Colca Canyon and Cusco

Following on from our last post, the Inca girl, Juanita, was found by archaeologists in 1995 on the frozen summit of a nearby volcano. Several other mummies of sacrificed children have been found on various volcanoes in Peru and Chile and as Juanita is being studied further at the moment a different mummy was on exhibition. It is thought that these young people were only sacrificed when disasters such as El Nino or volcanic eruptions occurred and that it was regarded as an honour to die in this way. They walked up the volcanos to the summit and were fasting and drinking chichi (an alcoholic drink) which with the altitude and exertion probably meant they were only semi conscious when they were killed by a blow to the head.
The following day we drove to the Colca Canyon with wonderful scenery as we travelled around the back of the Misti Volcano and through the Colca Valley seeing vicunha, alpaca and llamas along with arid desert dunes, towering outcrops of rock, swampland and ancient pre-Inca terraces – some of which (about 30%) are still cultivated. They grow beans, potatoes and quinoa mostly. We saw the snowy mountaintops of Ampata (where they found Juanita) and various other mountains and we eventually reached the pass through the Andes at about 6,000m. From there we followed a winding road down to Chivay, at 3,600m, (together with many yellow shirted marathon runners!) where we had lunch (grilled alpaca steak) and witnessed a superb thunderstorm, before a short drive to the lodge where we stayed the night. It was cold and we were glad of our extra sweaters. Five of us then visited the local hot springs and although the pool was pleasantly warm the recent rain and hail had cooled it somewhat. I developed a cracking headache from hyper-extending my neck in the pool – very silly - but by dinner time it was okay and after a complimentary glass of gluwein and some excellent food we felt much warmer and ready for bed.
We then had a 6am start to drive to watch the condors flying. My neck didn’t like the bumpy drive on the dirt road but we had several stops for views and a village or two before getting to the start of the canyon and the look-out point for the condors. Awe-inspiring scenery – sheer walls plunging down 2000m to the Colca river at the bottom – the whole canyon is 100Km long. It was great to spend a couple of hours watching the condors spiralling up on the thermals until they flew right over us. With a wing span of around 3m it was very impressive. We then drove back to Chivay and on back to Arequipa. I felt it was a shame that we didn’t go further along the canyon although we would only be able to see it from the road at the top.
We had a hideously early start the next day, leaving the hotel at 5am for our flight to Cusco. We aren't going to be able to get to Machu Pichu but there are many interesting sites around Cusco.
Cusco is at 3,600m so we felt the altitude and had a welcome couple of hours rest before walking around the city with Daniel, who pointed out museums and took us around the San Pedro market which was interesting. We all met up for dinner and had a relatively early night with a lie in until 9am!
The following day, fter a leisurely breakfast we wandered around and went to see the Museum of Regional History and the Monument to Pachakuteq which we climbed (slowly) to enjoy some great views of the city. Luckily it had several landings with displays where one could catch one’s breath before ascending further. We all met up with another seven people who had just flown in from Lima for a guided tour around Q’Enqo which was a sacred Inca site with a cave and various outcrops of rocks which may have been used as astronomical observatory. Apparently on the top of the caves are rocky protuberences which when the sun shines shows the shadow of a puma (the puma represents this plane of existence whilst the condor represents the heavens and the snake the inner world). We then visited Saqsaywaman, a colossal structure which may have been a temple to the lightning as its massive walls are built in a zig-zag pattern. The huge stones are precision carved to interlock seamlessly – an amazing feat when one considers they only had stone tools to work with. We then drove back into Cusco city to visit Qorikancha which was the Inca temple complex, built on by the Spanish but where there is still much of the original Inca stonework. The main temple was to the sun and had gold plate on the outer walls which must have looked magnificent – it is still impressive now despite the Spanish vandalism. We then visited the cathedral – very ornate and with two side churches. One of these contains the black Christ. The story is that in the 1560s Spain sent Cusco a statue of Christ and as it was being transported through Peru from the coast, they stopped overnight in one of the villages and in the morning the statue felt so heavy that they decided it was a sign that the Christ wanted to stay there. This meant that they had to make another statue for Cusco instead. The arms and legs were made of wood and the body of leather and they used a mixture of cornflour and something else that I have forgotten to paint it. In time this produced oxides which have darkened the colour of the skin.
On our third day in Cusco we had a full day guided tour around various Inca sites. We started by visiting Chinchero, a colonial town built upon Inca structures where we attended an excellent demonstration by local women of how they wash, dye, spin and weave alpaca and sheep wool. We then drove through some lovely countryside with the Andes towering in the background to Ollantaytambo, a wonderful Inca site with huge numbers of terraces, houses, temples and granaries. We then drove to Moray where there are four circular complexes of Inca (and pre-Inca) terraces where it is thought they experimented to find the optimum conditions for growing different crops. We eventually got back to the hotel shortly after 7pm and sampled a nearby restaurant (very tender alpaca and excellent chilli salsa) before turning in.
The next morning we visited the Peru challenge project started by a Peruvian and his Australian girl friend, now his wife. They have re-established community schools in 2 or 3 places and we visited the one at Pumamarca. They are in their final year here before the school becomes completely self sufficient with government help now that 170 children go there. They usually stay involved with the project for 5 years and the community then take over. They have also established a women’s project there where over 200 women spend 2-3 afternoons a week doing arts and crafts to sell; this is run by the local social worker and has proved very successful. We got back for lunch and then visited a silver and jewellery workshop on the outskirts of Cusco where everyone bought stuff – including me (for my birthday, of course!). In the evening we went to the cultural centre for an hour’s demonstration of local dances before having dinner.
The next day we visited Pikillaqta, a pre-Inca Huari city from 650AD with amazing 12m high walls and very extensive remains of streets and houses showing remnants of lime plaster on the walls and floors made with a mixture of plaster, lime and adobe that looked like cement. We passed an area in the valley where they had had heavy flooding which had destroyed fields and houses. The people are currently living in tents until either their homes are rebuilt or they are relocated. We then drove to Tipon where we had to drive high up the mountainside on narrow mud roads with hairpin bends – scary! Tipon is another well preserved Inca site with terraces, water channels and waterfalls – well worth the visit. On the way home there was further excitement as a power cable had come down on the road which necessitated a detour on a rutted and very muddy road normally only used by farm vehicles and suchlike, difficult terrain for a coach!
Today Iain and I decided to take a taxi to visit a couple of sites nearby, Tambomachay and Puka Pukara. The former was a smaller version of the waterfalls, terraces and aqueducts we saw at Tipon but Puka Pukara was great; a fort and watch tower with quite a lot of the walls still standing and great views. We then returned to find a fiesta and procession of many local dance teams in the main square for Palm Sunday. It was very colourful so we stayed to watch instead of going to an art museum. After lunch we climbed way up narrow streets of steps to San Cristobal where we were rewarded with magnificent views over Cusco. Having wandered through many picturesque streets we felt we deserved a pisco sour, the local drink which we both like, before returning to the hotel for a bit of a rest. Well, that’s all for now, so hope all is well with everyone and we’ll be in touch when we can. Lots of love to all Ann and Iain