Cusco: City of Death Taxis

*this post contains strong language from naughty people...*

The Stunning Rainbow Mountains

As always the coach trips in South America although comfy seem to be much longer then advertised. They are particularly ogre-some when one is waiting to see there long lost parents in deepest darkest Peru. Luckily we were at the top of the coach so we could see them as we pulled into the bus port. Re-United at last yay!!! So great to see them.

Pachacutec in the Plaza de Armas

Upon writing this the parents decided to give their titles to Cusco, 'the unfinished town', 'the place with the fecking woofy dogs,' 'bloody booming elections,' all in all I think they enjoyed it. To be fair, Cusco has had rapid expansion in the last 50 years due to the tourism generated by Machu Picchu discovered (by westerners, the locals new it was there all along) in the 1900s, and it is still growing due to the recently uncovered rainbow mountains and more, so once you get outside of the main Plaza de Armas things look a bit 'homemade.'

One of the Woofy Dogs that became our friend (A bribe may have been used)

Taking a cab in Cusco is also a particularly interesting experience, somewhat akin to getting into Charon's boat to the underworld... to mark off a few things we have seen:

1. On our first cab in Cusco we were involved in a car accident (only rattled, no injuries)
2. The other taxi that hit us didn't bother to slow down, just ploughed into the side
3. We overtook a lorry with a car coming towards us and simply blew the horn to warn them we might hit them
4. Nearly ran over several pedestrians
5. Nearly hit a train (this was the bus to Cusco) but credit to him, he stopped fast and it was a blind corner with no warnings, this was the same with a man who stepped out in front of the bus
6. Cracks in the windshield
7. Steering wheels held on with elastic bands
8. Seatbelts not being available
9. Indicators held on with elastic bands
10. Check engine lights being on for the entire journey
11. Broken speedometers
12. Changing lanes without indicating
13. Hairpin bends (bus to the rainbow mountains, this went down a single road track)
14. Impressively large speed bumps that launched you out of your seat
15. Very speedy driving
16. An incredibly terrified Mother

This feels like the worlds worst version of the Twelve Days of Christmas...

Sunset over Cusco

Our time in Cusco ran alongside the local elections in the town, much like the ones in Puno, these elections were heralded in by morning and evening 'yellings' from the respective political parties over loudspeakers and megaphones from 6am till midnight with a short break for their normal working hours. As soon as the election results were in on one of our last days the noises stopped. But after all that we're at a loss for who won. Nevertheless, our favourite candidate by far was a feller called 'Willy Cuzmar' a fifty something year old, with a cracking name.

The Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas

On one day we did the famous tours of the cathedrals in the towns. Theses were obviously the Spanish cathedrals, so 1600+ these were very beautiful and ornate, with floor to ceiling canvases of very white people in heroic positions, strewn with fabrics and lace on some madey uppy backgrounds. Strangely, Jesus had the local ethnicity, whilst the other character maintained their chalky complexions, presumably to be more in keeping with Jesus actual ethnicity ;or to be a more relatable character for the locals. Though this seems unlikely that the Spanish oppressors and the paintings patrons would be concerned with Jesus' relate-ability. But you'll never know.

A rather High Horse...

The last supper painting particularly stood out to us as unique, it had all the usual characters and familiar faces, it had the wine, the bread and the roasted guinea pig! What a treat!

The Last Supper with Cuy

The churches also have these creepy china faced dolls with magnificently ornate dresses on that stare down at you from the altar, and get paraded around on saint's days. On the top of the Saint mobile that is, not quite as fast as batman's, or as subtle. But it handles the crowds well.

The Ruins at Sacsayhuaman

In the ancient Incan temples they had a similar practice where they had mummified people, probably the esteemed people, and strategically placed them around the temples waiting for the condor-spirit and real life animals to take their spirits into the next world. Or heaven, or generally upwards. A lot of the old Incan temples were made with just bricks no mortar or glue, the are perfectly cut in order to slot together without anything else. In the old town Cusco it is famous for this particular stone that had 12 sides and slotted perfectly into the ones around it. But how did they carve theses heavy (30 tonnes in some cases) stones with such primitive materials? Well they used to carve a bit then bash wood into the holes, and then pour water into the bashed wood, which in turn swells up by sucking in the water and splits the stones into the correct shape. They also used to roll these heavy stones on logs and smaller cylindrical stones to move them around. Clever ha? especially up Machu Picchu. I would want to know there was good brakes too.

Food things to try when you in Cusco:

A Pisco Maracuya and a Pisco Sour at Organika

A pisco sour, a delicious cocktail, that is made with white brandy, lime juice, sugar water and egg white. All mixed together yum, it even makes your cheeks go all crinkly. I had a particularly good passion fruit one to. The fruit here is lovely and fresh. (Like in Arica)

Quochapata

Ceviche a raw fish dish, with a spicy marie rose, (well it's s bit posher then that) but delicious. The lime juices in it changes the property of the fish to so not to bad. Very yummy and I'm not particularly a fish eater.

Quenco Chico

Visit the Organika Restaurant

This is a floral delight to visit, all the food is organic and grown about 20k from the city on their own private farm. The food and cocktails are exquisite. My mum had the steak and it was super tender. And the boys had the alpaca, which was beautifully presented with a sort of beetroot frame and herby gnocchi. Mine was a chicken pesto pasta, it was good, but the other dishes were next level. Pudding was yum, small and pretty with a good punch of flavour, it was a passion fruit moose and the other one was carrot cake and had caramel sauce. I could eat caramel sauce with anything I've just got to work out how to create a dish with meat. Maybe a nice slow roast pork with caramel, apples and prunes or apricots maybe some crystallised sage. - with gnocchi....I'll keep you posted.

Other stuff we saw

We went to see Machu Picchu for a few days, this is covered in a seperate post here

Quenco Ruins

At the top of our hill we had some more Incan ruins, which were quite dilapidated. There happened to be a school all dressed up, re-in acting some of the great Incan battles in their colourful dresses, holding their enemies' freshly removed hearts high in victory over the slain bodies. However much of these ruins were destroyed due to Spanish plundering, as originally they would have been laden with gold, and had bricks the Spanish could repurpose (as was used for the Cathedral). This has the third advantage of crushing the hopes of the newly acquired people.

The Snow capped mountains on the horizon

One day we decided to go to the rainbow mountains! This was a particularly difficult start of 3:30am to drive to the mountains and grab some breakfast, before the snow set in for the day. The rainbow mountains stand at roughly 5200 meters above sea level so the oxygen is a little thin but a lot of tourists make the trip every year. The mountains were discovered about 3 years ago, due to global warming the snow that covered them had melted and revealed these beautifully stripy mountains. Apparently the stripes are different minerals that have coloured the ground. Other then this not a lot is known about them. There are other rainbow mountains, in China and some other places in South America.

I am a mountain!

The lack of oxygen was taking a toll on mum and dad so they decided to take a local horse up the mountains the 4 km walk up there. But we were big and brave and decided to walk up the mountain. Slowly. It only took about 45 ministers for us to walk 80% of the way there (where the horses give up) but then the incline grew.

Dad doesn't like this new 'Friend'

Struggling for breath and feeling pretty dizzy I gave up at 90% of the way and Andrew made it all the way to the top and took the most magnificent photos.

The last time we were all together

Upon his decent, hail stones the size of polystyrene balls began to pelt us from on high, like we had angered the hippy gods. So three of us rode back to safety whilst Andrew casually strolled back (His legs we longer then the horses). Our hands were red raw with the bludgeoning of the hailstones. But we made it.

The foot of the rainbow part of the mountain

We are off to Nazca tomorrow, with a sorrowful heart as mum and dad go home.

Andrew at the summit

Until next time!

Rainbow Mountains? Conquered!

What now?
See some more of our posts

Check out some more of our pictures here

Search This Blog

SmaviesAdventures