In the ¨Navel¨ of the World

There she is, Machu Picchu
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The Inca empire stretched from Southern Columbia to Northen Argentina and Chile, it´s capital was Cusco, or Qosqo in Quechua, which means the navel of the world.

It´s not quite the center of the world anymore, but there is a definite pulsing energy here. The place has a vibe and it´s not just the hundreds of Inca ruins in and around the city, it´s also the people, the nightlife, the whole scene.

Eating guinea pig, dancing, and absorbing energy

Machu Again
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During the day the surrounding mountains are vivid green, the sky at this time of year pure blue with powder puff clouds. At night the stars are really bright, the city lights are a strange mixture of white, orange, and blue.

Anyway it´s clear that I love the place, and I have definitely loved my time here.

My first week here I spent playing a pure tourist with Brad, an Aussie with whom I became very good friends throughout our travels. We visited all the museums and ruins in the city itself, toured many of the ruins in the Sacred Valley, the ruins being anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 hours away from Cusco. After that we went to the market at Pisaq, where the hundreds of stalls of goods offer a seemingly never ending monotony. Yes, that´s correct, most people would call the market of Pisaq world-class, but we quickly discovered that every single person there was offering the exact same things. After this we learned that it proved easy to amuse ourselves by doing two things, first asking the people if they had made all these things by hand, for which a typical conversation went like this (translated of course):

Me on Waynu Picchu, overlooking the site
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Us: ¿Do you make these things by hand?

them: Yes of course, everything is done by hand.

Us: you mean for example (pick an item) usually a poncho or wallet you made this?

them: yes of course, it took a long time too

More Machu
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us: after looking for manufacturing marks (which we found occasionaly), then why does he (point to next stall) have the exact same things?

them: well we all make our own products by hand, and so on and so forth. Then names an outrageously high price. Which when we walk over to his neighbor is half, and when we bargain to actually buy is about a tenth of the original price without even trying hard.

Anyway, we also stayed at a 150 bed hostel where the people had one goal. Celebrate their impending Inca trail hike, or celebrate their successful completion of said hike.

The Inca Bridge
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It translated to a hardcore partying atmosphere, going to bars, and clubs (the clubs here hand out free drink cards to get to come in), and several of the people who do this are now my friends. The only problem with this lifestyle is that we continued to get up early to do things-after 4 days of this I had had enough and switched hostels, only going to the old hostel to hang out with people at night.

The best day of my trip, and the best day that I can remember really, occured when I spent an entire day with a Shaman. She led me through healing exercises, meditation, and self-discovery which radically altered my ways of thinkin-it didn´t hurt that we were in a tiny tiny valley the Incas had valued above all others for the incredible energy that eminates here. It would be impossible to attempt to describe this day, and as well it is not necessary.

Inca Terraces at Machu Picchu
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Two days after this, having gotten to know several local cafes really well, having gone to every discoteca in the centre, and being generally ready for a change. Brad and I went to Machu Pîcchu.

Machu Picchu

Well, it was expensive to get too, expensive to enter, full of tourists, and despite all of this still very very wonderful and beautiful. Due to it´s reputation as one of the world´s premier tourist destinations, Machu Picchu was absolutely full of people, I mean I got there at 5 in the morning and it was still chock full. It wasn´t even the best day for the site, as the fog only lifted occasionally for a few minutes at most to reveal stunning panoramas of the river valley thousands of meters below, and the jungle clad peaks sticking their heads up out of the clouds. Nevertheless Machu Picchu managed to stay impressive as an archaeological site of course, but to me the surrounding landscapes and the tremendous energy concentrated in the area are what made the site so fabulous.

Inca trail, THROUGH the mountain
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I took the train at 6 15 in the morning out of Cusco, and after 4 hours of endless switchbacks, squished into seats sharing the leg space with the person in front of me (whom I had no choice but to awkwardly alternate between staring at them and avoiding staring at them), I arrived at Aguas Calientes, the town in the valley below Machu Picchu. I decided to spend the night there, walking to a nature reserve nearby, where the only wildlife I saw was an annoying little bird that took pleasure in dive-bombing as close to my face as possible (I wonder how he learned that behavior, which actually was quite entertaining), and a bunch of insects. I followed this by walking to the nearby hot springs, which were extremely dirty and not even an optimist would have called thé water hot. But the area surrounding the town made up for any annoyance at the touristy feel. The next morning I got up at 3 30 to walk up in the dark to Machu Picchu, and entered the site.

Machu Picchu, from Huayna Picchu
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At the site I spent most of my time playing two games. Game number 1 was called, try to find a quite spot in Machu Picchu. I would say that I played this game quite well by walking to La Puenta Inca (The Inca Bridge), and getting to the huayna picchu/Wayna picchu/Temple of the Moon walk as soon as it opened. The walk up to Wayna Picchu was a solid hour and a half straight up Inca stairs carved out of the rock, at times so steep that I had to pull myself up using the guide wires. At the end I was wondering how insane the Incas were, but the views from the top were amazing. I then found an old abandoned trail and walked down to the Temple of the moon on this trail, only to find that I had descended several thousand meters almost to the river valley, and had to walk all the way back up to Machu Picchu proper.

Machu Picchu with the Watchmans Tower
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The second game I played was get a complete tour of Machu Picchu by the tour guides without paying. At first I played the game by tailing tour groups for a bit, catching the explanations of different places in the site. After that I would sit in a place contemplating the views until a tour group came along-loud voices disturbing the tranquility. After limited success this way I decided that I didn´t really want or need a tour of the site anyway and went to sit on a bench overlooking the site, where it so happened a woman was getting an explanation of the entire site by her private tour guide. Tao methodology at work.

The Watchmans Tower
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In conclusion, the Inca´s were absolutely genius, and maybe just a little bit crazy. The stones that they had brought from the surrounding mountains to Machu Picchu (which means old mountain) were of baffling size and quantity, and nothing could posses me to drag them up the mountain...on the other hand the result is most impressive, and one cannot deny the energy the entire place exudes.

Cusco- Part II

My second stay in Cusco was a more relaxed kind of time. I took Spanish classes in the morning, spent a few hours each afternoon volunteering in a school/orphanage for street kids in Cusco, and the nights hanging out with people I met at the hostel. I really enjoyed the week and left Cusco feeling really really relaxed. The bus ride out was stunning, we wound through rain then sun then rain again into the mountains. Soon however the sun set and I was treated to a naseous 14 hour bus ride to Nasca.