Cuzco

I could have kissed the ground on arrival to this, the ancient capital of the Incas. What a relief to get out of Puno! We arrived to our lovely new hotel, a small place with the same homely feel as the one in Arequipa (again, good old trip advisor).
As the capital of the Inca civilisation, there is much to see here in Cuzco, and as we had already lost a day we were eager beavers to explore while we had the chance. Unfortunately it began to rain heavily as we arrived, but expectant that it would only last an hour or so we headed off to the centre. After a supermarket shop (these along with trips to pharmacies are among my favourite pastimes..!) we were dropped in a lovely colonial square, the plaza de armas. At least we guessed it would be lovely if it weren't for the torrential downpour that impaired our view, having not abated as expected. Luckily entrepreneurial locals were selling attractive plastic ponchos which even fashion conscious Ari was forced to wear. Leo was safely tucked up in his pushchair and I wished I was too as the water rose up my jeans. Not a wise choice of outfit. We'd actually forgotten how debilitating rain can be, not having had much of it throughout our journey so far. A trip to find some Inca antiques was abandoned after shopowners followed the buggy round with a mop and we sought refuge in a restaurant recommended to us by the hotel. Just off the main square, this restaurant called Greens was a lovely organic, veggie friendly place that was refuge not only from the rain but from all the restaurants we'd been to serving questionable dishes over the last month. We hungrily lapped up their delights before heading back to our new home to dry off for the night.
We'd organised a city tour for the following day with a private guide to turn us into learned historians of the Inca civilisation. A pitstop to the train station to confirm our tickets to Machu Picchu and get a refund for our redundant Puno-Cuzco trip took an hour of our day (whoever said you need to be patient in Peru was not wrong) but soon enough to explore the Inca ruins. Our guide Diana was excellent and thorough and it was really fascinating to learn to the ways of this successful albeit briefly lived empire. What is amazing is that it took little over 300 years for the Incas to establish and spread from lake Titicaca up to Ecuador, down to Chile and across to Argentina, a feat that took the Romans a millennium. Their stonework is beautiful and easily identifiable, as several streets in Cuzco retain the inca walls as their base, the colonial or modern restoration or replacement looks scrappy in comparison.



I can't help feeling a bit nostalgic for this world that I never knew, the colonists as ever destroyed and looted much and kept precious few buildings intact. Still much remains and is known about the time of the Incas from Spanish chroniclers as the end of the empire came with the invasion of the Spanish, in 1533. Get me, all knowledgeable like. Like I said, really interesting stuff.




Later in the afternoon we took a wander in the main town, without the rain painting its picture of gloom the square looked beautiful, bordered with churches and colonial architectural style. We renewed our hunt for Inca antiques, but gave up on the basis that they would be hard to find, difficult to get out the country and impossible for us to know whether what we were buying was the genuine article. On our hunt we made inquiries into a jewelery shop, only to be confronted by a strange man named Jesus who claimed to be a Shaman that only let people with positive auras into his shop. He began to read Ari's aura until we made our excuses and left post haste. I felt uncomfortable with his pushy demeanour and Ari found nothing but generic postulations in his analysis. When we want to consult a Shaman we'll ask for one thanks.



It was getting late so we headed home, getting past my bedtime at 8 o'clock(!), something to do with these early starts and the altitude I reckon, and got ourselves ready for the early (always why so early?) train to Machu Picchu.