Cusco was the capital of the Incan Empire 500 years ago. Today it’s a city with a population of nearly 400,000 and the bustling hub which hosts 2 million travelers each year as they embark on a countless number of adventures. The most famous is the Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu, which we’ll get to soon enough.
We wandered about the city, trying to book a trip to the Sacred Valley, but found that many businesses were closed on Sunday, or maybe it was just this Sunday as there was some sort of parade happening.
The Plaza de Armas in Cusco is definitely the most impressive we’ve found in Peru. In case you were wondering, the rainbow flag is the flag of the Cusco region, and you see it everywhere.
What do we have here? A double-decker bus tour? Don’t mind if we do.
The tour started out a bit odd, we circled the Plaza de Armas and the surrounding blocks a few times and weren’t really sure when the tour was actually starting.
Pretty soon we began winding our way through Cusco’s many neighborhoods, past parks and churches, and around statues.
We hadn’t done much research, or asked many questions, so we didn’t really know what we were going to see on this bus tour. After seeing the highlights of the center of the city, we began to wind up the hillside.
From here we could see how sprawling of a city Cusco is, but we were also in for another sight.
The Christo Blanco (White Christ) is a 82 foot tall statue modeled after the one in Rio de Janeiro. It was a gift to the city in 1945 from a group of Christian Palestinians who sought refuge in Cusco.
The bus dropped us off in the Plaza de Armas and Kate and I decided it was dinner time. The book, Turn Right at Machu Picchu had recommended Cross Keys Pub, so we decided to give it a try. It was empty, but they had Delirium on tap, the food was good, and the 49ers game was on. At the top of the stairs there is a pretty interesting scrap book of South American expeditions.
Monday morning we hit the ATM (for your information, at the time of this writing Scotiabank ATMs do not charge a fee) and walked down to the Peru Treks office to pay the balance for our Inca Trail trek. Peru Treks requires that you pay a deposit via PayPal when you book the trek, and the balance in cash 2 days in advance. This ensures that you are in Cusco for at least a couple days to acclimate to the altitude before starting the trek. We met a few people that would be on our trek, and learned some last minute details about the itinerary.
After we took care of business, we decided to walk up to Sacsaywamán, a huge and important archeological complex on the hill overlooking Cusco. “Walk up to” is a huge understatement, as it felt like one set of stairs after another, after another.
The Sacsaywamán ruins would probably have been some of the most impressive, if we were here in the early 1500s. Only approximately 20% of the original structure remains. Most of it was demolished by the Spaniards in order to build the catholic churches and other colonial buildings in Cusco. The remaining stonework was amazing. Some of the granite stones were easily twice as tall as I am, and fit absolutely perfectly with the neighboring stones.
After this expedition, we retired for the night. We were off on another adventure in the morning.
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