This was a busy day of driving in and around the Urubamba Valley (also known as the Inca Sacred Valley), the real heartland of the Inca empire. The mountain scenery was gorgeous, and we stopped at a variety of different sites, both modern and historic.
The first stop was at a small animal sanctuary that takes in injured animals and nurses them back to health, or just permanently look after animals that wouldn't be able to survive on their own. In our time in Cusco the theme of the Inca trinity totem of the snake (lower plane), the puma (middle plane) and condor (higher plane) had come up multiple times, and here we got to see a local puma and some condors.
Next was on to the small mountain village of Huchuy Qosco to learn more about camelid crafting. We got a bit of a lesson on the steps from shearing, cleaning, dyeing and weaving llama and alpaca wool, and got to experience the difference between those and the much rarer vicuña. Vicuña are a closely related type of camelid that has much softer, golden wool. The reason it's so rare is that unlike alpacas and llamas, vicuña can't be domesticated. Their wool is in such demand that the population was almost wiped out by hunting (which is such a waste for something that grows back) but luckily conservation has helped the numbers rebound substantially. The town was also interesting just for getting a taste of how people live away from the bigger cities.
In the afternoon we visited a pair of Inca ruin sites, the second of which is in Ollantaytambo, where we'd spend the night. The ruins continued the theme of amazing stone-work (especially since everything is carved and moved by hand), sweeping mountain views, and lots of walking up hills (yay!).
We stocked up on a few final supplies in Ollantaytambo (I bought a rain poncho) in preparation for the big hike, which would begin the following day.
The flight between Lima and Cusco was short but interesting. It's just over an hour long, so you never really reach a high altitude as you fly into the Andes. When you're coming in to land you're flying below the tops of many of the surrounding mountains.
We got a bus to hotel we were staying out and dropped things off and going out to explore a little. Cusco is culturally very important as it was the capital of the Inca Empire, but its also a convenient place for hikers to acclimate to the elevation before moving on to more strenuous things. It's around 3400m (11,150 ft) above sea level and considerably cooler than Lima.
The tourist influence is pretty evident in Cusco as the central plaza (Plaza de Armas) accommodates a KFC and a McDonalds, and the central area is full of little touristy shops selling Peruvian souvenirs and hiking equipment. Despite these the city still has a very old-world feel and remnants of both Inca and Spanish periods are everywhere. We were there over Easter, which they celebrated in part by marching crosses and a Jesus replica from church to church around town.
Near the city center are the old Inca walls, including the strangely famous 12-sided stone. Like the pyramids in Egypt the stonework is impressive for the tight precision of each stone fitting into the next, and without the aid of modern machinery to carve them. The 12-sided stone is just the most noted because it shows off how each stone is so perfectly set.
A few other buildings of note are the Convent of St. Dominic which doubles as the Cusco Museum and the Church of la Compañía de Jesus which houses some colonial art.
To help everybody get used to the altitude we did a hike up into the hills at the fringe of the city, climbing past the old Inca ruins of Saksaywaman and finally up to Cristo Blanco, which is a smaller Christ the Redeemer that stands above the city. I always like this sort of small climb outside of cities, and this one gave a really nice view of the city below and the surrounding landscape. Also, this short venture let me see the first of many llamas and alpacas in Peru.
We also stopped by the cental market, Mercado Central de San Pedro, which was... an experience. I'm always fascinated by all the bustling markets of the world, but indoors I found this one similar to many of the others, and outdoors, where most of the action was happening, things were too chaotic/crowded for me to really enjoy.
The only other location of note is Jack's Cafe, an Australian/Peruvian restaurant that was quickly established as everybody's favourite place to eat. So maybe it didn't have the most traditional Peruvian menu, but everything we ate there was amazing. (For the record, the Jack's Cafe burger is definitely in my top 5 of the world, maybe even top 3).
Now that we were used to the elevation and had gotten to know each other it was time to travel deeper into the Inca heartland...
South American street art is very distinctive for its colour, and while travelling I got to be able to identify most of it pretty easily. Even if you don't know the artist (and I don't really know any South American artists) you can guess where they're from. I came across quite a bit of art, especially around the Barranco district and at that one place along the coast mentioned in my earlier post.
Things in South America started off a bit rough. By the time my flight got into Lima it was already dark out, and none of the ATMs in the airport accepted my credit card to get cash out. Since I knew I was going to be arriving late I'd booked a hostel for the first night near the airport, so after being unable to figure out any way to get money I decided to just walk from the airport to the place and try to figure it out there. I'd been warned by multiple people that Lima is one of those cities that you really need to be careful of as a tourist as there is a lot of crime, and walking with all my things through an industrial part of Lima late at night felt a little sketchy, but I didn't have any trouble. The hostel itself was well camoflaged and I had to buzz it to get somebody to come let me in. Luckily they were quite accomodating about the money and said I could pay when I checked out.
In the morning the hostel staff suggested where I might find an ATM that worked at a department/grocery store nearby. Walking around there were a few things that stood out. Over half the traffic on the street is taxis. There's no organized system of taxis, and no meters on them. Most people don't have cars, so they either take a scooter or take a taxi. People just negotiate a price before starting in, and if you don't like the price you just wave down the next taxi and negotiate with them instead. Another couple of observations were that all the buildings looked like they were unfinished. Most were either 2 or 3 stories tall, but all had exposed bars and walls for another floor on the top, but none had a roof. In my hostel the top "floor" had a few hammocks and a spot for table tennis on this exposed top floor, but a lot of them seemed to just be used to hang laundry, or abandoned entirely.
The part of town I was in was pretty run down, and other then the store I was walking to there were only a few barbershops and convenience stores that typically had the doorway barred so that you had to exchange goods and money through the bars without ever entering the shop. The store, when I got to it, was something like a Peruvian Walmart. The store itself had guards armed with rifles by the exits, but it was a pretty modern looking department store. I did find ATMs, one of which did give me money, so I headed back to the hostel to pay what I owed them. I'd booked another hostel in the nicer Miraflores District of Lima, and the guy at my hostel was nice enough to come out with me and haggle with a taxi to bring me there so that I didn't get ripped off. The taxi was running on fumes when I got in, and about halfway to my destination the taxi driver asked me to pay him so that he could get gas put in. This was strange enough that I got a bit suspicious, but I gave him the money and he got his gas and I got to my hostel safely. I guess they just do things a little differently in Lima.
After checking in I set about exploring Miraflores. It's a pretty nice area by the coast and has a lot more commercial buildings than where I'd been the previous night. It's anchored by a nice park full of feral cats, but also a hub for different events going on. While I was in Lima I came across a lot of music and dances going on, a few cultural events and some art and craft markets. One of the streets jutting off from the park is a popular shopping street for tourists that has numerous art, crafts, clothing, and souvenirs. If you head out towards the coast from the park you get to the coast, where there's a huge new shopping mall that's built right into the cliffside so that it's almost invisible until you're right above it. Some wings of it weren't even open yet (or were closed for renovation), but the shopping mall combined with the fancy hotels surrounding it were the most affluent part of Lima that I saw.
I'm not going to break everything down day by day, but here are some of the things I got up to in the few days I was in Lima. I walked over to the Barranco District after a suggestion from one of the hostel staff. Wikipedia describes it as "the most romantic and bohemian" part of Lima, and it had a lot of nice old architecture. I didn't really know where to go there, so I mostly just wandered, as is my style.
My ventures deeper into the city included a trip to the Larco Museum and visiting the historic city center. The Larco Museum is a private museum of pre-Columbian Peruvian art. This is a culture/period that I really didn't know much about, so after all the European and Asian art and history it was interesting to get a taste of something completely different.
Like much of the nicer parts of the city the historic center is very European with narrow streets and ornate buildings.
During the taxi / bus rides around the city I spied some colourful looking art around an arena near the coast, so one of my days became a quest of following the coast north looking for this place without really knowing how far it was. Almost the entire coast is just one park after another, so it's really quite a pleasant walk. I did eventually find my goal, and I'll do a street art post on Lima next, but here are a few of the things I came across. Discovering numerous parakeets just chilling in the park trees was especially nice, as you really realize just how tropical things are.
One of the major reasons for wanting to come to Peru was to do a specific hike, and said hike can only be booked in advance and through a group, so I had signed up for another tour for the rest of my time in Peru. I met up with them on my last night in Lima and we went out for a final Lima sea-food dinner before getting ready to fly into the mountains in the morning.
