In the Footsteps of the Incas: From Mountains to Jungle to Ancient Ruins - Page 6 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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We board our bus and travel through the first valley of the Cusco department. It is at this point that we leave the Altiplano region of Peru. After this point we start to descend in altitude and begin to see more green vegetation. José pointed out that the trees outside our window were eucalyptus trees introduced by 19th century Austrailians. This just further illustrtates that if there is something to note about our environs you can be sure José will comment on it. Craig commented on how he was not all that enamored by the Altiplano region due to its stark appearance and lack of vegetation. I found it to have a charm all its own.
We have been traveling for hours and we make our next much needed pit stop. It’s lunch time! First Class Bus Tours include lunch with its tour. The hot drinks at lunch are gratis, but you have to pay for cold drinks. Our lunch in Sicuani is a help yourself buffet. I don’t recall what I had to eat; but it all was quite tasty, especially for a buffet designed to feed the masses of multiple giant tour buses of 40 guests each. A traditional Peruvian folkloric band serenaded us with “El Condor Pasa” and other favorites. You might recognize “El Condor Pasa” because Simon and Garfunkel hit the charts with a cover of that song. They also had alpacas that were hanging out at the restaurant. Fellow travelers would stop and go feed the camelids. Among those who were enthralled by the alpacas were my lunch companions. Craig and I had a really nice conversation with another couple traveling together. He is from New Zealand and she is from Montreal. I was hungry. I needed to eat and drink my mate de coca. I would have liked to stay longer and really gorge myself on the food. The soup was especially tasty. But it’s time to move on.
Our Sicuani restaurant
The folkloric Peruvian band at lunch
One of the buffet tables at lunch
Our lunch time table mates
José notes that the designs we see on mountaintops are actually political symbols that people have carved into the mountainside. Kind of like a natural billboard. Often students celebrating their class will make a display in the mountains. It is not unusual to see them illuminated at night.
Within another two hours we stop at a silver artisan workshop, Q’ori Choccllo. It was easy to get close up for pictures of the workstations because they only work in the evenings. This makes sense since they use fire foundaries. It must get awfully hot. It was very warm this afternoon without any fire! If you notice, the sweater I was wearing earlier in the day is now off. This was not a stop that I had expected. When the guide said we would be visiting a silver workshop I was hoping to see artisans at their craft. This was one stop that I felt was all about “let’s make money from the gringos”. There weren’t any artisans to see. However, there were plenty of stalls of folks selling various goods, some of it the jewelry that they create at the shop, others were clothing, chess sets, woodwork, rugs, all sorts of handicrafts. At every stop on this bus trip there were always people selling their wares. If you want a souvenir from Peru go on this bus trip and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to go shopping! Craig and I are both low on funds so this was not a priority for us. Also at the workshop were alpaca and llamas. Once again people had the opportunity to feed the camelids and to pet them. Another odd addition was a guinea pig side business. They raised guinea pigs for use at local restaurants. Guinea pig or cuy is always the most expensive item on the menu. I just was less than enchanted on this stop.
The jewelry workshop
Do these guinea pigs look good enough to eat to you?
One of my favorite pictures of Craig and myself. Having a bit of a rest at Q'ori Choccllo. The llamas and alpacas are behind us and the artisan workshops are behind them.
Our bus ride continues and we reach my favorite stop of the tour. Raqchi Tambo was built during the Inca expansion. Pachacutec ordered the city to be built. He built it with volcanic rocks and mud bricks. There were three main areas of Raqchi. First, was the temple dedicated to the creator. This temple is the largest Inca temple found to date. Second, was an urban center where people lived. Finally, was a whole area for storage and granaries. José was totally in his element providing wonderful information about the life of the Quechua civilization. We learned that there is not just one Inca trail; but thousands of miles of trails which connected what today is Bolivia, Brazil, Equador, Chile and Argentina. Today we still can see the remnants of the stone wall that surrounded the city and elements of some of the Inca trails that radiated out from Raqchi. The most prominent structure is the Temple of Wiracocha, an enormous rectangular two-story roofed structure that measures 300 ft by 84 ft. This structure consists of a central adobe wall some 18 to 20 meters in height with an andesite base. It is flanked on each side by a row of eleven columns. The columns are classic high Inca stonework with the remaining height built of adobe.
Prior to its destruction by the Spaniards, the temple had what is believed to be the largest single roof in the Incan Empire, having its peak at the central wall, then stretching over the columns and some 82 ft beyond on each side. The huge proportions of the temple, and its prominence on the site explain why the whole complex is also sometimes referred to as the Temple of Wiracocha. The temple had an unbelievable amount of gold covering it all before it got plundered by the Spanish.
Walls of the Temple of Wiracocha
Craig looks on as Jose explains the Inca temple complex
The environs of Raqchi
This alley celebrates the summer solstice in December. It lines up perfectly with the sun all day for this one day of the year.
Of course the Spanish could not leave well enough alone and had to construct their own Catholic church on this site.
NEXT: Douglas misreads his menu: The wine I ordered cost HOW MUCH!?!
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Great update! I'm with Craig, I need green vegetation. I lived in El Paso, TX for a year and hated how brown it was. Thanks for including a history lesson with each update.
Great update, Douglas. I love green scenery, but I love seeing things I don't see all the time, so I would've enjoyed seeing the barren landscape. Sorry you felt like one of the stops was a money grab, but at least it was only one stop! Looking forward to more!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Queen of Everything - Yes, the Altiplano is definitely brown! My globetrotting trip reports always includes a bit of history in the mix.
pamcarey - Oh I was perfectly willing to eat the guinea pigs. I just thought it strange to find them at an arttisans workshop.
PrincessSharon - Actually most of the trip seemed like it was one shopping opportunity after another. If the Peruvians know a gringo will visit, up goes a stand or a shop. Here I thought WDW was bad with the neverending souvenir stores everywhere. This is about the same level of entrepreneurial spirit.
goofysdtr - If I can eat a cow or chicken, I can eat a guinea pig.
After we had returned to the bus, we were provided with a cup of coca-cola to quench our thirst. I don’t drink carbonated beverages. I’m sure it was refreshing. Our next stop was the Church of St. Peter at Andahuaylillas. This church is called the Sistine Chapel of the Americas. It gets this nickname due to the amount of artwork in the church. It is a Jesuit church from the colonial era. Originally, the structure was an Incan temple. The Spaniards just built on top of it putting cedar and gold over the existing structure. Kilos and kilos of gold leaf covered the cedar. Locals of Cusco have their weddings here. In fact, we could see the remnants of confetti from a wedding on the cobbled stones outside of the church.
Church of St. Peter
I wish I could show you how incredible the inside of the church is but photography was not allowed. Huge canvases depict the life of St. Peter. A new Christ has an altar here. He is the Christ of the Earthquakes. During an earthquake in the 17th century the locals paraded an image of the Christ and the earthquake instantly stopped. Consequently, they believed that Christ had saved them all from the destruction of the earthquake.
The trees of Andahuaylillas
The trees outside of the church are huge and are 400 years old.
Our bus doesn’t take long to get from Andahuaylillas to Cusco. As we enter Cusco, I thought that the city was underwhelming. In fact, I was rather disappointed considering I had seen a few pictures when planning my trip. As we got off the bus, I looked for our driver. I had arranged with our hotel to have a driver meet our bus. He was there waiting with a sign with my name on it. I’ve never had this convenience before. It was such a godsend. Our driver spoke a decent amount of English. He was a young man in his 20’s and very personable. He chatted with us the whole way to our hotel. He informed us that the nicest part of Cusco is in the old town and that’s where our hotel was located. He was right. As we got closer and closer to the hotel the town got more charming and had more character. The car ride was 10 nuevo soles ($4) and I tipped our driver a sole or two.
Another view of the Church of St. Peter
Our hotel is the Ninos hotel. (For some reason I can’t find a way to put a little accent mark above the second n) From the sidewalk you have to dip down to enter through the old wooden door. I was the first to enter and ended up banging my head on the lintel of the doorway. Oooow! What’s another bump on my head anyway? Thank goodness I’m not bald.
Craig outside of our hotel wearing his new scarf that he purchased in Puno
Craig and I are hungry. While on the bus riding from Andahuaylillas to Cusco I perused my Lonely Planet guide book and found a listing that suited our mood. The restaurant was also listed in my Insight Guides guidebook which doesn’t list all that many restaurants. I took this as a good sign that it would be a decent choice. We drop off our bags in our room and head out for our dinner. The restaurant is not that long of a walk from our hotel.
On our way to dinner we pass by the Llama Path office strictly by chance. Our hotel is very close! What a nice surprise. We peek in through the glass doors to see what is what and one of the people inside makes her way to the door with a smile. This encourages us and we enter in. We wanted to make sure that all of the details for our upcoming Adventure Trek is sorted out. Craig was nervous that our final payment had not been received or acknowledged. He had made our final payment via Paypal the day he left for Peru. He was worried that they would say we still owed $870 for the balance due. It turns out they were able to see that we were all paid for our Adventure Trek, the sleeping bags and walking sticks we rented, and the Cusco City Tour we were taking the next day. They also told us that we just had to show up at the office tomorrow at 2:30 pm to meet our guide for the City Tour. We both left the office much relieved and ready to enjoy our dinner. Craig, especially, felt like a huge weight had been lifted.
Pachapapa, tonight’s restaurant of choice, was located right on the San Blas square. San Blas is an area of Old Town that is in a upper hillside overlooking the center of Cusco. San Blas is an artistic barrio reached by narrow cobblestone streets. The streets are lined with shop after shop, many of them artisan shops. As we entered, we had our choice of seating as it was early yet and hardly anyone was there. We sat outside underneath umbrellas and had torches to keep us warm. These torches are the modern kind fueled by gas. Since San Blas is high up on a hill it can get quite chilly up here. We sat at wooden tables with a nice candles. The menu was filled with traditional Peruvian dishes with African, European and Asian accents. After looking over the menu we found some wonderful food choices. We didn’t know if the restaurant accepted plastic, so Craig left the restaurant to find an ATM to get some cash to pay our restaurant bill. While he was away I perused the wine list. Wow! How cheap is this wine!?! I decided to order a glass of Peruvian white wine. I selected the Tacama Blanco de Blancas. I like having local food and beverages while traveling. When the server returns with my wine it turned out to be a whole bottle instead of just a glass. This is even better! I thought I was just buying a glass. I enjoyed the wine. It tasted quite good. Upon Craig’s return he inquired about the wine I was drinking. I showed him my choice on the wine list. He was shocked by the price, but not in a good way. I thought my wine cost 70 centimos. I thought the abbreviation for Nuevo soles was “s” followed by a slash. The price on the wine list had “s” followed by a slash followed by a period or dot. I did not recall seeing that dot on the food menu. It turns out I just purchased a bottle of wine for 70 nuevo soles NOT cenitmos. Not the kind of “wow moment” for which I was looking. I don’t normally purchase wine that expensive at home much less on a journey on a tight budget. This mistake cost me about $20 USD. While the wine was enjoyable I just don’t think it was worth that much money. Also, Craig noticed that the following page of the wine menu listed wine by the glass. If I had just turned the page! Devil!
Pachapapa
Our original plan was to order the cuy or guinea pig. However, it turned out to be the most expensive item on the menu. Since it is still early on our journey we didn’t want to spend that much and end up having no money in Lima. Instead, we both ordered clay pot stews. My dish was quite tasty. I had the Aji de gallina. It was a shredded chicken in a creamy yellow chili sauce with nuts. Craig was disappointed by the amount of portion for his dinner. He had ordered the Adobo de chancho which is pork stewed with chicha de jora, onions, and spices. He felt I got the better end of the stick.
Craig diving into his dinner
My aji de gallina
The infamous bottle of wine!
I drank as much wine as I could without Craig needing to carry me home in a wheelbarrow.
When we felt we were adequately sated, we got up and left the now jam packed restaurant. On our way back to our hotel we took the time to admire the wonderful charm that is Cusco at night. It was just magical. We passed through the Plaza de Armas which is the central square. In fact we passed through a number of smaller squares to get to our hotel. In less than twenty minutes we were back in our hotel room. We sorted out our stuff in our hotel room and soon were in bed. We had a bunch of errands to run the next day.
Walking through San Blas
Plaza de Armas, Cusco, Peru
NEXT: Will this currency exchange ever open? Craig and Douglas part ways. Food shopping in Cusco.
I was expecting a heftier price tag for the wine, too, Douglas. Sorry you didn't enjoy it as much as you should have for the price! I can't really say I'd never eat guinea pig, but I saw a special once and they just tossed the thing onto the grill, fur and all. THAT, I could not eat. Your meal looked tasty (and so did Craig's). More, please!
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I couldn't do it.
More please! 
THAT, I could not eat. 
Your meal looked tasty (and so did Craig's). More, please! 
I can totally see myself doing something like that. Glad it wasn't even more!
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