Cusco 2 - the tours! - City Tour

Boxing day and we were scheduled to leave on a city tour at 1.30 so the idea was to nip down into town, have a look at a museum, eat and rush (?) back up to the hostel for the afternoon tour. Due to the way we had to pace ourselves we had overestimated how much we could do.

In the morning we went to the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art- an extension of the Larco museum in Lima. This was a museum which concentrated on artistic aspects of artefacts rather than their historical significance. It was rather visually exciting despite the rather artsy-farty over-enthusiastic interpretations on some of the captions. We then did one of our usual tricks of wandering round and round looking for the 'right place' to eat. As a result we didn't really leave ourselves much time to eat and get back up the hill. So full of a rather heavy lunch we attempted the climb. We actually did it in good time but really pushed ourselves physically, needed a lot much pauses to gasp for breath.

It was a waste of time as 1.30 came and went as did 2.00. As the agent was attached to the hostel, Hugo, the owner of the hostel, began to get rather embarrassed and stressed about this and desperately tried to find out what was happening. It seemed that Norberto (the agent) had his phone switched off and the agency knew nothing about our booking!! Eventually, Hugo got through to Norberto and told us he would be there in 10 minutes (now 2.30). 20 minutes later he appeared and it seems that he hadn't even passed on the information to the agency as he thought it was for the next day.

Prior to his arrival, we were both getting steamed up and Anne was saying that we would have our money back and book everything with someone else. Norberto arrived and virtually begged us to get in the car with him and join the tour - missing only the first point. We relented as everyone can make a mistake and maybe it would be okay next time!! We caught up with the tour as they finishing the first stage which was right in the centre of the city and then fitted in.

 The first stage, was Qoricancha, a pretty major Inca temple which had been built over by the Spanish (boo!). We were whisked through there in about 10 minutes and then off to the next site. This was Sacsayhuaman (say 'sexy woman') and is the site where a lot of photographs that appear around the world of a local girl or woman in traditional dress standing in front of typical Inca stonework. It is an amazing site in that it is a continous long line of stones arranged, on a grand scale, in a series of zigzags. It is also an exhibit of the amazing ability of the Incas to work with stone. Some of the blocks of stone weigh around 4 tons  (one of them more than 300 tons) and fit perfectly even though the stones themselves are not perfect squares. Although the site is still amazingly large, it has to be remembered that the Spanish (boo!) demolished the majority of it for their own use.

The central 'parade' ground

The large central parade ground is the area where the summer solstice is celebrated by local people - Inti Raymi (see mask, previous post) or "large tourist spectacle" as Lonely Planet calls it. After here we went to a few smaller places - Q'enqo (zigzag) which contained a number of channels for the draining of blood or chicha (a kind of cider used in ritual ceremonies - you can see this most nights in Northern Peru - a bit like Manchester on Friday nights!). There is also a sacrificial altar (all good sites have to have one so that tour guides can 'threaten' tourists with it!!). Pukapukara was like a little lookout, (for the Spanish? - boo?. No, anyone who was not friendly) and also had some alignment with the sun. This lookout was to defend Tambomachay, a site demonstrating the Inca water cult (and a bit of a walk uphill at the end of a tiring and stressfull day - not to mention the altitude (not that we were unfit!)).

Whoa! I must be 'stoned' on Chicha

altar for sacrificing tourists

Look out! Look out!

Well! Well!

Following the interesting bits, we were taken for a 'demonstration of telling the difference between fake Alpaca and the real thing! This, of course lasted 50 seconds, after which we were invited to inspect and, more to the point, buy some fantastic examples of the real thing! (rant coming!) I must admit that i do not understand these people (happens around the world) -we get dragged to a place that we never asked to go to and get real dirty looks if we don't spend loads of money on something we don't want (rant over)- mind you some people obviously only went for the shopping!!

There had been plenty to see -all (except the shopping!) had been well worth it and we decided that we would make our own tour around Qoricancha. The guide started off okay but, being an academic (always have to be careful of them!) he seemed to think we weren't able to absorb a lot of information and kept repeating himself and talking  v-e-r-y  s-l-o-w-l-y, in Spanish as well as in English.