Arriving in Cusco

Royal Class Bus
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Dec 26, 2005:  We were picked up at our hotel by about 8 AM and taken to the bus terminal.  We boarded an excursion bus to Cusco, with some stops at ruins on the way.  We were to land in Cusco at about 5 pm.

The drive and the landscape was amazing, we enjoyed every bit of it.  We met the Hungarian couples again on this bus.  Kamesh learnt some Hungarian history this time!

Our 1st stop was at the Pukara village.  There was a museum here of pre-Inka pottery.  Pukaras are estimated to have lived in Peru around 500 BC-200 AD.  This was not impressive at all.

At 14000 ft
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Our next stop was at the highest point of our travel.  This was at 4335 metres above sea level, about 14000 ft.   The views from here were beautiful with mountains and clouds in the background.  We then stopped for lunch on the way, and had very good Peruvian food. 

Next, we stopped at the ruins of the temple of Viracocha.  Viracocha is believed to the creator of the universe, and hence the God of Gods.  The Inkas had built this massive structure as a temple for him in the city of Raqchi.  It started to rain as we got down there, but it was not too bad.  This structure was about 92 metres in length, 25 m wide, and quite tall.   They also had priest quarters, residential quarters and storehouses surrounding the temple.   It was pretty impressive, the best of the ruins we had seen so far.

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Next we stopped at a 16th century colonial church at Andahuaylillas depicting St. Peter and St. Paul.  It is a 16th chapel church, was pretty good. 

We then arrived in Cusco at about 430 PM, earlier than scheduled.  Our pickup was not there, and we were a little worried.  Of course, he showed up at about 445 PM, but did not speak any English.  He took us to our hotel, and the receptionist helped us communicate with him!  He said they would call the next day to let us know when they would pick us up for our city tour. 

Temple of Viracocha
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Dec 27, 2005:  Our city tour was not until 130 in the afternoon, so we just lazed around in the morning.  One thing I forgot to mention was that every hotel we stayed at, had wonderful fresh juices for breakfast.   Of course, we had other things for breakfast as well, but fresh pineapple juice, fresh musambi (orange, rather naranja) juice was awesome!

We got a local map of the city and explored Plaza de Armas, and walked around a bit, had lunch and came back to the hotel by 1 PM.  We were promptly picked up at 130 in a pretty big excursion bus.   This was the worst evening in Peru in terms of weather.  It rained all evening and at every stop we made.  But nothing stopped us, and we saw everything we had to, just rushed through it though. The fact that we had little time at Saqsaywaman was the only sore point of our trip. But it was ok, if the bigger picture was taken into account.

Temple of Viracocha
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First, we stopped at a beautiful Spanish Cathedral that had been built on top of Inka foundations.  The Inkas had a good Engineering sense, and their structures are anti-seismic.  In the earthquakes that they have had, the spanish buildings and constructions have fallen, but not the Inka structures.  The Inkas build trapezoidal structures, leaning inward which took the pressure horizontally.  The entire city has Inka walls and it is definitely some beautiful stone work.  It is surprising that the Inkas used no mortar or cement, only concave and convex stones that fit in perfectly well together.

Saqsaywaman
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Next, we went to Qoriqancha, the Temple of the Sun.  Now it is a Santi Dominiga monastery, but was originally the temple of the Sun from the Inka period.  Here, they actually had temples for the sun, moon, rainbow, stars etc.  The Inkas were big into astronomy and had perfectly calculated the winter solstice (June 21 - Remember it is the Southern Hemisphere!) and the summer solstice.  It is interesting that the Inka calendar starts on June 21, and they had 12 months of 3 weeks each, each week with 10 days each.  So, it worked out to be roughly the same!

Tambomachay
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Then we went to Saqsaywaman.  These are Inka ruins, more like a zig-zag fortress lined with beautiful Inka walls, a 3 layer work.  The Inkas believed in 3 worlds - the upper world (heavens) represented by the condor (bird with the biggest wingspan), the present world represented by the Puma (the mountain lion) and the underworld represented by the snake (for wisdom).  In all their works, it is easy to see that they tried to represent the 3 worlds.  This fortress or ruins is in a wonderful landscape and I would have loved to spend more time, had it not been raining.  Some of the stones used in the walls are huge, wonder how they ever transported them there without the concept of the wheel!  There was one big stone, which weighs about 130 tonnes!

Then we went to Puka-pukara, remains of another fortress.  It was ok, not that great!  Bang opposite this place was Tambomachay - the Inka Baths.  They had a good water flow scheme, and apparently the water is drinkable.  It was very rainy then, so we didnt spend too much time there.

Our next and last stop was Q'enko.  These were some caves in a maze.  It is believed to be the temple to Pacha Mama - Mother Earth!  We then returned to our hotels, and were eager for our next days trip - the purpose of our vacation to Peru - MachuPicchu.