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Sacred Valley

After Suaita we returned to Bogota for a couple of days, and then took off for our travels in Peru.
The flight to Lima was OK but I got a bit sick towards the end. I’d already been a bit wobbly in Bogota, so maybe I had a bug that finally surfaced… Thankgod for pukebags in the plane. Afterwards I felt much much better.

We started for a couple of days in Lima, to catch up with our Peruvian “Tokyo-friend” Gina. She left Japan about 2 years ago and needless to say it was fantastic to see her again.

Must say that Lima itself isn’t too impressive though. It’s dusty, grey, and full of traffic and car fumes. Even worse than in Colombia. Honking taxis driving me crazy! The weather didn’t particularly help either I guess, because it was cold and overcast. The city has potential, as there’s some areas with beautiful colonial architecture. But it’s all covered with non-artistic graffity, and people just dump garbage everywhere. Not to forget the fact that most men seem to think that just anywhere is a public toilet. Eeeeeeuw (sorry men, us women are really not to blame here). Such a shame.

Anyway, Cusco was next, again we flew there. One step closer to the almighty Machu Picchu. Cold at night but warm during the day, Cusco is situated at 3400m above sea level, in the Sacred Valley of the Incas (Urubamba Valley). It’s nice and green and mountainous. The people there speak Quechua and Spanish. The city is small and friendly, showing an interesting mix of colonial and Inca streets and buildings. Plenty of tourists to be found here, and throughout our stay in Peru we got bombarded with all kinds of handicrafts, paintings and music. No shortage of ‘omiyage’ here. Just limited space in our bags for this neverending flood of souvenirs, heh.

The first day we took it easy to acclamitize to the altitude. After arriving at the airport we negotiated with a taxi driver to take us to town for 10 soles, and show us some hostels. We found that this is the best way to get orientated. As it turned out, the taxi driver also was a member of the police force, and ownes a travel agency. How practical. Once checked in into the hotel, we did something that I usually try to avoid: we signed up for a couple of organised day tours. You know, with one of those tourist buses where the guide makes you hop from one place to the other. hahaha.
At night we visited the local theatre for a performance of the local folklore, music and dance. Nice to hear and see, lovely colourful customes. It would have been better if the musicians didn’t look so bored. The music is a bit repetitive, maybe that’s why. ...Salsa is more fun.

Next day we had the tour of the city, visiting a museum in town; Sacsayhuaman, temple of the sun; and Tambo Machay, the sacred bathing place for the rulers. Funny that it was on this second day that we felt out of breath by doing nothing. It hit us with delay. Other than wishing we had a bottle of oxigen at our disposal we didn’t suffer from headaches or fainting, so it wasn’t too bad.

The day after was for a tour of the Sacred Valley. We hopped from Cusco to the handicraft market in Pisac (there’s impressive ruins as well but the tour didn’t take us there), to the ruins in Ollantaytambo to lunch in Urubamba, to another market in Chinchero, back to Cusco. Every place has some inca history to offer. Incredible to see and hear about the ways of the Incas. They were the creme de la creme of architects, astrologists, and engineers.
The Spaniards should have stuck around and learn from them, instead of bargin in and stealing and destroying the empire!

The Incas also developed incredible techniques for textile. Originally all made from llama, alpaca or wool. Spinned, died and woven by hand. Died with 100% natural dye, made of insects and plants. These days sometimes mixed with synthetics, and by help of machines.
Especially in Cusco and Pisac you can find the best mantas. Really nice to see that the women still use the manta’s to carry anything on their back, from kids to food, to other goods. It seems such a simple solution: pop the baby on your back an go on about whatever it is that you’re doing. Those kids seem always content and comfy and warm, with mum at hands-reach. Have seen few kids cry.

There’s more to write about the inca empire but will leave that to the next entry (Machu Picchu!).
Taking the day tours turned out OK. It was a good solution to see a lot in few days and get an idea of what’s out there. The tour offered an overview but there’s much more time to spend to really enjoy and appreciate these places to the fullest. The Cusco Visitor Ticket we got, easily covers the entrance fee to all of them. If there’s ever a next time, we’ll plan to have an additional week to spend. Then we’ll hire a car and make our own tour back to most of the towns and ruines we visited.

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