“There are a few cities in the world with deep roots and utter magic clear on the surface.” – Old Sean
The Night Bus
I’ll hand this to Peru. When they want buses to be comfortable, they pull out all the stops. TV, reclining chairs, curtain separators, leg room, bathrooms and a distinct lack of blaring music.
I boarded a night bus leaving Nazca, loading my things into the lower portion of a double-decker behemoth. My compatriot passengers trundled off to their seats and after a brief safety announcement, lights were dimmed and chairs were leaned back. Only the side lights on the bus allowed us to see a few feet into the pitch darkness to our sides.
I found the faux leather seats fairly hot and sticky, so most of my night was spent shifting about until morning finally began crawling over the horizon. On said horizon, mountains loomed. Great highland towers of tectonic stone curled around the sky, covered in short, verdant scrub. A long flat river kept pace aside our vehicle as we continued towards my most anticipated destination in Peru: Cusco.
An Intro to Cusco
While all of Peru is a somewhat notorious hotbed for tourism, the gem of tourism in the country is undoubtedly Cusco. Hoards of backpackers, hikers, trekkers, travelers, and gringos throng this large city to access every tourism fix imaginable.
However, when the bus started rolling into Cusco, I was somewhat repulsed. The outer buildings coming down from the mountains were no different than other impoverished Latin American cities. Shamble-shack brick buildings, uneven pavement, a spawn of dog turds and cluttered garbage in independent puddles.
Fortunately, the city drastically improved on the way in. The capital of the Incan’s incredible mountain-fortress and sun-vital empire has a modicum of class.
There are two “centers” to Cusco. The first one is where first impressions are made. This is the transportation hub following the main roads within Cusco and passing by the local airport and bus station.
But the real action is slightly north, near Cusco’s Plaza De La Armas. This is where the tourism truly takes off, with a façade of cathedrals on every corner, large bouquets of flowers sprawling on the surface of greenery, tons of narrow allies with pedestrians marching about and dozens of tourism promotion shops.
Here, there are hawkers of every manner. Women offer cheap massages for hikers back from treks. Men with large portfolio binders open them to try to catch a person’s eye, often offering drugs when the answer is no.
Squads of green and black clad police stand in lines behind riot shields on corners. The usual beggars take up their segment of the city, and shoe-shiners point eagerly at feet scuffing on pavement. Pan pipe players find their own corners with amplifiers and there is no space over fifteen feet that isn’t totally crammed with people doing their best to sell something.
Most of these are actually quite pleasant and helpful people, eager to pass out directions, even if their services or goods aren’t needed. The exceptions are the men who carry the large art portfolios, promoting themselves as canvas artists.
The paintings they show are truly beautiful (and a lot are copies of one another) but they’ll follow tourists around with questions, offers and compliments if anyone engages in the slightest. If a person engages for any period of time, they’ll subtly offer drugs and other recreational substances. Everyone else in the plaza gets a brief, “No, gracias,” as I walk past. But this particular brand of salesmen deserves a complete avoidance of eye-contact and a total stance of ignoring.
A Night in Cusco
I spent my first night in Cusco wandering the streets near the central Plaza, snacking on small treats, visiting the interior of bars and restaurants to see the décor. If there’s two things Cusco does extremely well, it’s setting up a cohesive and distinct vibe inside all of their above-average eateries and making narrow cobbled streets that I adore walking through.
I had dinner in a neon-lit restaurant, where large jugs of liquid were backlit as de-facto neon signs, while glancing over my maps. I had Cusco planned extremely thoughouly. There are a rediculous number of attractions and tourist hot spots in Cusco that clogs the city with activities. I knew from the beginning of my visit, I wouldn’t manage to complete everything on my list. But upon returning to my noisy little hotel, I decided day one would be my city exploration day.
Exploring Cusco
The following morning, I turned myself a shade whiter with sunscreen and started walking.
I purposely started my trip in the somewhat southern portion of Cusco, walking through the San Pedro Market. This large warehouse is crammed with locals buying goods, forcing people into narrow passageways to look at all the city specialties. I bought a juice and some breakfast while walking around, but the majority of my time was spent looking at all the colored corn drying in front of stalls.
Once I had explored the stalls a bit, I managed to kill enough time that other tourist hotspots were opening up. I first made a of visiting Museo de Sitio Qorikancha and it’s gorgeous neighbor, Qorikancha. The large temple was once among the most important religious sites of the Incan sun-worshiping culture. Named as “The Golden Enclosure” the zone was an important point of convergence for religious purposes. Naturally, the structure was a bit too powerful of a religious icon once the Spanish rolled in, so it was dismantled somewhat and rebuilt as the Church of Santa Domingo. While the foundations and grounds and location are purely Incan, the interior is so aggressively European, it’s a bit startling. Qorikancha has a very comprehensive display of European-style religious artworks in it’s inner hallways, that capture the diminished light in stunning, somewhat overwhelming displays. Photos are strictly forbidden throughout the site, presumably to prevent camera flashes from damaging the delicate and ancient artworks.
The most interesting thing regarding Qorikancha and it’s numerous surrounding sites is the “design of the puma.” One major and well-backed archeological theory is that the Incan’s built the major points of their civilization in Cusco to mimic the shape of a puma when viewed from above. Qorikancha is the center heart of the design.
Art of a Nation
I should mention at this point, Cusco has many wonderful museums around it’s old town area. Museo de Arte Popular hosts Incan-influenced creative artworks, while the Regional Historical Museum of Cusco covers broad sweeps of the area’s varied history. The Museum of Contemporary Art of the Municipality of Cusco shows off modern pieces and Museo Inka is a Incan museum specifically dedicated to the very prevalent Incan culture in force around Cusco.
I didn’t visit any of them. I was feeling restless and wanted to move. My surplus time was over in Cusco before I blinked twice.
Instead, I ended up hiking through the Central Plaza de Armas area, shaking off art-toting men who were immune to pointed hints and began working my uphill towards the Acueducto de Sapantiana.
Once a person gets outside of the Central area of Cusco, the land becomes rather steep and climbing is the name of the game. I walked thorugh various narrow roads as other foot traffic dropped away, eventually reaching the aqueduct. It’s a pretty (though slightly smelly) piece of architecture, with numerous rising arches and a pretty staircase of trickling water. It no longer serves it’s original function, but it’s a nice part of the city to glance at.
The Unburied Fortress
From the Acueducto de Sapantiana, I pushed on to my first major tourist park, Saqsaywaman.
Entrance to Saqsaywaman and other major Incan attractions nearby the city are covered by an all-encompassing ten-day long ticket that allows access to all sites. This ticket is called the Boleto Turistico del Cusco and it covers a whole span of touristy sites. These tickets cannot be purchased online, but they can be purchased a tourism building in Central Cusco or one of the major attractions. Saqsaywaman is where I purchased mine.
Saqsaywaman is a heavy hike uphill with beautiful views overlooking Cusco. In the far distance, the Peru coat of arms (found on local coins, this is a shield with a llama, the local amancae herbal leaf and a Capricornia) is carved into the side of a hill, towering over red-shingled roofs. Dogs curl up in sunspots and the occasional pile of garbage in the street doesn’t wholly detract from an otherwise impeccable beauty.
Reaching Saqsaywaman is interesting as well. Here, the bases unmolested Incan ruins stand tall and proud, a double fortress with utterly vast grey stones defying elements for the remainder of time.
Fun Facts About Saqsaywaman
The “Royal Eagle” temple is constructed of these interlocking stones which are resistant to earthquakes and incorporates itself smoothly into the natural hilltop landscape. Anyone familiar with visiting the Incan civilization on foot will quickly realize that the nation had a deep love for heights and a slight aversion for valleys.
When visiting Incan military, religious, and community strongholds, altitude adjustment is likely a safe bet. Saqsaywaman is the largest of the Incan fortifications in the area and holds the double honor of being the “Puma’s Head” if the theory regarding the overall shape of Inca’s Cusco holds true.
Like most of Incan architecture, the fortress is diminished from it’s original splendor thanks to the Spanish. Post-conquistador colonizers used a fair portion of the stones for their own cities and the ruins were purposely buried at some point to prevent Incan gruella fighters from gaining a cultural and military stronghold. The fortress was used exactly as this when the Spaniards took over Cusco at some point and were enveloped in an extended siege.
I don’t spend much time in tours in my life, since I rather dislike them as a rule. But I can eavesdrop with my one ear as well as anyone.
The Outer Sights of Cusco
Saqsaywaman isn’t a stand-alone feature of the park. There’s also the nearby Explanada Park, the nearby hill sporting more ruins and Muyuq Marka, which are carefully organized housing ruins within the fortress.
Unfortunately, due to COVID, certain parts of the ruins are roped off. The vast majority of visitors hang out below, on the long plain of short green grass. Radadero, a large rock slide worked into the Incan architecture is also roped off and impossible to get to without being somewhat defiant and sneaky.
Within walking distance of the ruins, there are a few more interesting attractions. First, is Mirador desde el Cristo Blanco, or simply Cristo Blanco. This huge, perfectly white statue of Jesus Christ can be seen from virtually anywhere in the city, with the arms spread in similar solidarity with it’s more famous cousin overlooking Rio. The statue was a gift from Islam refugees who were granted asylum in Cusco after World War II.
Further along, in the same area are more of the huge grey Incan stone superstructures, called Qhalispuqyo, (which I’ll likely go through life never saying aloud, so disorienting is the pronunciation). It is here that the forests of the Cusco highlands start cropping up.
Countryside of Cusco
Eucalyptus trees grow proud, straight and rediculously tall along mountain ridges, tinging the air with their strangely invigorating scent. They overlook the Cusco stadium far below and foot trails wind through the shrub-less ground level. The forest can be experienced even further through the free entry Bosque de Eucaliptos de K’enko to the north. It’s quite, peaceful and the rustling of leaves far above overcomes even the slight winds outside of Cusco. The forest is also a pseudo-gateway to the footrails to the north of Cusco.
These foot trails are muddy messes where locals try to convince tourists to trot around on horses, or large herds of sheep gather and munch with the utmost freedom a free-range allows. Dogs, placid and always cheerful to receive a few pets, jog about on the extreme landscape. There isn’t a very good written guide for this part of Cusco, and only locals can provide in-depth information.
Indeed, these locals kind of operate like NPC’s in a video game. They simply hang out in temples, atop large stones and within valleys, passing out information for those who wander along.
Distant Temples
Out here, I managed to discover the Temple Archaologischer Platz (a sort of cave holy chamber), the low walls of Chukimarka, the valley oversight of Chuspiyoq and the very famous Templo de la Luna (along with it’s nearby Templo de Los Manos).
These freeform temples are actually naturally occurring features carved, reinforced and incorperated into the Incan structure. I found my guide, a long haired man who spoke in a resonant, calming voice, atop the Templo de la Luna.
He discussed the energies of the place, the geometry of the structures and pulled out the Chakana, colloquially known as an Incan Cross. The cross is based on the Southern Cross Constellation and was a vital part of Incan symbiology, which had no written language beyond their icons.
A lot of the knowledge behind the Chakana is based in mystical intuition and emotionally wisdom-based thought patterns. The cross ended up describing emotional states of being, a spiritual map for unconscious and collective development and an actual geographic mapping device that can be used in conjunction with physical Incan strongholds along specific linear lines.
Overall, the tour was one of the more bizarre and wildly engaging conversations I’ve ever had in Spanish.
The site was heavily eroded, but the man pointed out the various stones carved to perfectly align with angles of the moon and sun, as well as the rest of the city. The truly nice thing about this area is the lack of tourists. It was largely quiet and I was granted entire valleys and horizons to myself.
Incan Complexes
The next thing my all-encompassing Cusco Ticket earned me was entrance into the Q’enco Archaeological Complex. A great heap of stones surrounded by more artificial-looking structures, the interior of the boulders and unique design, is somewhat strange as far as mysteries go.
It’s believed to be a huacas, a holy place of human and llama sacrifices and mummifications. Huacas generally enhanced naturally-occurring landscapes. The aforementioned temples in the previous paragraphs are such structures.
It was at this point, hours of walking gumption began to simmer down. I was tired, with the “T” gradually becoming capital. Instead of hiking to the next site, I coughed up two soles (roughly $0.66 USD) and caught a bus to the next series of fortresses. Again, the Cusco Tourism Ticket earned me entrance, and I found myself atop Puka Pukara (Red Fortress) Archaeological Complex as rain began to hammer down.
Now, with a waterproof backpack, umbrella and quick-dry clothing, I generally get to ignore the rain while my tourist contemporaries are forced back into shelters, or at least forced to cling to walls to evade the worst of a downpour.
It was a worthy time to wander, since the hills and mountains the fortress overlooks are rippled with patterns, looping off into the distance. The sporadic light of heavy clouds only enhances the view.
The walls of the fortress are very odd when compared to most Incan architecture, since the stones are irregular and pressed together in an odd manner. The most dominant theory for the somewhat mysterious fort is that the structure was at least partially a military presence to help prevent mischief from the trade routes below.
Millennial Resorts
Directly across the road is another access point for the Tourist Pass. Tambomachay is a structure found in a dwindling valley filled with llamas, hawkers selling wares, thin goat-paths on cliffsides and tiny waterfalls and creeks filling constructed pools.
There are canals, pools, aqueducts and terraced rock dams to add to visual effects. The area is good for waterfall photos in particular and once served as an elite bathhouse for the Incan world. There are many trails branching out from the main site, but they don’t really go anywhere. However, they do give some stunning views over the ruins for the intrepid.
At this point, I was utterly burnt and everything was on the verge of closing. A good rule of thumb for the attractions around Cusco is that everything opens around eight and is closed by 5 PM. I caught a long and slow bus heading back to the city, stopping briefly in the twilight to stop at the Monumento Inca Pachacutec, which shows the powerful ruler atop a giant pillar of interlocking stones. (Pachacutec was Sapa Inca of the Cusco Kingdom and the man responsible for forging it into the expansive and astounding Incan Empire).
I settled into a quiet nook for the rest of my night, typing and bit and practicing a bit of Spanish. My time in Cusco is terribly limited, and I knew I had been pushing myself excessively for my first day. Regardless, I planned another route south for the next morning.
A Wari Site
When I woke up in the morning, I put on my travel gear and went hunting for a bus station that would take me to Urcos. The reason I was heading this direction was because the Urcos route has several things I was desperately interested in seeing, including an Ent Park, a Dinosaur tourist attraction, the Pikillaqta ruins, the Rumicolca ruins and a pleasant lagoon or two.
The bus was somewhat slow, partially because a security checkpoint required all the locals to pull out their ID’s, but we eventually made it to Pikillaqta, where I, a sole gringo, hopped off.
I started walking the long dirt road towards a somewhat droll wall coming down a slight hill the distance. I stopped at the check in and flashed my ever-useful Boleto Turistico del Cusco pass and was immediately held up while I played with six newborn kittens tottering around the building.
Created from red stones stacked in low walls, Pikillaqta (translated as Flea Town) is not of Incan design at all. Instead, it was created by the Wari people, who preferred cities in low valleys.
And this was an enormous, dominating city which influenced the surrounding villages heavily. When I walked up to those red walls and climbed to the top, I was shocked at the sprawl of crushed and ancient buildings that once made up a veritable ancient supercity. The land was an utter maze of stone ruins and a large lagoon lounged in the distance.
Construction workers, carefully propping up metal poles and gradually rising low walls labored under a cloudy sky. Fairly little is known about the Wari people, but their grandest ruins and old capital are around Ayacucho. There were no tour guides for me to eavesdrop on here, so I mostly enjoyed the scenery instead of picking up on odd facts.
Red Valley Gate
Nearby (and with free entry) is another example of Wari infrastructure, Rumicolca. The structure either operated as an entrance gate point from the valley and into Pikillaqta or an aqueduct. Regardless, the structure is in extremely good shape and makes for a nice viewing point when overlooking the rest of the valley.
Happy with my time, I managed to walk along the road until I found another bus back the opposite direction. I had hoped to stop at Parque de Dinosaurios Oropesa, because old, worn-down dinosaur statues speak to me in a way I doubt I could ever properly express. However, the location is currently closed with somewhat extended COVID restrictions, so I continued on to Tipon.
This was, and remains, a difficult upward hike. Tipon is a fifteenth century archeology park outside of a small town with the same name. The park is the pinnacle of Incan hydraulic architecture culture, since it has perfectly designed canals, water channels, terraced levels and irrigation systems.
I probably should’ve spent longer here, but two utterly enormous tour groups absolutely swamped the place about ten minutes after I arrived, and I scampered away to seek out serenity elsewhere. As I left, three more tour collectivos (transport vans) pulled in, disgorging more tourists.
The Entmarch
My next stop was, unequivocally, my favorite. I love ruins, but at some point, visiting Incan ruins is sort of like visiting churches in Europe. Unless you’re trained in the culture, a lot of them seem to start looking the same.
However, Bosque Natural Recreativo de los Ents was a very welcome and creative deviation from the norm.
Ent Park, located in the northern part of the small town Saylla, takes a bit of time to walk to, through a rather unremarkable town. But the Ent Park itself is an amusement feature atop a steep dirt hill. The area is reclaimed forests and a recycled mountainside. But the main appeal is the stunningly realistic Ent sculptures, stooping directly forth from the pages of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
The artist (who I got to meet) wanted to do something artistic with the local flora while recovering the mountainside, and created a thin patch of Ent-Wood to overlook his town. With splendid views of the city, the artist has recreated Treebeard, numerous other Ents, a wooden head of Smaug, the Wargs Nuan and Luan, the ferocious spider Shelob, from wood, both living and dead.
There are also nods to popular culture, including a wooden Optimus Prime (looking extremely rustic, ha) and two versions of Groot. The artist has also erected an enormous Groot statue in Saylla in a park called Humedal de Huasao.
I preferred the Ent Park over Humedal de Huasao, since the Ent theme appealed to me, and Humedal de Huasao was a bit more of a hodge-podge of artworks. There were striking snakes, mermaids, large gulls, giant toads and a few other things. At the end of the day, the Ent Park had a better theme and higher-quality work.
I had a riot running around the two parks. Nothing has given me greater pleasure in a long while, and, to be honest, my life has a well-above-average amount of gratification and fulfillment.
Deep Carved Mountains
I returned to Cusco for a brief rest and fortifying coffee, eating my lunch at the park-like vegetarian restaurant, Green Point. It was here I finally met my first friend in town, a young woman named Ale, who had an English level equivalent to my Spanish.
Together, as sunset encroached, we went to Morada de los Dioses on the West side of Cusco. This park is accessible with a pretty cheap ride via Uber.
Morada de los Dioses is a modern sculpture park made popular to social media and excellent stonework. The park is a dedication to the center of nature (the Pachamama – Mother Earth), the Puma (a symbol of the mortal world and it’s mechanics), with various faces of Incans, men, gods and deities.
The park isn’t an archeological site, but a contemporary outdoor art experience crafted by Michael de Titan Monteagudo Mejia. The site is beyond cool, and an Instagram content creator’s dream. Huge figures protrude from deep cliff faces, curl around interior tunnels and across sharp edges. The site isn’t limited to rock carving.
Sky-lodges fly into the air with beautifully treated wood pressed into unique designs and houses. Free-standing scultures of Incan warlords, famous folk heroes, crouched old women holding backpacks of living plants and local animals dot the entire mountain.
As the sun dips, the entire experience is enhanced tenfold in golden light. I generally don’t get very many decent photos of myself (since I’m clinically non-photogenic) but Ale has made a career of photography. So now I have myself looking dramatic and artistic (with the sole exception being the photo I insisted on near a giant stone penis, where my body is bent in an agony of vanished confidence).
North of Cusco
We walked the dirt road back to Cusco for an hour in twilight, ensuring to catch a bus the rest of the way home. We ended up in Plaza de Armas once more, this time getting dinner from a swanky little Italian joint called Carpe Diem.
The following day, I met up with Ale, this time heading north. We had originally intended to reach Parque de la Papas, an immersive volunteer experience where over 400 different species of potatoes are stewarded, but the park requires 48 hours notice and their online number didn’t work terribly well. So instead we stopped at the Cochahuasi Animal Sanctuary.
The sanctuary focuses primarily on animals native to Peru. There are poofy-faced monkeys, lean alpacas, energetic llamas, sleepy pumas, seated Andes bears and the stars of the park, several enormous Andean Condors. Unfortunately, I didn’t exactly enjoy the visit.
With the exception of the Condors and Llamas, most of the animal residencies are a bit too small for me to look at comfortably. Don’t get me wrong, the workers were passionately feeding, cleaning and educating the guests about the animals, but the lodgings left something to be desired.
We ended up going a bit father north, quickly learning that my next preferred stop, Awana Kancha was closed due to COVID for the time being. Further north, we visited Pasic, and spent some time rambling around the ruins.
The Traveler’s Joke
In traveling circles, we have a running joke:
Religion is pretty important when traveling.
In Asia I wandered and saw hundreds of giant buddhas. I can’t stand to look at another.
So I went to the Middle East and saw thousands of mosques. I don’t want to visit another.
So I went to Europe and saw untold numbers of churches. I’m sick of looking at churches.
So I went to America and saw half a trillion McDonalds. How exhausting.
However, for visiting Peru, there might be an upper threshold for visiting Incan Ruins. By the time I was in Pasic, I wasn’t enjoying the interlocked boulder structures quite as much and returning to town was a long walk through the upper plains around Cusco. Ale and I stopped for dinner at Hanz Craft and Beer Restaurant where we both ordered some alpaca. It’s a uniquely springy texture, but not a strong flavor. I liked it and it was a nice experience to cross off the bucket list.
It is at this point, I’m resting. I took separate trips to Puno and Machu Picchu, which will be the subjects of other posts. But for now, I’m still in Cusco, just walking the city and making plans. A surge of work has kept me somewhat rooted. But it’s fair to say, I’ve done a fair chunk of my bucket list.
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written November 20th 2021
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