The long overnight bus to Cuzco went smoothly and when I arrived I was immediately greeted with clouds and rain.
Immediately as I began to near the city centre in the taxi I knew this was a different city than any of the others I had been in. There was a certain atmosphere that surrounds this area. Built in a valley of mountains, sitting at around 3,300 metres above sea level, the houses and buildings creep up the mountain sides from expansion. The city is claimed to be shaped as a Puma and was designed that way by the Incan people who chose this city and area to be their capital approximately 500 - 600 years ago. The legend has it that the first Inca King and Queen emerged from the sacred Lago Titicaca and searched the lands for the best earth to begin their civilization. Cuzco was this place.
Their decision was well-founded. To date it is the most naturally rich area that I have visited. Trees cover the surrounding hills and mountains as well as many rivers. One of these rivers being the Great and Sacred Urubamba river which flows down the length of the Sacred Valley a few dozen kilometres away. They say the Urubamba was for the Incans as was the Nile for the Egyptians.
Being even higher in the mountains most recommend that one does very little for the first 2 days of his or her travels to Cuzco to acclimatize. I, on the other hand, ran around the city with Xavi, my Spanish friend, correction, Catalan friend (they get quite offended being mistaken for the other). We were trying to figure out the best way to do everything and manage our time and money. We achieved this by walking around all the agencies and finding the best prices on things, in the end it saved us a lot of money!
The first activity we did 2 days later was a mountain biking trek through the country side to arrive at Moray arquiological? site. Moray meaning circle in the old Quechua language (Incan Official Language, still spoken in many parts of Peru and Bolivia). Here at Moray are circular terraces carved into the walls of a valley like large steps. It is said to have been used for plant experamentation. Each level that you go down, the temperature is said to drop by a few degrees, likely the amount of water exposure changes as well. Look for pictures online if you want a visual. After this we proceeded to do some relatively hard-core biking through the mountains. Biking down steep, rocky roads with shitty breaks and cliffs descending ominously to my left. It was exciting/scarry at time. Good fun while leaving me quite exhausted by the end!
The drive back to Cuzco was in a Combi (A tiny local bus). These buses are cheap and crammed to the brim with people. If there is any space what so ever, more will come on. I had an old lady that was too old and weak to stand and within seconds she was pretty much nestling into my lap. It is over an hour drive back to Cuzco, I was hoping she would get off before then... 10 minutes in I had remembered I had some cake in my pocket, I quickly gave up on that, oh well, tasted like crap anyway. Looking at this woman sitting on my lap and can not help but wonder how old she is. There is not a spot on her face that escapes the wrinkles. Her mouth is an empty expanse that closes in on itself, likely from the lose of so many teeth. She wears tradition, colourful peruvian dress, with an off-white sort of top hat that is too small so it sits on the top of her head. The head is hard, and looks like its made of plaster, its painted. The paint is old and beginning to crack and break resembling the wrinkles on her face. I cant help but remember what Rob, one of my friends, said while walking around the streets of Arequipa, ¨I never want to get old¨. All these things aside, this womans hair is all black, retaining all colour. The streets of Peru are filled with women that look exactly like this one directly on top of me. My leg is beginning to go numb now. These women usually carry around everything inside large colourful bags that they tie around their neck and are always bent half over carrying the load, giving them a nice hump-back, likely after several years of living this way and working in the field. These women continue to work and are often the bosses of the communities and the towns. It is normal for them to live to ages of 85 and 90 years of age and remaining extremely strong in some cases. I was told this was because of what they eat, the high proteins and nutrients that fill the aweful tasting food that they eat daily, as well as the sacred coca leaf, which takes away feelings of hunger, fatigue and sickness.
The next day I drove in a bus back to the Valle Sagraodo to have a more extensive experience there. I found it to be an extremely peaceful area, rich red soil along with the sacred, brown waters of the Urubamba are the reason for many small towns to be built up around the area. As well as Inca cities before them. The walls of the valley are steep and green, the temperature is warm, although rain and thunderstorms are common daily occurances, for at least a few minutes. Here in the Sacred Valley we took a bus to the various Inca ruins within. Many areas of the valley walls are covered in terraces similar to those at more Moray although are much larger and continue for many levels, around 700 they said... The amazing thing about the best inca ruins are that they are all up on hills, on crests where the view below can be easily seen. This was mainly for defense and to protect against flooding from the river. The best Inca ruins in the valley, at Ollantaytambo are made of many large stones of almost 60 - 90 tonnes. All of which were dragged over mountains for miles from the quarry to this specific important spot to build a temple. These stones would be pulled by 900 to 1000 people and take almost 4 months before 1 stone would arrive at its destination. Insanse......... These enormous stones would then be shaped to fit perfectly together almost as a puzzle. An impressive sight.
By the end of the day I understood why this valley was considererd sacred. I could spend much longer than 1 day there.
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