Cusco is one of the most famous cities in Peru – mainly due to it’s proximity to the magnificent Inca Citadel Machu Picchu. It is a vibrant colonial town, perched high in the Andes (meaning the evenings are cold, but thankfully not quite as evilly freezing as nights in Puno!). Of course the main reason we chose to visit here was to see Machu Picchu, along with every other traveller in Peru, but as we found there were actually a huge number of other reasons to visit Cusco we ended up staying for ages – and decided the place deserved a blog entry of it’s own (I’ll put up separate posts on Machu Picchu and other Inca ruins in the area after we visit them).
We stayed in a tiny hotel just above a small plaza in San Blas on the north side of Cusco. It turned out to be a particularly pretty and lively area, which was great – the only drawback was that San Blas is a good, steep climb from the city centre. So when we first arrived in Cusco after a long, cramped bus ride from Puno we struggled uphill for over an hour, fully laden with all our worldly goods of course! The distance from the bus station wasn’t more than 4km, which would normally be fine by us, but it was all uphill. The last section, from the elegant central Plaza de Armas to San Blas was particularly steep and evil – especially given the thin air up here at high altitude!
Even after we had recovered from our travelling we found the gradient of Cusco challenging at times. But in a way the fact that the town is built on such a steep slope is one of the nicest things about the place – there are lots of pretty winding alleyways, twisting stone staircases and narrow near vertical streets squeezed in between the old Spanish colonial houses. Many of these streets have Inca stone work too… the Spanish simply built on top of the original Inca town when they colonised Peru, leading to a weird but attractive mishmash of architectural styles throughout Cusco.
You don’t have to go far from Cusco to get to really impressive Inca stone-work either. Situated on a hilltop overlooking the city is Sacsayhuaman, a hugely impressive fortress. Sadly much of the structure was plundered by the Spanish to rebuild Cusco town, but fortunately large sections of the complex remain – including the immense zigzag stone walls that formed the perimeter of the fort. Apparently the largest block of rock in the walls weighs over 70 tonnes… yet it and all the other huge ‘bricks’ were cut with elegant precision to fit perfectly together. Really impressive stonemasonry - the entire wall structure looks so perfectly preserved that it could have been made last year rather than centuries ago!
We struggled up hundreds of steps from Cusco to explore Sacsayhuaman (or ‘Sexy Woman’ as Gary nicknamed the place after mispronouncing the name all day!), and after catching our breath decided to explore some other Inca sites nearby. We were a bit ambitious – our Rough Guide to Peru informed us that there was an important but rarely visited complex called Chacan only 5km north-west, and so we set out to look for it. What the lovely Rough Guide didn’t tell us was that the way to Chacan was all uphill (beautifully steep Andean mountain-hills), nor did it give us any remotely useful directions. But after climbing for well over an hour in what we hoped was the right direction (aided by Gary’s Spanish, a very helpful Peruvian family and a friendly llama shepherdess) we actually found the place! And it was lovely – there were no roads, only dirt paths, so no buses full of tourists venture anywhere nearby, leaving us to admire the huge stone ruins of an Imperial Inca bathing ritual site in perfect peace. The whole complex teetered on the edge of a particularly beautiful gorge with colourful striped rock walls, and stunning views back down the valley of Cusco several hundred meters below.
On our way back down to town we got a bit sidetracked playing on the Inca slides at Rodadero. Here weirdly rounded volcanic rock has been polished over hundreds of years by people sliding down it! The rock is truly slippery on the ‘slides’ – you pick up quite a lot of speed as you get towards the bottom – where you have to stop immediately or end up face down in a muddy puddle... And finally we made a brief diversion on our way home to yet another Inca complex above Cusco called Qenko (we nicknamed it ‘Kenko’ in desperate mispronunciation…). This one was based around a huge carved outcrop of rock, complete with underground caves carved into a fun labyrinth. Lots of huge rock formations to scramble around. And these were only the nearest Inca sites to Cusco!
Only a little further a field are two other Inca sites, both easily reachable by local bus from Cusco. So we were very surprised and horrified when we hopped off our 20 year old clapped-out minibus packed with locals to see that most people turned up with tour groups and guides… The local transport here is so good that we really wonder why people sign up for tours only to be stuck with an irritating guide and 40 or so other tourists all day. Anyway, after dodging the hordes we spent a nice evening wandering around the small Inca sites of Tambo Machay and Puka Pukara. Tambo Machay is really just an over-large bath, complete with nice waterfalls, fit for the Royal Incas to bathe! Puka Pukara is a little more impressive – it consists of a fortified mound overlooking a beautiful valley above Cusco, and is apparently the Inca version of a hunting lodge. Both sites are only 11km from town, so after exploring the ruins we wandered back downhill, watching the sun set above Cusco before descending into the city centre for a well-earned pizza.
Anyway, over the next few days we plan to venture out from Cusco by bus and train to see Inca ruins at Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and of course, Machu Picchu – and we’ll put up some posts and pictures on the blog afterwards!
We stayed in a tiny hotel just above a small plaza in San Blas on the north side of Cusco. It turned out to be a particularly pretty and lively area, which was great – the only drawback was that San Blas is a good, steep climb from the city centre. So when we first arrived in Cusco after a long, cramped bus ride from Puno we struggled uphill for over an hour, fully laden with all our worldly goods of course! The distance from the bus station wasn’t more than 4km, which would normally be fine by us, but it was all uphill. The last section, from the elegant central Plaza de Armas to San Blas was particularly steep and evil – especially given the thin air up here at high altitude!
Even after we had recovered from our travelling we found the gradient of Cusco challenging at times. But in a way the fact that the town is built on such a steep slope is one of the nicest things about the place – there are lots of pretty winding alleyways, twisting stone staircases and narrow near vertical streets squeezed in between the old Spanish colonial houses. Many of these streets have Inca stone work too… the Spanish simply built on top of the original Inca town when they colonised Peru, leading to a weird but attractive mishmash of architectural styles throughout Cusco.
You don’t have to go far from Cusco to get to really impressive Inca stone-work either. Situated on a hilltop overlooking the city is Sacsayhuaman, a hugely impressive fortress. Sadly much of the structure was plundered by the Spanish to rebuild Cusco town, but fortunately large sections of the complex remain – including the immense zigzag stone walls that formed the perimeter of the fort. Apparently the largest block of rock in the walls weighs over 70 tonnes… yet it and all the other huge ‘bricks’ were cut with elegant precision to fit perfectly together. Really impressive stonemasonry - the entire wall structure looks so perfectly preserved that it could have been made last year rather than centuries ago!
We struggled up hundreds of steps from Cusco to explore Sacsayhuaman (or ‘Sexy Woman’ as Gary nicknamed the place after mispronouncing the name all day!), and after catching our breath decided to explore some other Inca sites nearby. We were a bit ambitious – our Rough Guide to Peru informed us that there was an important but rarely visited complex called Chacan only 5km north-west, and so we set out to look for it. What the lovely Rough Guide didn’t tell us was that the way to Chacan was all uphill (beautifully steep Andean mountain-hills), nor did it give us any remotely useful directions. But after climbing for well over an hour in what we hoped was the right direction (aided by Gary’s Spanish, a very helpful Peruvian family and a friendly llama shepherdess) we actually found the place! And it was lovely – there were no roads, only dirt paths, so no buses full of tourists venture anywhere nearby, leaving us to admire the huge stone ruins of an Imperial Inca bathing ritual site in perfect peace. The whole complex teetered on the edge of a particularly beautiful gorge with colourful striped rock walls, and stunning views back down the valley of Cusco several hundred meters below.
On our way back down to town we got a bit sidetracked playing on the Inca slides at Rodadero. Here weirdly rounded volcanic rock has been polished over hundreds of years by people sliding down it! The rock is truly slippery on the ‘slides’ – you pick up quite a lot of speed as you get towards the bottom – where you have to stop immediately or end up face down in a muddy puddle... And finally we made a brief diversion on our way home to yet another Inca complex above Cusco called Qenko (we nicknamed it ‘Kenko’ in desperate mispronunciation…). This one was based around a huge carved outcrop of rock, complete with underground caves carved into a fun labyrinth. Lots of huge rock formations to scramble around. And these were only the nearest Inca sites to Cusco!
Only a little further a field are two other Inca sites, both easily reachable by local bus from Cusco. So we were very surprised and horrified when we hopped off our 20 year old clapped-out minibus packed with locals to see that most people turned up with tour groups and guides… The local transport here is so good that we really wonder why people sign up for tours only to be stuck with an irritating guide and 40 or so other tourists all day. Anyway, after dodging the hordes we spent a nice evening wandering around the small Inca sites of Tambo Machay and Puka Pukara. Tambo Machay is really just an over-large bath, complete with nice waterfalls, fit for the Royal Incas to bathe! Puka Pukara is a little more impressive – it consists of a fortified mound overlooking a beautiful valley above Cusco, and is apparently the Inca version of a hunting lodge. Both sites are only 11km from town, so after exploring the ruins we wandered back downhill, watching the sun set above Cusco before descending into the city centre for a well-earned pizza.
Anyway, over the next few days we plan to venture out from Cusco by bus and train to see Inca ruins at Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and of course, Machu Picchu – and we’ll put up some posts and pictures on the blog afterwards!
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