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Cusco and Lima

We are off to China tomorrow, so I gotta wrap up our Andean trip.

After coming back from Machu Picchu, we spent another day in Cusco, wondering around. We also did a tour of the city which included Qoricancha - the royal and ceremonial complex that was turned into a monastery and had some amazingly meticulous stonework - and some of the sites around Cusco, such as Sacsayhuaman (the guides suggest "Sexy Woman" as a mnemonic) which was composed of some rather impressive bolders.

   
    
    
   

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Next day we flew to Lima, which was a lot more modern and less interesting, but still had a few surprizes, which included a pile of skulls laid out in concentric circles in the crypt of one of the churches, a Chinatown and a piramyd in the middle of a boring residential district.

   
   
    
    

[slideshow] [album 1] [album 2]

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Ollantaytambo and Chincheras

On the way back from Machu Picchu we stopped to explore Ollantaytambo, one of the few Inca fortress where the Incas actually fought battles with the Spanish and the only one where they won. (Manco Inca Yupanqui who became an Inca with Pizarro's blessing soon after the murder of Atahualpa, eventually got tired of being a puppet and rebelled against the Spanish. He faught them at Sacsayhuaman near Cusco, then retreated to Ollantaytambo, held it over a few battles, then retreated to Vilcabamba down in the jungles, past Machu Picchu.) Unlike Machu Picchu, which is very pretty but didn't impress me as a fortress, Ollantaytambo actually feels like a place where one could defend oneself.

    
   
   
    

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Another interesting thing about Ollantaytambo was that the current town (village?) still preserves much of the original Inca architecture. One after another, you pass doorways made of massive stones that are merely people's houses, supposedly built back during the Inca time. It is strange to see people living in buildings parts of which are more than 500 years old.

   

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After Ollantaytambo we headed back to Cusco by bus, stopping on the way at Chinchero. Chinchero had more ruins and a cathedral, but we were tired by then, so we only looked briefly and got back on the bus for Cusco.

   

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Machu Picchu

I need to finish the Bolivia / Peru story before we end up going to Russia, so I will start going through the remaining pictures briefly. After Pisac we made our way to Ollantaytambo by regular bus, from where we were hoping to catch an inconvenient but cheap (US$20 each way) train to Machu Picchu. The tickets for that train were sold out, however, so we ended up having to buy tickets for a more expensive train (paying a total of about $70 for the round trip) for the next morning. We showed up in "the town incorrectly known as Aguas Caliente" (they now prefer to be known as "Municipality of Machu Picchu") early next morning (it's 1-2 hours from Ollantaytambo) and immediately took a bus up to Machu Picchu.

    
    
   
    

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Machu Picchu was by far the most beautiful sight we encountered on our trip, surpassing even the best photos of it that I had seen before. The beauty of the place makes it easy to see why this relatively unimportant Inca fortress has captured the imagination of the whole world and why so many myths have been created about it. (The history of Machu Picchu pales in comparison with the views: it was a fortress contstructed in 15th century by the Incas to guard the road into the jungle. That's pretty much all that is known about it.)

I took literally hundreds of pictures at Machu Picchu, so if you want more, there are two more albums: More of Machu Picchu and A trail to the Inca Draw Bridge.

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Pisac and the Sacred Valley

On our second day after arriving to Cusco, we started on a trip of the sacred valley. The Sacred Valley ("Vale Sagrado") is carved by Rio Urubamba, which starts somewhere not too far from Cusco. As it moves away from Cusco the valley lowers in elevation, eventually dropping into Amazonia where the Urubamba joins the Amazon river and eventually makes its way to the Atlantic. The sacred valley was the heartland of the Inca Empire and is covered with numerous ruins, the most notable of them being Pisaq, Ollantaytamo and Machu Picchu. From Cusco, one can take a bus to Pisaq (about 1,5 hours), then another bus to Ollantaytambo (2 hours). From there, there are only two ways to continue to Machu Picchu - a ridiculously expensive train or a guided trek (The Inca Trail - even more expensive).

We started with a bus ride to Pisaq, where we stopped at a colorful Sunday market:

   

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Afterwards, we negotiated a taxi ride up to Pisac ruins. Pisac ruins are supposed to be amongst he most extensive in the area, some people say more so than Machu Picchu.

   
   
    

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The pictures show two types of stonework: the more simple piling up of stones used for fortifications and residences vs. the perfectly fitting carved stones used for the temples.

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Inca History Primer

Before continuing with photos of the Sacred Valley, a few words about the Inca Empire. It is amazing how people believe all sorts of stuff about the Incas, including tourists we encountered there in Peru. It is painful to see an American tourist standing on Inca ruins expressing his convictions that those were thousands years old. If he is paying $1000 or more for the trip, should he find time to read at least the Wikipedia article on the Inca Empire?

So, despite the common misconception, the Inca Empire appeared not so long ago, and didn't last all that long. The early state around Cusco (or "Qosqo") goes back to about 13th century, but until around 1438 CE it was a fairly small kingdom. In 1438 CE the Cusqueños got nearly wiped out by a neighboring tribe, and after coming out victorious started massive expansion under leadership of a legendary Inca Pachacutec ("world-changer" in Quechua). The three Incas after Pachacutec continued the expansion, building by 1520s an empire that occupied half of Peru, half of Bolivia, half of Chile, most of Ecuador and a good chunk of Argentina. Right at that time, however, Pizarro showed up with two hundred Spaniards, arranged a meeting with the Inca Atahualpa and captured him. The fact that Atahualpa was not a pure-blood Cusqueño and had just fought a bitter civil war with another pure-blood prince, killing much of the Inca nobility in the process, probably did not help him. As a result, the Spanish basically took over the Inca Empire without fighting.

NB: the word "Inca" refers not to the residents of the Empire but to its rulers. I.e., sort of like if we said "the Empire of the Tsars," we wouldn't mean to say that people who live their are all tsars. The empire was also never referred as the "Inca" empire at the time of the Incas, but was rather called "Tawantin Suyu" in Quechua, meaning "the four regions."

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First Day in Cusco

We were planning to leave Puno on at 3:00 bus which was supposed to get us to Cusco by 9. We got bumped to a 4 p.m. bus, which then ended up taking 9 hours instead of 6: the driver stopped at absolutely every opportunity, either for a snack or for a smoke, despite the fact that the whole bus would stamp their feet and curse him out loud. We showed up in Cusco at 1 a.m. We did not want to spend much time wondering in Cusco at night, so we picked a hotel from a guide book, and decided that we'll just stay there. (This didn't stop us from negotiating the price down from US$20 to US$16.) Hotel Incawasi where we stayed turned out to be reasonably nice and was in a great location right on Plaza del Armas (every Peruvian city has a Plaza del Armas). As it turned out, we were the only people staying there the whole time we were there.

We spent the next day walking around Cusco, admiring Inca stonework and amusing "mestizo" artwork showing a mix of Spanish and Andean traditions - e.g. a painting of the Last Supper with a guinea pig as the main course (speaking of which, I got to try roasted guinea pig in Puno).

   
    

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In the afternoon, we went to a traditional restaurant (found in the book) and the continued up to San Bla neighborhood to the church of San Bla, which had a very impressive pulpit carved out of wood.

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Puno and Islas Flotantes

After a long delay, I will try to pick up the story about our Andean trip and hopefully get it finished this time.

After crossing the border into Peru near Copacabana, we continued on a bus to Puno (another 2 or 3 hours). Puno was strikingly different from Bolivia. Peru is hardly a rich country, but in comparison to Bolivia, it felt strangely developed. E.g., while every other Bolivian seemed to miss about half of their teeth (partly from chewing coca, I believe), most Peruvians we saw (in Puno as well as later in Cusco and in Lima) seemed to have most of their missing teeth replaced with artificial ones. Not quite the same as having natural teeth (as is the case for most Brazilians), but definitely a step in the direction of "development." A surprising number of people spoke English, which they typically used to try to sell us something or to lure us into their restaurants. This constant harassment (you literally can't make a step without someone shouting "Amigo!" to you), has been the most annoying thing about Peru. It seemed entertaining for a short time but got tiresome quickly and we remembered with nostalgia the more mellow Bolivia.

We got up early next morning and spent some time wondering around Puno, looking at the cathedral, among other things.

    

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Our main event of the day, however, was a strip to the Floating Islands of the Uros (Islas Flotantes de los Uros). As we've been told by other travelers we met earlier, "It's all horribly commercialized, but you've gotta see it because you aren't going to see anything like this anywhere else in the world." I think this turned out to be an accurate description.

A few centuries ago the Uros - a small ethnic group that used to be distinct from the majority Aymara population - decided to escape harassment by the Spanish colonists (or, same say, by the Incas), by moving permanently onto artificial islands floating in lake Titicaca. The islands are constructed from local reed (called "totora"), and require constant re-building as they rot from the bottom. Some people still live on the islands (in tiny reed huts), fishing and raising local birds. There is increasing integration with the near-by Puno, however. (E.g., children go to middle-school and high-school in Puno, though there is actually an elementary school on one of the islands.) It was also interesting to see how some new materials are integrated into old traditions. E.g., the totora boats are not tied together with nylon ropes (which dramatically increases their longevity) and are given extra buoyancy by empty plastic bottles. (The islands themselves are also increasingly relying on plastic bottles for flotation.)

    
   
   

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Copacabana

After some Rio distractions, let's get back to the Bolivia/Peru trip...

After Isla del Sol we came back to Copacabana. While a lot less known than the Copacabana beach in Rio, Bolivian town of Copacabana is the original source of the name, which derives from Ayamara "copa cahuana" ("lake view"). In 16th century a converted decendant of an Inca carved a statue of Mary, and soon numerous miracles were reported. The statue became known as "the Lady of Candelaria" or "our Lady of Copacabana" and a large cathedral was later built to house it. (You can see piictures of the Virgin here.) The Lady of Copacabana has come to be seen as one of the most important Christian relics in Latin America and a patron saint of Bolivia. In 17th century the Church of Our Lady of Copacabana was constructed in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro ("Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Copacabana"), which gave the name to the main street of the neighborhood ("Avenida de Nossa Senhora de Copacabana", often shortened to "Nossa Senhora"), which later spread to the neighborhood itself, and then also to the beach.

   
    

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After a quick look at the Cathedral and some shopping (Copacabana was overflowing with street vendors and we wanted to stock up on Andean souvenirs before going to Peru), we got on the bus to Puno, Peru. The border crossing came up shortly after leaving Copacabana. We were instructed to get off the bus, pick up a Bolivian exit stamp on the Bolivian side, cross over on foot and get a Peruvian stamp there. While doing all that we could also observe the natives crossing the border (with no formalities, it seemed), some of them pushing carts with quite a bit of "imported" cargo.

   
   

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After that it was about 3 hours on the bus until Puno, across Peruvian country side, which, surprisingly, was immediately quite different from Bolivia. (More on this later.)

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Isla del Sol

After 4 hours on the bus and an 1.5 hours on a boat we finally got to Isla del Sol, which some people think is the most beautiful place in Bolivia. Isla del Sol also features prominently in Inca legends, according to which the Sun itself was born here and later gave birth to the first Inca, who travelled from here until stopping in Cusco.

    
   
   

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After arriving to the southern end of Isla del Sol the visitor is greeted with "the Inca Staircase", which climbs about 50 meters up, from where you continue on a windy trail to a village of Yumani. Altogether, you get to climb 200 meters before reaching the main part of the village. At this altitude, even without heavy backpacks such a hike would be quite a challenge, so we were exhausted before reaching the top of the hill. As a result, we ended up giving up on the hotel that was recommended to us by backpackers we met in Sucre, and settling for one about 30 meters lower, where for US$5 we got a room with a gorgeous view and an unfullfilled promise of hot water in a shared bathroom.

After leaving our backpacks, we went to explore the island, looking for "Pilka Kaina" ruins. Finding it was a little tricky, and when we asked local kids which way it was, they refused to say unless we hired one of them to take us there. We ended up agreeing to get a guide for Bs.10. (We originally bargained it down to Bs.5, but it turned out to be a longer walk than we expected, so I gave him Bs.10, which is what he asked for originally.)

Next morning we watched sunrise from our room, then got breakfast at one of the hotels nearby (our served breakfast too, but we were pissed at them for lying to us about hot water). After that we took a boat to the north side of the islands, explored a larger ruin site there, and then walked across the island along picturesque but really long "Inca Road" (about 3 hours).

   
   
   
   

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After returning to Yumani in the south we barely made it to the last boat to Copacabana.

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From La Paz to Isla del Sol

After two days in La Paz we took a morning bus to Copacabana, which went north from La Paz to lake Titicaca and then started on a windy trip along the lake. At one point the road ended and we had to cross the Straights of Taquini. Our bus got loaded on a ferry, while we had to take a boat. On one side of Taquini we also saw one of the offices of Bolivian Navy.

After arriving to Copacabana we made reservations for a trip to Puno two days later and then barely caught the last boat to Isla del Sol, leaving sightseeing of Copacabana till another day.

   
   
   

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