Trip Journals: Peru

April 2006

Day Trips In and Around Cusco

In this Issue:

Cusco City Tour
Urubamba River Raft Trip and Pisac Ruins and Market
Maras (Salt Mines) and Moray (Agricultural Terraces)
Ollantaytambo Ruins/Village and Chinchero

Introduction:

Two staff with Adventures Within Reach traveled to Peru last year for trekking the Inca Trail and the Cordillera Blanca. They also had an opportunity to have a few day trips while in Cusco and the surrounding Sacred Valley. Here follows their journal (with added comments) for four side trips/tours.

CUSCO CITY TOUR

This "city tour" is a must, as an introduction to your Peru adventures! Our bilingual guide and driver for the city tour picked us up in a van for our afternoon tour. The driver took us all to specific sites, while Chris, our guide, gave us a mix of history, culture, today’s politics and general stories of events.

Tambomachay

We went "up the hill" away from Cusco, to Tambomachay, then Q’enko, then Sacsayhuaman (many tourists pronounce this "sexy woman"). All of these historic sites were sacred places (e.g., temples) for the Inca culture and now are well-preserved ruins--a contradiction in terms, of course. The building methods are amazing for the 16th century!

We were glad to get an "Inca Culture 101" course today, and future lectures by various guides would build on this knowledge. The "story" of the Incas is well worth reading about prior to your trip!

We returned to the Cusco city center. Cusco, itself, is a wonderful mix of old (Inca Culture) and new (the Spanish Colonial time).

The broad, beautiful Plaza de Armas is surrounded by narrow streets and byways, with Inca architecture in the base of the walls and the Spanish influence on the top. (Another story about which you'll want to ask your guide).

Cusco Cathedral

Our tour of the main Cathedral comprised three churches in one. To the left of the Cathedral is the Holy Family Church and to the right is the El Triunfo Church. All three were auspiciously decorated in Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo style. It was very interesting and beautiful. The large wall paintings showed the Cusco school of painters (be sure to read or ask about this group of native painters). The Last Supper is depicted with Jesus and his disciples at a table set with guinea pig (cuy), mangos and bananas. Other paintings had macaws and llamas and other wildlife of Peru.

We then went over to the Saint Dominic (Santo Domingo) Church and Coriconcha (Qorikoncha) ruins.

Here is a mix of Inca and colonial (Spanish) times. Coricancha was the central and most prominent sun temple in Cusco for the Incas. It originally was covered with gold. The Spaniards tore it down, looted the gold and silver and built their own church on top of the foundation.

We had a guided tour, but there are also materials for a self-guided tour of the church, grounds and ruins, if you want to visit on your own. There was also a small museum that we went through using the tourist ticket (billete turista) that is part of the package for treks.

That evening, we again used our tourist ticket for the Folkorica Dance Program. This is not part of the city tour, but is certainly a nice option for an evening activity on your own. The dance performance was wonderful -- very colorful. There was a live band of mandolins, fiddles, percussion and Andean flutes. The dance troupe performed typical Andean dances, from various districts around Cusco.

URUBAMBA RIVER RAFT TRIP AND PISAC

Our guide for the day, Leo, met us at early, and we headed off in a mini-bus with a driver and another guide, Willy, to the upper Urubamba River for a river raft trip. It took over an hour to get there, but was an absolutely beautiful drive through the Sacred Valley, past small villages and farms and between green, green mountains. The Urubamba River itself is muddy, fast, and averages about 50 feet wide.

Preparing for river rafting

We inflated the raft boats, donned wet suits, windbreakers and helmets, received instructions on paddling and safety, and headed out. There was one other group of two Brits rafting at the same time. These two men were starting the Inca Trail on the same day as we were.

The northern Urubamba River has mostly "baby" rapids, but we had several sections of class 3 rapids. It was SOOOO much fun! We got wet as we bucked through the rapids, of course, but our wet suit, wind breaker and helmet, minimized the moments of cold! Willy was in a separate catamaran raft as the ‘safety person’ (in case someone fell out, he could get to them quickly). The sun did not shine for our 2 hours on the water.

We pulled the rafts out downstream and the crew set up a tent for a toilet, a tent in which to change into our regular clothes, and two large screened tents for us to eat in. We changed into clothes while the staff set up table and chairs and served us a luncheon of chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, steamed fresh veggies, bread, coke, tea and dessert. We were surprised and pleased, to say the least, at the delicious meal!

Pisac Ruins

We said good-bye to the other group and Willy and the three of us continued on to Pisac, a small town on the Urubamba River. We ascended the mountain out of town to the Pisac ruins. There we took an hour’s walk in amongst the terraces and ruins. It was very educational. We learned additional Inca architecture and culture, flowers and birds.

Leo, as was Chris yesterday, was a rather gentle soul, passionate about his job as a guide and passionate about the Inca culture. He, too, was part Quechua and part Spanish, a common mix for the local people here, but also a difficult "fence to sit on", Their ancestors are both of the Inca culture and the Spanish culture. The difficulty is that the Spanish overtook the Incas (the Quechuans are descendants) and essentially "erased" the Inca culture. All of our guides seemed to appreciate the old culture and ways and still were able to embrace the present world with finesse.

Above all, the guides have been very resource conservation minded and were able to talk about the environmental issues of the past and of today’s Peru. We found that we were very much in tune with their philosophy!

After the challenging walk around the ruins (Inca steps and rocky paths with no hiking poles), we were driven back to Pisac, where we walked through town to the market (just closing up) and were able to see their preparations for the local celebration of Semana Santa with El Senor de Temblores….decorations on the street cobblestones and local mayors and children in full costume.

We drove back to Cusco and our hotel, said goodbye to Leo and the driver. A long, but very enlightening day!

MARAS AND MORAY

What a whirlwind experience these "free" days in Cusco and the Sacred Valley have been! Today's guide met us this morning at 9:00 a.m. after breakfast. Our guide introduced herself -- Claudia. She would be our guide for the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu trek also.

Maras Salt mines

Our driver was the same person we had on Sunday, so it was fun to see him again... smiles all around. The first stop was at Maras Las Salineras, or the salt mines, a pre-Inca development, that continues today to produce salt for the market. We toured the area and found it fascinating. There are over 4000 pools that are filled with salt water that comes out of the mountain in a small stream. After the pools evaporate, they harvest the salt and sell it. We bought some (naturally there is a small gift shop) that was iodized.

We drove through the nearby town, Maras, and continued up to Moray, and found a rural school to give our school supplies to. (Note: this is not part of the day tour, but a guide will help anyone with school supply donations to find a school to distribute them).

Our guide went to talk with the school’s director and soon we were welcomed into their courtyard playground, where about 100 children were streaming out of classrooms. They all lined up by classes (first through sixth) and we gave them pencils and crayons. We also gave the teachers paper (plain and lined) colored pencils and pencil sharpeners.

Moray Agricultural Terraces

The children were so excited and happy... though a little leery at first, to see us. They see so few visitors. The director explained who we were and they all thanked us. They ended by singing to us a song about the mountains. It was a very moving experience for us!

The area of rural Moray is where there are terraced areas in concentric circles as part of a national park. This is thought to be an area where the Incas experimented with crops, since the different levels have varied temperatures (hot at the bottom, cooler at the top). The area is under restoration We had lunch there at a spot overlooking the Sacred Valley.

Again, lunch was at a table and chairs and was a chicken/egg/veggie souffle. Steamed veggies, chili sauce and rolls completed the menu. The meals are prepared by the outfitter’s staff in their Cusco office and the guide picks up the coolers and cooking equipment in the morning, before the day trip. Very efficient.

After a walk around the terraces at Moray, we drove to Ollantaytambo and the Pakaritampu Hotel, where we stayed overnight. This hotel is wonderful--deserves a higher rating than the 3-stars. Professional staff (dress and demeanor); fruit basket in room, etc. We felt pampered, as we prepared our backpacks for the trek that would start the next day!

OLLANTAYTAMBO RUINS/VILLAGE AND CHINCHERO

At Ollantaytambo, Claudia, our guide, met us at the train following a rest day at Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo) and led us to the van. It was the same driver we had had twice before! After warm greetings, we went into Ollantaytambo and took a tour of the ruins.

Ollantaytambo Town

They were quite amazing (as they all have been, in their own way). We were duly impressed with the huge pink granite monoliths in the sun temple area. Claudia was able to give much of the folk lore and myths of the Incas, as well as what is actually known. We were constantly reminded that very little is known about the Inca culture, because they did not have a written language. When the Spanish came and took over, they put their own "spin" on the Inca history and culture. We can only rely on educated guesses of archeologists.

Ollantaytambo is on the Urubamba River and, therefore, also in the Sacred Valley, so we were able to see many small farms with varied crops…mostly corn and other grains. Potatoes are grown on the hillsides.

Walking through town, Claudia took us to a typical Colonial (Spanish) period courtyard complex with houses still in the same style as the that time. The small house we entered had all the old methods for cooking and storing food. There were small shrine areas with skeletons of animals. The house had a cage with guinea pigs... although the guinea pigs were also running free. Someone's supper, of course. The woman inside was making dolls and selling textiles. It gave us a flavor of early Quechuans and village people in Colonial times. We left with two dolls and two tablecloths. It’s hard not to make a purchase of such beautiful craft work!

Back in the van, we drove on a bit and told Claudia about the Sapo game we had seen in Machu Picchu Pueblo (Aguas Calientes). Would you believe... the next stop was Descanso, a rest area that that had an outdoor yard with several Sapo games. We tried our hand at Sapo. The two of us clients did not do well (zero points and 1000 points), Claudia got 1500 points. Our driver won with over 5000 points (he must have had a lot of practice throwing those little golden coins into the toad’s mouth).

Making corn cider

We went into a small building and learned how they made corn chicha, a pressed corn cider drink. A woman there also showed us the Inca string system of counting and messaging.

We continued to Urubamba for lunch at a beautiful Andean restaurant. In a gazebo setting with a huge buffet, the four of us enjoyed lunch and conversation. There were also colorful macaws in a cage area.

Our final stop was Chinchero, a community between Urubamba and Cusco. Chinchero has a large church from the Colonial (Spanish) period (again, built on an Inca foundation). We toured the church and a small museum of local Inca artifacts.

The courtyard was filled with vendors…we made a few purchases and were semi-accosted by the children to buy small items. After buying an item from one or two, a dozen or more appeared with the same items. One girl commented in English: "they are my competition" and tried to shoo them away. It would have been humorous, but there were so many and they were insistent (much like Cusco). One merely walks on, saying "No, gracias"... after you have bought more than you think you need.

Just when we thought the day would end before we returned to Cusco, we did arrive back to the city and were dropped off at our hotel near the Plaza de Armas. A full, fun and educational day!

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