Cusco, Peru

While is Cusco I had the opportunity to observe some of local traditions.

The first came in the way of a spiritual ceremony held on the grass just below the Inca sun temple at Koricancha close by the hostel I was staying at. I was on my way to a theatre to see some local dances, but I was curious and decided to stay and watch the cermonies. It was about 7:00 pm and so the only light was being provided by a small fire in the center of the circle of people. It started with traditional music and some singing. Eventually people starting forming a line in front of the fire, where there were no 2 men (possibly shaman) were knelt. The people had coca leaves and would approach the fire and the men, they appeared to say a small prayer and then place the coca leaves into the fire. This went on for about 30 minutes. The line of people were made up of both young and old and there were even some tourist, everyone was welcome. Once everyone in line had made their offering the men split the fire in half and walked around the circle and waved the smoke towards the crowd, as if to bathe everyone in all the prayers. As this was going on another man went around to those of us that were observing the ceremonies and offered us some coca leaves. The waving of the smoke was followed by more singing and the drinking of a beverage by what appeared to be the leaders of the group. The whole thing lasted about an hour and a half and was quite interesting to watch.

The second opportunity also came by accident. I was killing time before my city tour and headed to the main square and happen upon a festival. While afterwards I asked around as to the name/reason for the festival and even the locals weren't quite sure. One person told me the reason for the festival was that a couple years back an icicle had fallen off a glacier and had looked like the face of Jesus.

Anyway the festival consisted of singing and dancing by a lot of different groups all around the main plaza. While all the groups were entertaining what really struck me was the fact that both young and old participated in the dances. Now I remember being a teenager and if I had to perform dances in public I would have been horrified. These teenagers didn't appear to be forced or have that miserable look on their face. They had a look of pride and enjoyment on their face. There were were young kids dancing along with the adults. There was one little girl, about 6 years old, the only girl with a group of men and one little boy about 2. I think the kids father was one of the men dancing. This little girl knew all the steps and was a serious as can be about her performance. She grabbed my attention as well as many others in the crowd.

I think it's great in the US that we are this great big melting pot, but I think sometimes the customs and traditions of the individual cultures get diluted and even forgotten. I think we need need to do a better job of balancing the melting pot mentality while still holding on and passing on the history of each of the cultures. But hey that's just my opinion.

The city of Cusco has much to offer. There are the typical tourist shops, the beautiful historical churches and the many Inca ruins close to the main city square. The main square is a magnet for tourist with the many churches and museums, and of course the McDonald´s is here as well.

One thing that you have to get used to in Cusco is the nonstop parade of street vendors. When you get off the bus it's like a receiving line at a wedding, the vendors are there waiting to sell their goods. From water (with and without gas), to batteries, to memory cards for your camera, to freshly cooked corn, slices of cheese, sweaters from alpaca wool, or wind chimes. You name it they have it.

For me the highlight of the tour was the visit to Sacsayhuaman (pronouced sexy woman). This massive ruin overlooks the city center. It's said that it took a century to complete building, with the help of over 20,000+ men. The stones were so big that as many as 3000 men died trying to move one of the stones from the quarry to it's final location. When the Spanish invaded they used some of the stones from this site to build the churches in the main square. This may explain why in one of the churches has a painting of the last supper with cuy (guinea pig) as the main course. This may have been the Inca's way of perserving some of their customs in spite of the Spanish invasion.

Today's trip is a full day tour of the Sacred Valley, which is the route that leads to Machu Picchu.

First stop on the tour is the city of Pisac, and the main attraction here is the huge market place. The market has everything and anything that you would like to buy. From clothes, to jewerly, to food (many types of corn and potatoes). Many of the booths carry the exact same items, and because of this you can bargin and get the prices down if you are interested in buying something.

From here we went to the town of Urubamba. Here we visited some beautiful Inca terraces and also saw a very large cemetary. They would dig holes in the side of the mountain and place the dead in the holes.

Next stop was the city of Ollantaytambo. The ruins began with several terraces and to reach the top we had to walk up the 220 steps. Across from the ruins we could see the warehouses were they stored dehydrated corn and other foods. Also we could see a couple of rocks were we could cleary make out a face that had been carved, as well as a sun dial.

The day ended with a demonstration from some of the local women on how some of the textiles made. From the making of thread with the alpaca wool to how they can dye the cloths using natural materials such as a particular type of beetle.

Throughout the day there were constant reminders of the damage that occured throughout the region from the heavy rains and flooding earlier in the year. There were large boulders that changed a two lane road into a one lane road. Roads that were still being uncovered from massive land slides. The most emotional reminder was the small tent cities that we saw throughout the day. Some people's home had been completed destroyed and so countries like the US (as well as others) had sent tents to be used as temporary homes.

The affect of the flooding has affected not only this region but areas all throughout Peru as many tourist either canceled or postponed their plans. Having seen a small glimpse of the damage I think that the people of Peru have done a tremendous job recovering so people like me could enjoy all this country has to offer.

Due to the flooding the route to get to Machu Picchu has been modified for the time being.

For me this meant a pick up from my hotel in Cusco at 5:00am, followed by a 2 hour bus ride to the town of Ollabtaytambo. From here the it was a short train ride to the city of Machu Picchu Pueblo (formely called Aguas Calientes). While the distance was only about 17 miles, it was to take an hour and twenty minutes, as we did not travel very fast. I'm not sure if the speed was so that we could enjoy the beauty of the ride and to be able to take photos or if it was due to the fact the train route was was still very much in recovery from the flood damage.

The view from the train was absolutely amazing. The massive green hills with the clouds just lingering at the tops. We followed right along Rio Urubama and could see on the hillsides how high the river had gotten. Many of the trees still showed the affects of massive amounts of water rushing by and swiftly removing leaves and branches as it went past. As fast moving as the river was I couldn´t help but think how much fun it would be to go river rafting in this location, even though it would clearly be ranked as a class 4 (if not higher) and I usually fall out of the boat on the little class 2 river we do.

Looking out the window just to the left of the tracks we could see clean up and repair work being done. Large rocks were being placed in wire mesh boxes and were being placed in areas which appeared to give further support to the track itself. In some spots we could see where old tracks had been removed and replaced with new ones. At times the train we go really slow as if new tracks were being set down just in time for our arrival. Even though the men doing the work were quite busy they took time to wave to us and always had smiles on their faces.

As we arrived at our destination a quite buzz moved throughout the people as we were one step closer to seeing the great site of Machu Picchu.

Since leaving Lima to explore the different areas of Peru I've met many people from many different places. Most like me were making their way to Machu Picchu, it felt like a modern day pilgrimage. There were young and old, some having wanted their whole life to see this place.

Today was my day to visit these magnificant Inca ruins. I got up at 4:45am wanting to catch the first bus at 5:30. The hostel I was staying at even at that early hour made me breakfast complete with scrambled eggs.

Part of the reason for my early departure was I was thinking about getting a ticket to climb Huayna Picchu. This is the very tall peak that is displayed in most photos of Machu Picchu. Only 400 people per day were allowed to climb this mountain and so one had to get there early to get the ticket. The climb takes about an hour up very steep narrow steps. Being that I'm not a big fan of heights I was not quite sure if this was for me even though I'm sure the view from the stop would be 1 in a million. It's not that I'm afraid of heights, I recently read a quote that accurately described my affliction as "not having a fear of heights but a fear of falling" (although this has not stopped my from trying skydiving). The more I thought about it the less I felt comfortable about climbing the little steps. Plus I did not want to create a scene when I froze halfway up and then they would have to airlift me off the mountain. So I decided to not have someone else miss out and gave up my spot (this is how I rationalized it in my head, as it sounded better than just saying I chicken out).

I also wanted to get to the site early to beat the crowds, although due to the flooding visitor attendance was down. I joined in with the English lead tour at 6:30 and we started off. Our tour guide was Peruvian and spoke English in a deep voice that reminded me of Yul Brynner (you know from the King and I). As early as it was there was nothing to see at this hour, the entire ruins were completely blanketed by fog. In some ways this was good as then we could focus on what the guide was telling us about the ruins. The tour went for a little over 2 hours and during this time the fog began to life and Machu Picchu slowly revealed itself to us, which I think was an amazing way to experince this incredible site.

The views are just like you see in all the photos that you see. I could not stop taking pictures. No matter where you are you have an amazing view. It took some time for it to really sink in that I was really seeing everything with my own eyes.

To think about when this place was built (1400 AD) and the knowledge that the Inca's had at that time is amazing. Their understanding of how to build things so that they could withstand earthquakes (which we have yet to do in California) is mindblowing .

The site has an amazing affect on people. At times I would just sit and try to take it all in (as many people were). There were families having picnics, school groups, and individuals like myself. It's just such a peaceful and mesmerizing place.