Cusco

From Buenos Aires we flew to Lima. A couple of days later we joined up with another Hurtigruten trip. This time to the Galapagos Islands. The complete itinerary included a visit to Machu Pichu. The trip began with a silly early morning, before 6am, for a flight. Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire, is now listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. It took our breath away. Literally. At 3,400 m the altitude was a bit of a shock to the system. It is quite a place in many other ways as well. The centre is a crushed together hotch-potch of buildings. Some very old and others looking like they had been slapped together yesterday. Our hotel proved to be a rather lovely old building right in the heart of the city. Although we did not get much time to appreciate it.

After just enough time to drop our bags, we were off on a walking tour of some of the remains in the city centre. The Inca empire arose sometime in the 13^th century. It covered a vast tract of what is now Peru, Ecuador and Chile and ruled some 12 million people. In 1532 the empire came to a crashing end when the Spanish invaded. Cusco was the Inca capital. Today many remains of Inca buildings can be found. We wandered around a couple of the main sites. As usual, when looking at Inca ruins, I wondered about how they made the big blocks of stone fit together. It is not magic or aliens but it is an awful lot of hard work. The walls all lean in slightly and use rounded corners and trapezoidal doorways. The stone blocks are fitted together without mortar. The facing surfaces often have a hidden protrusion that fits into a corresponding hole. A little like Lego blocks. The result is incredibly earthquake proof. During a small or moderate earthquake, the masonry is stable. During strong earthquakes, stone blocks have been observed “dancing” and settling into their original positions afterwards. This is one reason so many of the ruins remain today. Some of the very best walls have blocks which are perfectly square and horizontal – remarkable.

Next, we were bundled into a coach and taken to a carpet shop. Not really a carpet shop but I was reminded of the way that in Morocco, any tour would inevitably take you to the guide’s brother’s carpet shop – “just for looking”. Here we were in a textile museum which also had a large shop of textile products adjacent to it. There were also some llamas and guinea pigs that I talked to for a while. I was reminded of the fact that in Peru, guinea pigs are not pets.

Another short drive took us to Sacsayhuamán. These are the remains of one or more fortresses on a hill (3,700 m) overlooking Cusco. After the Spanish invasion, much of the rock from these forts was taken to use as building material. Only the largest blocks, too large to move, remain. However, there are still an awful lot of these and entire site is very impressive. It was raining. Heavily at times. This did make for a rather soggy visit although some of the views with cloud and sun were quite dramatic.

Back at the hotel, we did a historic tour of the hotel That was very boring although a presentation of an Inca ceremonial routine was fun to watch. Then came a presentation of how to make Pisco Sour, the Peruvian national drink. Moderately interesting and we got to drink the cocktail when it was finished. Finally, to bed. Very early, breathless and tired knowing that we would be up at 4am.