Cuzco and Macchu Picchu

We left Lima and flew to Cuzco on the first leg of our journey.

Cuzco was quite a culture shock to me.  When we left the airport we were driven by taxi and arrived at the most lovely and clean town featuring a beautiful square with steps leading to a magnificent church at one end and flowers all around in tubs.  It really reminded me of somewhere in England, Stratford Upon Avon or Worcester, it is very pretty with lots of expansive and rather majestic white architecture.  When we first arrived, we noticed that many people were moving around quite slowly but it didn`t register with us initially, why this was.  After just a day though the high altitude really hits home and I began to feel extremely unwell.  This is why it is sensible to move slowly in Cuzco, it helps to conserve energy.

Coca tea is a mild stimulant and is from the same plant that we obtain cocaine from.  It`s given to visitors to Cuzco and some other parts of south America, to help to stem altitude sickness.  It didn`t do a thing for me and it tastes bitter, like green tea but my companion drank it in huge amounts until he was absolutely wired.   By day two, I was so pukey I took myself to the chemist who suggested I take anti-allergy medicine and that did work, thank goodness.   Altitude sickness is horrible and relentless and sadly coca tea is being discouraged now, because of it`s potentially harmful effects.  I think it`s a shame because it is an ancient tradition and it isn`t as if we are all going to come home and become cocaine addicts!

Around the square in Cuzco you will find lots of shoe-shine boys.  Many of them wear balaclavas to hide their identity as it is considered shameful to be in such a lowly position.  Most of them are street children who are simply earning money to stay alive but as in Lima, the police often raid them and take away their shoe shine boxes and their means of earning enough to eat.  It`s a cruel world for so many children.

We took the train from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes which is the small town that sits at the foot of the mountain where Maccu Picchu is situated.  I have to say, the train journey was spectacular running alongside the jungle and the fast flowing, white water Vilcanota river, also known as the Urubamba river if you happen to be Spanish.   It`s a thrilling journey with many twists and turns and you can lean out of the window and see the whole length of the train ahead of you on the wide curves of train track.   Machu Picchu lay hidden from the world for a long time because its location is so remote and hard to get to. It was discovered by an American explorer, Hiram Bingham in 1911.  It`s located high up on a mountainside and Aguas Calientes is down in the valley beside the river.  It takes a bus about 20 minutes to climb the narrow, steep zig-zagging dirt track that connects the two.  I found the journey absolutely terrifying.  By the time we got to where Maccu Picchu sits, the river looked like a thread of cotton hundreds of feet below us but the back drop of the jungle clambering up the mountains which were all around us was well worth the trip, I was staggered at the beauty of it, it is totally awe inspiring and breath taking and I will never forget that journey.

Maccu Picchu is an ancient Inca site built in the fourteen hundreds and is probably a sacred and religious site although this has not been proven.  It`s thought that several hundred people lived there and it is visited by so many tourists now, there are serious concerns about preserving the site so I am glad I was lucky enough to go when I did.  I was stunned to find scrillions of mossies so high up the mountain and got loads of bites there.  I wondered how the Inca`s coped and was amazed to witness how developed a people they were, with clever channels built all around the site providing fresh running water.  It reminded me a bit of Pompei in how advanced the culture was all those centuries ago.

When we went back down to Aguas Calientes, we visited the famous hot springs there for a dip but there were a lot of people already in the water and it looked so murky and uninviting, we decided to skip that idea!   We went for something to eat, more fish stew but very nice and stayed for a day before returning by train to Cuzco, ready to move on to Bolivia.

It was dark as we travelled back.  At one point I looked up and saw a huge forest fire burning all across the mountainside…..

Peru and its capital, Lima.

The sign on the border stretches across a gateway into the city, “Welcome to Peru.”  We arrived at night and were immediately accosted by people trying to sell us money, US dollars to be precise but we had already been warned about counterfiet money from street traders so we waited until the following day and bought dollars from a hotel.  We had landed in the capital, Lima and had planned to stop a few days before travelling to Cusco and on to Machu Picchu.

Lima is situated in a valley so as you explore the city, which is very beautiful with wide boulevards everywhere which initially feel very European,  you can look up the slopes of the mountainsides to see shanty towns stretching up and around, on every side.  The divisions between rich and poor are shocking to say the least and quite literally all around you.  Poverty in the shanty towns is unbelievable and there are many hundreds of street children in Lima.  They have been abandoned by their families who cannot afford to feed them and lots of them live in the sewers of Lima and come up to street level in the day to beg for money.  Street children are referred to locally as pirhana and they are considered the lowest of the low.  They are often exploited, abused and killed by all sorts of people including, (it is well documented,) the police.  This is the downside of travel, when you get to the nitty gritty and understand how harsh and cruel life can be for many people and children who share this world.  I just wanted to take all of them home with me and maybe when I retire I can do something constructive to help a few.

The infra structure of Peru and indeed lots of south America is still very underdeveloped so the sewage systems can`t cope with toilet paper.  The first thing you notice is that all of the toilets, even in the hotels have bins for you to dispose of your toilet tissue and it is considered highly irresponsible to flush it down the loo.  Whilst this may be manageable in the larger hotels, in street toilets it definitely isn`t and without going into detail, it can be pretty off putting.

It isn`t all doom and gloom though. Lima`s architecture is influenced by a lot of European styles and also African, Andean and Asian culture so the buildings are large and colourful and very varied.  Peru was invaded by the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1500`s.  This piece of ancient history facilitated the Monty Python team in creating that now famous sketch about the Spanish inquisition.  Prior to the invasion, Peru had been Inca and it is possible to visit Catholic churches which have been built on top of Inca temples and view the amazing art work.  In one church I saw a centuries old painting of The Last Supper where Jesus, surrounded by his disciples is just about to tuck into a plate of roast guinea pig.

Peru`s food is delicious, we ate lots of fresh fish stews and fresh vegetables but beware of drinking bottled water from street sellers as it is often tap water just being put in to used bottles and you will get a stomach bug for sure.

It is in Peru you first notice the head gear worn by many women.  Little bowler hats which announce that they are married, they are a status symbol.  You can pay a dollar and have your picture taken with women in national costume, they are everywhere, clutching the reins on llamas waiting to be photographed, their brown and crinkly faces smiling at their visitors.  The women sell brightly coloured blankets, knitted hats and scarves.  You know the hats, all the kids here wear them in winter, they have long knitted plaits hanging from just beneath the ear

We only spent three days in Lima, the pollution was so overwhelming it was making us feel sick so we decided to move on to Cusco to start our journey to the legendary Maccu Picchu.  Cusco was to be a challenge as it is very high up and we knew we would most likely suffer from altitude sickness.  Nothing really prepares you for the physical effects of being so elevated though, more of that in my next blog.

My most enduring memory of visiting Lima, I had gone out walking with my camera on my own.  I wanted to photograph some of the shanty towns sprawling up the mountainside.  I was crossing over a large bridge which spanned a dry river bed on my way up a hillside and suddenly a man in a suit literally ran up to me, dragging me back across the bridge in the direction I`d come from, shouting at me in Spanish.  My Spanish isn`t all that good but I did manage to get the gist of it, he was shouting,

“Go back to your hotel, are you mad?  You will get robbed or killed if you stray over here, –  go back!!”

Sorry Lima, but you aren`t a city I would hurry to return to…..