Cusco and the Sacred Valley

After a last day in Arequipa to work a little bit on the blog, wander around town AND do a little bit of shopping (yes we finally bought ourselves a couple of Peruvian sweaters...), we took the night bus to go to Cusco.

Cusco, the “center of the world”

After an 11 hour bus ride we get to Cucso, the former capital of the Inca empire, located at 11,024 ft altitude. Cusco means “center of the world” in Quecha, indeed during the Inca’s time Cusco was geographically located in the middle of the empire on top of being the capital. Thanks to it’s architectural, cultural and gastronomic wealth, Cusco is a UNESCO World Heritage city. The city is now a mix between Inca remains and colonial buildings.

Cusco is the most touristic city in Peru and we can feel it as soon as we hop off the bus. People jump on us to try to sell us tours to the Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley etc… (Guys! It’s 7am, we just spent 11 hours in a bus, we DO NOT want to talk to you) . Once in the city, we see a lot of tourists, it really changes us from our 3 day trek in solo at the Canyon del Colca.

Cusco will serve as our home base for the next 10 days as we visit the Sacred Valley, the Choquequirao trek and of course the Machu Picchu. But before any of that, we visited the city of Cusco.

Given our early arrival, we dropped off our bags at the hostel and went to our favorite place in each city… the local market! The largest market in Cusco is the market of San Pedro. Quick side note, the market was built by Gustave Eiffel (the guy who also built the Eiffel tower in Paris), he also built the market in Arequipa apparently.

As with all the markets we have visited, we keep being impressed by all that happens in these markets. Even at 8:30 am on a Sunday the market is packed. There are people eating soups (not sure if it’s their breakfast or their lunch already), others selling all kinds of souvenirs, chocolate, fruits and veggies, meat or clothes. Once again you can find about anything you want in these markets.

We stopped by a juice stand and ordered an amazing fresh juice!

After visiting the market we went to the Plaza de Armas, where we noticed that there was a lot of people, some military, and others dressed up to the colors of their college. There is even a small military parade.

Afterwards we learned that they do this every single Sunday to raise the flags. They raise both the Peruvian and Quechuan flag around 10am, hence the packed Plaza de Armas.

Once again we are charmed by the Plaza de Armas, with it’s colonial architecture and two major churches. As with the other Plaza de Armas we have seen so far, a lot of shops, bars and restaurants make it very lively at any time of day.

To learn a little bit more about the city and it’s history we join a Free Walking Tour, as we did in Arequipa. We walk around the Plaza de Armas first before wandering among the charmful little streets of Cusco.

As said above Cusco was the capital of the Inca empire and their people the Quechuans. The empire expanded over 6 different countries : Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chili.

Hence the 6 different colors on the Quechua flag. Since Spain took over Cusco, 80% of the city was demolished. But the shape of the city and some temple remains still remind you of the Inca’s past. A bunch of colonial buildings are built on top of Inca temples foundations.

Quick detour in an old Inca temple to see a lama and a couple of alpacas.

The tour ended in the neighborhood of San Blas, the artsy and trendy neighborhood of Cusco.

On the way we stopped to admire the stone work of the Incas. They built these walls using stones of different sizes all perfectly cut. We are absolutely stunned by the precision these stones fit together. No need for mortar between the stones for these to stick together!

We can actually see the difference between the work of the Inca’s (in the middle of the picture bellow), the Spanish conquistadors (on the right hand side) and a team of archaeologists (on the left hand side) in the year 2000 to try to replicate the Inca’s work. Historians still have no clue how they did it, at the time they had no steel or diamond to cut the stones with such precision. Also they didn’t use wheels or a pulley, so how the hell did they put these heavy stones at the top?

The tour ended at the local market of San Blas, a lot smaller than the San Pedro one but it has its own little charm.

The guide recommends us the Machu Picchu sandwich with avocado, cucumber, tomato, basil, chicken, eggs and cheese. Of course we had to taste and it was huge and tasty! We loved it.

The rest of the afternoon we wandered around town in the San Blas district. Definitely our favorite part of Cusco with its narrow paved roads and cute little restaurants.

The neighborhood offers great views on the city since it is a little bit in the heights of Cusco. It is also a lot less touristic than the historical center and a lot calmer.

Sacred Valley, cradle of the Inca empire

It extends from Pisac to Ollantaytambo and is a must see in the region. The sites offer a magical experience filled with history.

Originally we thought about going to Pisac first and then the second day go to Ollantaytambo, Moray and Maras. But we had to shuffle the schedule a little because of France’s semi final game in the world cup! So we actually went to Ollantaytambo, Maras and Moray first. So that on the second day we could go to Pisac in the morning and be back in Cusco in time for the game (France’s run during this world cup is really making us review our itinerary 😉 ).

Ollantaytambo

We get to Ollantaytambo after an 1h30 bus ride from Cusco. This village about 60 miles north from Cusco is one of the largest Inca fortress and was the last to stand up to the Spanish after Cusco was invaded.

To get to the top you have to climb over 260 steps at over 9,350 ft altitude.

At the top a wonderful scenery awaits us. The view on the village and the surrounding mountains is beautiful.

The site is huge and really well conserved. Ollantaytambo is impressive with all its terraces perfectly built and all these huge stones carved to perfection (as we saw in Cusco the day before).

Unfortunately we are not alone! It’s the first time in 3 weeks that we were with these many groups of tourists. Quite understandable as we mentioned before, Cusco is the most touristic city in Peru, indeed the city draws about 3.5 million tourists each year and only has about 430,000 inhabitants. No wonder we see so many tourists.

After visiting Ollantaytambo we went to Moray and Maras. We were able to negotiate a taxi to bring us to both locations with another French couple, Anne-Sophie and Julien, who we met in the collectivo in Ollantaytambo. They are also doing a trip around the world for a year, but they are on the tail end of theirs. It was awesome meeting them and really fun to spend the afternoon together.

Maras

Maras is well known for it’s salt manufacturing in the mountains. Finding salt manufacturing like this in the middle of the mountains at 9,842 ft altitude is surreal. The different irrigation systems to bring water in one pool and not the other simply using gravity is pretty amazing.

Even more impressive is that these date from before the Incas and can still be used today!

Walking around the different pools is really nice and helps us grasp how huge the site is. Indeed there are over 4,000 different pools in total.

Moray

Located just a few miles away from Maras, the archaeological site of Moray looks a little like an amphitheater. But actually these different terraces served as a research department for the Inca empire.

Indeed each terrace presents a different temperature, so the Incas could try to grow several types of potatoes and corn for example. And they used this site to understand which condition was best for each type of crops.

This place is really unique because it is beautiful but also shows how smart the Incas were.

Pisac

To go to the archaeological site of Pisac, two options: we can either take a cab to the top or walk there. As you guessed we decided to walk there!

Maider promised Matt some rest in Cusco… seems the rest will wait!

But being with all the groups up top really isn’t for us, we rather be alone and take the less popular route. Good call! We were all alone for the hike up. As we get up there we noticed that the groups actually only visit the top ruins and not the bottom ones, looks like we will be all alone hiking back down as well.

At Pisac we find again these terraces that the Incas built and we are always amazed by how good these builders were. 

You have to imagine carving all these stones, bringing them up the steep mountains and putting these together so that they fit perfectly! And these constructions still stand today.

And offer stunning views of the villages and mountains around.

After the 3 hour hike to visit all the ruins we are right on time in Cusco to find a bar where we can enjoy the game. We stop by an American like sports bar and order a burger with some fries! The bar is packed with French people and we even run into Anne-Sophie and Julien, met the day before, with whom we enjoy the game. Together we watch France beat Belgium and get to the Finals!

For our last day in Cusco we were supposed to rest and prepare the Choquequirao trek, but Matt’s health and the weather made us change our plans. Indeed, Matt has been sick all day, a nice little stomach flu… he thought he was strong enough to try the salad that came with the burger the previous day… apparently not (lesson learned, we will stick to meats and rice). Also rain is forecasted for the next few days, rain and cold weather during an 8 day trek… we decided to pass. Talking to Peruvians around they are as surprised as we are, it never rains at this time of the year. Another effect of global warming. Finally we will leave to the Machu Picchu earlier than expected AND be able to catch the World Cup finals :).