Wassup Cuz(co) & The Sacred Valley

From Colca Canyon we returned to Arequipa for a few days over before flying out in the very early hours of the morning to Cuzco. The flight took about half an hour and was chocca block of gringos heading off to do the Inca Trail and view the delights of Macchu Picchu. Needless to say the early morning start meant a great big appetite so the first thing we did upon arrival in Cuzco was to grab a stunningly delicious full English breakfast. The bacon tasted wonderful and a nice side of mushrooms did wonders.

Our rooms at the hostel weren´t ready as it was so early, about 9am, so I decided to explore the town centre. The Cathedral is the main dominanting feature in the Plaza de Armas. Built in the 1700s it is flanked by the oldest church in Cuzco (from the 1500s) and another from the 18th century. One of the interesting highlights in this beautiful cathedral is a painting of the Last Supper with a cuy (guinea pig) in place of bread. I love it how the South Americans add their little touch. Someone told me later on that the face of Judas was also based on a likeness of Pizarro (of Incan conquest fame)! I spent most of my morning in the Cathedral and the two churches so I was pretty knackered and ready for a brief afternoon kip back at the hotel.

The Cathedral

Plaza de Armas

"Gringo Alley" - where the vendors mob you to buy junk

The next day we headed off from Cuzco to the Sacred Valley. This marks the start of the Inca Trail and Maccu Picchu experience. The first stop in the valley was an Andean farm where I bought myself a stock standard Andean hat. Some of you have probably seen them, they look like beanies and have tassles. After that we arrived at Pisac which is like a mini Macchu Picchu. I really enjoyed this site and felt that if Macchu Picchu was even twice as good as Pisac then the trip would be worthwhile.

A woolly alpaca

The entrance to the Sacred Valley

The walls of Pisac

Some of the agricultural terraces at Pisac

A gate at Pisac which could be locked

Some of the crew climbing stairs at Pisac in prep for the Inca Trail

The crew posing on some ruins at Pisac

The ruins of the plebs' houses at Pisac

Religious ruins at Pisac

Typical Incan architecture, especially the window lintels

Following Pisac we travelled to Ollantaytambo which was to be our stopover for the evening before we started the Inca Trail the next day. Ollantytambo provided a religious function for the Incans as well as being a fortress. It´s the only place that Inca´s defeated the Spanish in a major battle, but eventually the Incans retreated and the rest is history. The fortress is designed in the shape of a llama and it was very interesting to see the big hill across the side of the valley where the stone blocks for the construction of the fortress were quarried out and dragged across to the building side.

After a long day it was early to bed in preparation for our 8am start of the Inca Trail and for many of the group the major reason for coming to Peru, if not South America.

Colca Canyon

After a big night on the Mojitos the night before it was a tough start to the day for the 4-5 hour drive out to the Colca Canyon, home to the mighty Andean Condor. Along the way, we stopped off at a point that was 4.9km above sea level, so the breath was quite short and it left many of us puffing like fat men. I slept most of the way due to the previous night´s festivities, so it was on the one hand a quick journey but painful on the other hand.

The marker stone at 4900 metres asl:

Colca Canyon is quite high and the spot where we stayed was about 4km above sea level. Being up this high for three days is good acclimatisation for the Inca Trail that was to follow. The main highlights in Colca was the hot pools, which was completely dominated by gringos, and obviously the condors.

The best condor spotting point was near a point in the canyon that has about a 3.5km drop to the bottom, so it was best not to slip off the edge. It only took us about 20 minutes of waiting till we glimpsed our first condor. These birds are massive and also quite beautiful with their white wings with black tips. If my memory serves me correctly the wing span of an average adult male condor is about 3 metres - so they are huge. We saw a wide variety of condors in the hour we were there and I got plenty of photo ops.

"Como se llama?" (haha) - Simon the llama botherer (Actually I think it's an alpaca!)

Looking out over Yanque from our hotel:

A couple of condors in flight:

A stone cross marks the Crux del Condor, from where we viewed these magnificient birds:

An ass-licking (haha):

Watch the edge kiddies, it's a long way down:

All up we had three days in Colca Canyon. I would have preferred to get back to Arequipa for another day, but as mentioned above it was great to acclimatise at a high altitude.