision, combined with the rounded corners of the blocks, the variety of their
interlocking shapes, and the way the walls lean inward, is thought to have helped the ruins survive devastating earthquakes in Cuzco. The longest of three walls is about 400 meters. They are about 6 meters tall.
The estimated volume of stone is over 6,000 cubic meters. Estimates for the weight of the largest limestone block vary from 128 tonnes to almost 200 tonnes.
Cusco - view from Sacsayhuamán
We had no idea that the tour would be so long so we were all getting hungry. At 12-45pm the guide said there were 2 more ruins to see but he held up 3 fingers!!! One guy selling chocolate did really well out of our lot! We bought him out of supplies.
The afternoon was spent with writing emails and buying snacks and other supplies for the upcoming Inca Trail. Our Machu Picchu guide from SAS gave us a detailed briefing at 6-30pm for the 4-day trip. Most of us decided to pay 60 US dollars for a porter to carry sleeping bags and clothes for two people (max. 25kg were allowed). We were given big blue bags to store all the gear in it.
