Cusco

The week I had in Peru earlier this month was a real adventure - every day was filled with incredible places and experiences. It took quite a bit of time and effort to organise the trip, so I feel really happy that it all went to plan, and I got to discover all the sights I'd dreamed of seeing. There's going to be several blog posts to cover all the different parts of the trip, but I'm going to start with this one about Cusco, which was my main base for the week.

Cusco is the capital of the region of the same name, and was also the main city in the Inca empire, which covered a territory across the whole of Peru, and parts of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. It was one of the places I was most looking forward to visiting during my trip, because of its history and architecture - many of the old Inca structures still remain in the city, and there are also plenty of elaborate buildings from the colonial era too.

In the early evening on the first day of my trip, I arrived at my hotel, Ayenda Estancia San Pedro, which is located in a traditional building built around a courtyard. I really liked this hotel, as it had all the comforts of a modern hotel but also the unique charm you get from some hostels.

Shortly after arriving, I went out to find somewhere to eat and ended up nearly getting run over a couple of times trying to use zebra crossings. The streets were absolutely chaotic - full of the noise of various buskers, people selling things, and cars beeping their horns - and in general, the rules of the road (such as pedestrians having the right of way at zebra crossings) were completely ignored.

But on the other hand, the architecture of the city was even more beautiful than I'd expected - there was an ornate church or old building on every street, including Iglesia de San Pedro, which was just a few metres from my hotel.

For my supper, I had a very nice avocado salad and a fruit smoothie at Parada Vegana. It was definitely appreciated after a day of living off mostly crisps and biscuits on planes and in airports! And I also loved how pretty it looked with the edible flowers on top!

The next morning I woke up bright and early, ready for a morning of exploring the city on foot before going on a guided tour in the afternoon. (One of the nice things about coming to Peru from Chile is that there's a two-hour time difference, but not much difference in terms of longitude, so the sun rises and sets much earlier, making it really easy to get up and go to bed early.) 

First I went to the tourist information centre on Avenida El Sol to buy the Boleto Turístico Integral: this costs 130 soles (around 32 dollars) and is required if you want to visit the different archaeological sites in Cusco and the surrounding area. The ticket lasts for 10 days and gives you entry to 16 different sites: four of which are on the outskirts of the city itself and which I visited during the guided tour of Cusco I took. There are also another four sites which I visited during the Sacred Valley and Maras & Moray tours I did on subsequent days. The other eight sites include a couple of archaeological sites some distance away and some museums in Cusco, which I didn't find the time to visit. But overall, I feel like seeing eight incredible Inca sites for 32 dollars was pretty good value.

After buying my ticket, I went to Plaza de Armas, the city's main square and one of its most iconic sites, thanks to its two grand churches, Catedral de Cusco and Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús. The square is huge and very well looked after - Peru in general does an excellent job of looking after its public spaces, which is something my boyfriend Claudio and I noticed during our trip to the city of Tacna in the far south of the country in June this year.

I had watched various documentaries and read lots of articles about Cusco and the surrounding area before my trip, and wanted to take a few moments just to sit and contemplate this sight that I'd seen so many times on a screen and which was now right in front of my eyes. However, it was impossible to sit down on a bench for any length of time without being drawn into a sales pitch. In fact, when walking around the city as an obviously foreign tourist, you are constantly being approached and asked to buy things, which is something I hadn't experienced in any of the other Latin American cities I'd previously visited, and I found it a bit overwhelming and exhausting. I have to admit that I even spent an hour of that first morning sitting in a certain US chain café with free WiFi, for a bit of respite from the chaos of Cusco.

Afterwards I did a bit more exploring, seeing some more sights including the Twelve Angled Stone, which was part of an Inca palace, and an important example of the civilisation's fine stonework. It wasn't possible to get a photo of it, as the street was very narrow and crowded, but I was glad to see it.

I also had a look around the San Blas neighbourhood, which is very much under maintenance at the moment, but still quite picturesque.

Then I had a very tasty lunch of vegan ceviche at Avocado restaurant. It was made with avocado and mango, which I wasn't expecting to like, because usually I'm not too keen on fruit in savoury dishes, but it was really nice! I also had a smoothie with avocado in, which I liked a lot, as a big avocado fan!

Then at 13:00, it was finally time for the city tour! I booked this tour through Denomades, a South American tour provider, and only spent 38 dollars in total on the three tours that I did, two of which were several hours long (Cusco and Maras & Moray) and one of which was a full day (Sacred Valley). So it was really great value!

The Cusco tour started at the cathedral, which we had to pay 25 soles to enter (a bit more than 6 dollars). The interior of the cathedral is really breathtaking - it's very opulent and is almost completely covered in gold. Photography is not allowed, so I tried my best to really take it all in so that I could keep it in my memory for the future!

The cathedral has many religious paintings, including a depiction of the Last Supper. Our guide explained that the indigenous artists were banned from practicing their religions, but they managed to include small references to it in their paintings which went undetected by the Spanish colonisers.

It was a beautiful and fascinating place to visit, as was the next stop along the tour: Koricancha, which cost 15 soles to enter (a little under 4 dollars).

Koricancha is also known as Coricancha, Qorikancha and Qurikancha, and was the most important temple of the Inca empire. The Spanish built the Santo Domingo convent on top of it, but there is still quite a lot of the original structure remaining.

The walls were made using the technique of cutting stones so they fit together exactly, which is how you know that it was an important building, as the Incas used mud and bricks to build the walls of non-important buildings. Inside you can see some of the old rooms of the temple, a model of how it used to look, and a replica of a gold artwork dedicated to the sun god, Inti. You can also look out over Jardín Sagrado (sacred garden) just below the temple.

I actually came back to Jardín Sagrado two days later on a free afternoon, as I wanted to see Koricancha from the front. It was really nice to sit there and soak in the history of the place.

After looking around Koricancha, it was time to get in the minibus to go and visit the archaeological sites around the edge of Cusco, starting with Sacsayhuamán citadel. This is the largest of the four sites we visited, and is known for its huge stones. As it happens, I spent a fair amount of our free time at this site trying to locate the bathroom, so I didn't really explore it in its entirety, but these things happen!

The second archaeological site we visited was Qenko, which is believed to have been a holy place. To be honest, this was the least eye-catching of the four sites, but it was interesting to go inside and see the altar there.

The third archaeological site we visited was Tambomachay, which was my favourite. This one is believed to have probably been a temple dedicated to water, as there are waterfalls flowing over the rocks, and a stream nearby. If you cross the little bridge over the stream and continue up over the pathway, you get an amazing panoramic view of the site and the mountains beyond.

Puka Pukara (red fortress) was the final archaeological site we visited. The name comes from the colour of the rocks in the area, which really do look quite red. It was very windy up on the fortress but the views of the old buildings combined with the mountains were really stunning.

There's a rock there that some people say is a model of Machu Picchu, but our guide wasn't convinced!

After exploring the site, it was time to get back on the bus and go back to the city, but not before tasting a little bit of Anise liquor!

To sum up, the second half of my day exploring Cusco had definitely been much better than the first half, and I felt really happy to have thoroughly explored in and around this city that had been on my bucket list for several years.

The following day was another bucket list day, as that was when I visited the Sacred Valley of the Incas! That will be another quite lengthy post, but I hope to publish it within the coming days!