Sunday 7 July 2002
Exhausted in Cuzco
Almost all the Sunday we were ran down. Both of us suffered from diarrhea and didn't feel up to anything. Urrgh!
Therefore we spent most of the day on the freezing cold hostel, cocooning ourselves under the thick Alpaca plaids, reading our books and drinking the coca-tea. The staff at the hostel was really kind and brought us some yogurt and fruits.
This was a bit pathetic and we were annoyed to do "Cuzco by bed" and waste precious time indoor, when being on holiday at one the world's most exciting places.
Monday 8 July 2002
Tourists in Cuzco
This day we were busy, restless and looked forward to the warm weather in Brasil. We aimed at reaching La Paz a day or two earlier and move our flight to Brasil two days in advance. At this time we wanted to finish our staying in Cuzco and move on. After all we had been here for almost a week and mostly sick.
We began our "Cuzco in a single day" project at the Inca Museum, where two students offered their assistance as guides free of charge, just to practice their English. Well they needed the patience and a careful listener but it was a commendable and helpful initiative. The museum was very interesting and very cold.
After this experience we continued to Temple de Santa Domingo, which used to be the major Inca temple "Coricancha". The Spanish tore down most of the temple and built their own church on top, but two earthquakes later the Inca walls last, while the Spanish felt apart. It was possible to see parts of the Inca temple and the famous courtyard, which was fully covered by gold plates in the past. Of course these were stolen shortly after the Spanish conquered the city. Still amazing to image the spectacle this must have been.
Next project was a trip to Pisac. That was a very beautiful and very local trip in an evil-smelling bus. When we got off the bus we saw ourselves situated in a city far away from tourists. Cows were standing in the streets and no tourist information around. That's for sure. We found a taxi to bring us to the old Pisac, and made a deal with the driver, to be sure that he would wait for us.
The ruins of old Pisac, called Inca Pisac are located in hilly surroundings with a spectacular view. We had estimated the trip to be around half an hours, but the nice taxi driver would not count on that. He suggested that we used at least one hour to walk the paths and see the ruins. That turned out to be quite a good idea, as the ruins were astonishing and sometimes a bit difficult to climb.
Walking here was great. We were almost alone and when we finally passed a couple we quickly discovered that they were Danes too. At this time we had met some five or six Danes in Peru. A bit weird considering that Denmark has only 5 million inhabitants. I guess our countrymen travels a lot.
On our way back to Pisac the taxi driver offered us to drive all the way back to Cuzco. We figured out that he had to go there anyway, and made a reasonable deal for both of us. In return he drove by the famous Sacsayhuaman ruins (or "Sexywoman" as everybody calls it). These zigzag walls were the last stand when the Spanish conquered the city. We had not planned on visiting these ruins, but felt satisfied seeing it before leaving the city, as they are pretty popular and worth seeing.
Last attraction this day was a visit at the Cathedral, which was overloaded with voluminous silver and gold altars made by the Spanish. We felt sorry for the Incas, that their precious gold was ruined and melted down into this tasteless collection.