The Cohen Chronicle

The next morning in Cusco we tried to sleep in. No luck - we were wide awake at 7:30. Too many early mornings on the Trail!

This was our room - see what I meant by tree house?

We had this day to ourselves to explore Cusco. (No Percy until the next day.) We started off at Qorikancha. It's an interesting mix of Inca, colonial and modern styles. The Spanish built their church on top of one of the most sacred Inca temples, of course.

Very big, very intricately carved doors.

Beautifully painted ceiling.

See what I mean by a mix of styles? Short Incan walls, colonial pillars, modern steel and windows.

The building itself used to be completely coated in gold plating. Guess who stole it? First three guesses don't count. Three of the original walls still stand, including the black one in this photo.

The museum was small, dark and dinky, but we had heard that before we went. (It was included in our tourist ticket.) There were morphed skulls, though.

Later we decided to go check out the Cusco local market. Many sights along the way. This guy was selling cheese.

We passed multiple shops selling cake by the slice and eventually broke down and bought one. It was delicious! And all for less than $1!

We were overwhelmed when we reached the market. It was huge! Whatever you wanted or needed, it was there. Meat? Got it. Cheese? Got it. Bread? That's there too. Vegetables, fruit, clothes, gifts.... it's all there.

The market also has many small counter-service restaurants. The food is incredibly cheap. They also have juice counters with the owners shouting "Sin agua!" at us. (No water!)

Get your giant bread!

Buy your dog food straight from the bag!

Cow head, anyone?

We eventually pulled ourselves away from the awesomeness of the market and headed through the city in search of a particular lunch spot.

Once we reached the neighborhood we were looking for, we started seeing snakes carved into the stones. Snakes represent the underworld.

Juanito's was our destination. We had read about their superb sandwiches, something which is hard to find in Peru. It was well worth the uphill walk! You choose your sandwich, then pick as many sauces as you'd like!

A had lechon (suckling pig).

I had pork chicharron. Yes, those are sweet potatoes on my sandwich. Both were delicious.

An interesting street find. Anything about this motorcycle strike you as potentially dangerous?

Next we went to the best museum we had seen so far: Museo Inka. It has the most complete collection of pre-Incan and Incan artifacts. The museum had most of the finds from the Sacred Valley sites we had seen already.

Parts of the museum used to be a Spanish mansion. Some of the ceilings were beautifully painted.

This is a quipu - essentially a sort of abacus the Inca and other cultures used to keep track of the number of goods in storage.

Researchers believe these were used as levels. They would be filled with water. If the water started to spill out one side, they knew that side was too short.

The Inca carried these giant urns on their backs tied with rope. They are about 5 feet tall. They would be filled with chicha or other goods.

They had the turquoise figurines which were found at Pikillacta! Sorry for the blurry photo, but I wasn't even supposed to take it. I couldn't help it!

We had dinner at this trippy, kooky place. Stuffed animals everywhere and the servers wore crazy hats. Since we weren't very hungry, we just nibbled and played card games.

Coming Up: All the salt in South America, a really amazing crop growing site, and chicha!

The next morning we awoke refreshed and ready to resume our touring with Percy. After breakfast at the hotel, Percy picked us up and we headed to the Ollantaytambo archaeological site. This fortress built into the side of a mountain was given to the right-hand warrior of one of the Inca kings. His name was... guess... Ollanta.

This mountain is across town from the main site, but also has some structures built into it.

The entrance to the temple. You can tell by the double layer of rock framing the doorway.

Looking back on the town. You can see how small it is. Very quaint.

This stone is amazing. You can see how the Inca could fit their stones together without mortar or any kind of glue. They would have stones like this which have portions at different heights. Then four other stones are placed, one on each section, and essentially interlock.

Percy offered some theories as to how the Inca cut their stones so straight. One is they used giant molds. Another is they cut them along a quartz line, like this stone below.

Just like at Machu Picchu, archaeologists found signs the site was still under construction. They found giant stones on rollers and ramps along a path from the quarry to Ollantaytambo itself. The ridge in the photo below is the path they followed.

These stones were not small and not easy to move. They weighed upwards of 1 ton! This one was not going to budge.

The detail along the stone was amazing.

Giant, giant stones!

We climbed higher and higher. The stairs were much easier after 5 days of hiking and going to a (slightly) lower altitude!

More terraces for farming.

Ollantaytambo had some very impressive fountains and water systems.

The town grew on top of the original stones from the Inca days and still has a working aqueduct system. People still get their water from them!

After walking around Ollantaytambo, we hopped in the car and drove to Pisac. As we drove, Percy told us all kinds of tidbits of information. One interesting thing is how people brew their own corn beer. It's called chicha. It is not commercially manufactured. If you want to find some, you have to look for a "flag" like this:

Apparently they used to be actual flags in red, blue or yellow. Now they're mostly plastic, but the same colors. You just pull over and head in to buy some beer! And it's very cheap. We didn't have time to stop and Percy didn't know anyone in the area, but he promised he would take us to try some at a later point.

Our first stop in Pisac was the giant market.

We snacked on some corn on the cob. Not just any corn on the cob - the kernels were HUGE! As in, the size of nickels! It was so delicious.

We wandered around and purchased some souvenirs.

I found it highly amusing they were selling stuff guinea pigs. Guinea pig, or "cuy", is a delicacy in Peru. Food, not pets.

It rained for a few minutes while we ate lunch with Percy. A had the Peruvian dish of rocoto relleno - a sort of stuffed pepper. Then we headed up the mountain to the Inca town of Pisac. You can hike up, but it takes around 4 hours. We had enough hiking in the past few days so opted to drive instead.

There were workers restoring some terraces.

The site has many, many levels of terraces and then a city at the very top.

The skies were pretty crazy that day!

Percy was determined to have us smell some wild-growing herbs!

The people who lived here before the Inca took over used to bury their dead in tombs in the side of the mountain. Do you see all the holes? Grave robbers came and opened up over 2,000 tombs. They took everything they felt had value.

We saw some children walking up the path from town and through the site. Percy told us they walk 2 hours first down the mountain to school and then 2 hours up the mountain home. They are very dedicated to education!

On the way back to Cusco we stopped at a farm to see llamas, alpacas and vicunas.

All three are related and look similar but are different. There are some tricks to telling them apart. Vicunas are protected by the state so their fur is the most expensive.

While we were there, some ladies showed us how they make the natural dye colors. The red comes from the same cactus plant we saw in Nasca they use in lipstick.

Here they are displaying the over 3,000 types of potato in Peru.

We were back in Piccola Locanda for the next few nights (our last) in Cusco. This time we had a different room. It was on the second story all by itself - almost like being up in a tree house.