In the land of the Inkas

After a lovely yet short reunion with Julie and Thibault in Puno, I took an 8 hour bus ride to Cusco and so far, it was the nicest trip I had. There were plenty of space and the scenery was incredible – it beat the scenery going from Santiago to Buenos Aires.
At the central square, Plaza de Armas, I met up with Catherine who had just arrived from a beautiful and hard 5 day trek in the south of Chile, Patagonia. It had been so hard on her knee that she almost couldn’t walk down stairs. When we planned the trip in October/November we both wanted to do the 4 day trek on the Inka trail to Machu Picchu (which you have to buy months in advance), but when we saw the prices (300 dollars was the cheapest) we agreed not to do it. And how lucky were we considering the state of Catherine’s knee. 

We had a whole week to explore Cusco, visit Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and the nearby ruins of Sacsayhuaman, so we decided to start off light with exploring the city. Cusco center is very lovely with a mixture of Inka and colonial architecture.

Narrow street in Cusco

The light breaking through the raincloud on Plaza de Armas

Despite it being very touristic I absolutely loved it. We were there just before Christmas (from the 16^th to the 23^rd of December) and decorations started coming up. The weather was a mixture of sun and rain – when it rained  it got rather cold, so I slowly started getting in the Christmas mood. That peaked on a rainy day when we stopped at a café for shelter and I ordered what mistakenly tasted like gløgg, which is hot red wine with spices and orange that you drink for Christmas in Denmark. At that particular moment I missed Denmark and Christmas, but the rest of the time I didn’t miss the fuss Christmas always is back-home.

View from the Puca Pucara ruins

One day we talked up to the Sacayhuman ruins. Walking around there we bumped into a tourist group only consisting of two Peruvian guys and their very enthusiastic guide. The guide started asked us if we would mind being in a photo with the two Peruvians. The two guys didn’t say anything – I wondered if they ever actually wanted a photo with us hahaha. Kind of the same thing happened to Tom and I in Copacabana. We were sitting at the dock when a group of about 10 Bolivians asked if they could take a photo with us. I think we ended up being in a photo with every single one of them. That has happened before in Egypt and China, but I never expected it to happen here since they seem more used to “blondes”/foreigners. When we continued to the Quenqo ruins, the two Peruvians had “escaped” their guide and asked if we should go together. We went to Puca Pucara and Tambomachay as well. Afterwards we walked down which took about 2 hours – one of the guys told us about the “interesting” food you can get in Peru. Not only do they serve guinea pig, but he had also tried getting cat served! 

Then finally the big day came: the 20^th of December, where we were going to Machu Picchu. You have to buy the entrance tickets days in advance according to what you want to see. We had considered buying not only for the ruins but as well to climbing Huayna Picchu (the mountain that you see in every picture of Machu Picchu). But Catherine’s knee was still bad so we just bought for the ruins. We had bought an early train that took 3 hours making its way through a beautiful mountain pass. We finally arrived at Machu Picchu at around 11 AM and we had the return ticket at 4 PM. To climb Huayna Picchu you need at least 2 hours and to see the ruins you need another 2 hours, including transport down to the train station, so we realized how lucky we had been not buying the entrance ticket for Huayna Picchu as well – we would never had made it all.

Well, the Machu Picchu ruins are difficult to describe. I can for sure say that it is the most breathtaking and unbelievable thing I have ever seen in my life (note: I have been to the Great Wall in China and the Pyramids in Egypt). It is so awe-inspiring that humans have built a city in between mountains. My eyes couldn't fixate on one thing and they were almost “spinning around” to take it all in. A Dutch girl in Isla del Sol had told me that you don’t need to go to Machu Picchu, you can just see it on picture. That is so not true!! (but here is one

Machu Picchu ruins with Huayna Picchu mountain

We didn’t have perfect weather, it shifted from raining to cloudy, but either way it was spectacular and more than worth the while and money. And then when you learn more about the place and the Inkas in general it becomes even more impressive. An example is their astrology knowledge and how they used it when constructing buildings. In Machu Picchu there is a “P” temple where the sun light enters a window and lights up a stone only on the 21^st of June and December – the shift from rainy season to dry season and vice-versa. In Quenqo they have cut a stone that only on the 21^st of June gives the shape of a condor on a wall. Another thing that impressed me is the fact that the Inka buildings are earthquake proof. Machu Picchu still stands and during the devastating 1650 earthquake in Cusco many “modern” colonial building while the Inka buildings still stand. 

Just before getting "attacked"

After two and half hour tour around the ruins, two kind of odd things happened. First, a woman  asked me if I was “that girl from Australia’s Next Top Model”. “No, I am from Denmark and NOT a model” hahaha. Next, I wanted a picture with a lama so I decided to feed one with an apple. I kept a good distance since I am scared of lamas and such. Catherine succeeded getting one shot of me before the apple fell out of my hand and rolled down the hill. Me thinking “that was that” I didn’t pay attention to the lama before suddenly seeing its head right next to mine. Everything from that point on happened in slow motion but according to Catherine in reality quite fast and in a highly entertaining way. As said I just saw a lama coming towards me so my “survival” instinct took over and I started running down the small stone steps screaming “FUCK, fuck, Fuck, FUUUCK” in front of a crowd of people that originally had gather to see the feeding of the lama. They were now in for some heavy swearing on my side – UPS! Both Catherine and I wished that she had gotten a video of the episode.

The last two days we spend seeing the city – we went to the exciting market in San Pedro market where you could get anything from vegetables, meat and cheese to chocolate, flowers, clothes. 

Flowers at the San Pedro market

We just settled for a fresh and delicious juice. The last day we saw Sacred Valley with an organized tour group. Once again the Inka constructions impressed us, but the favorite part (just like at Tiahuanaco) was the scenery. People had warned us about going in December because it is the rainy season, but this meant that the landscape was  brilliantly green (as you can see in the photo from Puca Pucara. We saw about five rainbows when returning from the Valley to Cusco. I tried getting it on camera. Another advantage about going in the rainy season is that it is the low season which means fewer tourists and thereby lower prices. So I wouldn’t warn people about going at that time of year – I would actually recommend it.

Rainbow :)

I left Cusco the 23^rd of December for Santiago to celebrate Christmas and say my final goodbye to Chile….