Peru 2005: Day 2 — Cusco, Pisac, Ollantaytambo
DAY 2: Cusco, Pisac, Ollantaytambo
Waking up at 3:30am is simply not cool. In order to shower, drink coffee extract and be checked out and on our anteater bus by 4:00am, coolness got tossed. All this to get to the Lima airport and catch a flight into Cusco. The flight to Cusco takes you over the high altitude rugged Andes. The in flight entertainment is hilarious and the food (a mixto sandwich….ham-n-cheese basically) was far better than the American standard salisbury steak al a sodium.
Dropping into the Cusco airport, we circled around a big mountain and landed at a good clip (altitude raises stall speeds). Cusco is at 11,000 feet. Lima is at 0. I was quite light headed as I stood up and stumbled towards baggage claim.
After watching our red-tagged bags get claimed by half-dozen porters, we hoofed it out into the very bright sun and found our bus. En route, a guy was snapping our photos like a madman. Evidently, these entrepreneurs snap photos of everybody heading towards a tour bus. The amazing thing is that they figure out (somehow, mystery) when you are leaving Cusco and meet your bus with developed photos in hand for a few Soles apiece.
We took the bus up over the hills of Cusco and over a few more hills towards the Urubamba River Valley (the Sacred Valley of the Incas). We were in a tour bus, so we were mandated to stop at a tourist-laden overlook and take several photos.
We stopped in Pisac for a little shopping at the Pisac market. Our guide, Miguel, bought us all tasty empanadas and showed us a pen of “free range” guinea pigs. Yes, guinea pigs are a (tasty) delicacy in Peru and this one is even asking to be picked. We had a little time to wander the Pisac market and learn a bit about bartering (as well as getting completely taken) as we found alpaca sweaters, gloves, socks and silver jewelry. Seriously, US$10 for a hand-knit sweater (supposedly alpaca) is a steal regardless! We had to pass on the coca leaf jewelry, though, as the USofA DEA simply does not have a sense of humor about those sorts of things.
After Pisac, most everybody fell asleep en route to lunch at some touristy lunch spot where some local band knocked out Beatles tunes on wood flutes and other traditional Peruvian instruments. Lunch was tasty, however, and we all got some trail instructions (and maps) from our guides.
And then it was on to Ollantaytambo (say it with me: “oy – yan – tie- tam – bow”) where our giant anteater bus managed to clear the thin cobblestone streets by nary a whisker. When the spanish attempted to conquer Ollantaytambo, the city gave them their most embarassing defeats. Turns out the narrow alley ways with the gutter in the middle are only one horse wide and one broken horse ankle deep.
We did get a chance to visit a “traditional” cancha and view the insides of these one-room thatch roof cottages. The Incas preferred (apparently exclusively) one room designs. A cancha was typically a 4 sided enclosed courtyard where the houses lined the outsides of the square. Think of it like a 4 room house turned inside out, actually. This particular cancha example raised cute little dinner on the floor. Seriously, I almost stepped on little babies several times. Every once in awhile all of Kui (say it: “koo – eee”, the Quechuan word for guinea pigs, because that’s the sound the little buggers make) would start their little alien sounding chant in an attempt at mind control or something.
In the cancha, we met a cute little school girl who was determined to practice her english and learn our names. Step-panie and I had a good conversation with her. Turns out my name in Quechuan is Puca (say it: “poo-ka”). Cute, huh? Speaking of cute… wtf, mate?
Then it was time to get a workout. Looking up from the base of the ruins you can see that they have some stairs. Seeing as we were all newcomers to 9100 feet, it took us 3 rest breaks to make it to the top. And the timing was perfect. What a view! Great stone work at the Ollantaytambo site, including some of the later megalithic stone work.
With darkness approaching, we hoofed it down to our hotel for the night. There, we had a chance to grab 30 minutes of sanity before heading to a happy hour in a smoke filled room (chimney didn’t seem to work). I was starting to feel a major headache (remember the lack of coolness that began this day) and very tired. The smoke was killing my eyes and only the Peruvian beer in my hand kept me awake (weird, huh?).
Our first lecture by Professor Rick followed a little while later. A dark room with only a few hours of sleep (some had none) sounded like a great idea. In a true testimony to the inspiring lectures that Professor Rick is capable of delivering, most of the room stayed awake! (the lecture was about the puma shape of Cusco and some of the geological and environmental factors behind the Incas). Then we got the disturbing news about how we would have to pack (tonight being the last night of civilization) for the next few days.
Dinner was a blur and I managed to stay awake and stomach some very heavy food. Immediately after dinner we retired to our drafty (cold) room and I made the foolish attempt at washing some essentials and hanging them up to dry (foolish == stupid).
We slept like rocks in preperation for getting up early the next morning.
