In the end - Cusco!!! and Machu Picchu

In the end - Cusco!!!

19. - 26.08.2011

Abancay - Curahuasi - Limatambo - Cusco

           ( 76 - 47 - 83 km)

 Within 3 days we reached Cusco  ( 21.08.), and afterwards relaxed and enjoyed this lovely city.

Leaving Abancay was almost more demanding than the rest of the distance to the 4000m - pass Abra Sorllaca.

Abancay is just a shit of a city, you cannot even cross a street without being in danger of being surpassed by a car - the traffic is terrible and chaotic, too many vehicles for too narrow streets. And on top of that they made the Panamericana pass through the city - so every truck to Cusco has to fill the overfull Streets. I must admit - the landscape is beautiful, so is Abancay’s Plaza, and you’ ll find all services you look for, hôtels, cafés, laundry, banks…But the city is built on a mountain hang and no two places are the same altitude; ergo, we had to ride up a incredibly steep street to get out of the center, pass the thousand’ s « ferrreteria and lubricentro » to leave the city. Adios, Abancay, and after 36km of uncountable serpentines we reached the pass.

the Plaza de Armas, the only likable and calm place in Abancay

on the way to Curahuasi before the pass Sorllaca, the snow-capped Ampay sitting above Abancay



Rio Apurimac, mosquito paradise

After a night in Curahuasi, Peru' s capital of Anis, the Panamericana led us down into the valley of Rio Apurimac. While Peru attracts tourist to this river with white sand on its sides for rafting, we spent some 2 hours escaping from its midges. And we were not fast enough riding river-upstream, so that in Limatambo our arms and legs were covered with bites.
On our visit to the archeological sie of Tarahuasi, the friendly guardian told us that "tambo" means "place to rest". The Incas had a tambo-village in distance of one day' s walk; and also for the Inca runners: if each runner made 12km until the next, news could reach Quito from Cusco within 5 days- not bad...



on the way up to Abra Huillque it's always good to take a rest and a photo


Last day for arriving at Cusco: the pass Abra Huillque cost me most of the energy of the day, especially because we didn' t know the distance to the pass and it' s a difference if making a rest with 20 or 10km of ascending slope before you. Fortunately after 27km we reached the pass and from there on went downhill into a rural plain with very peaceful dogs - The dogs in the isolated Andean villages before Abancay had been the worst: as you pass a village at more than 5km/h or less than 35km/h you soon will be followed by the village' s dog hord. If only just one dog starts barking, we signals all his friends to attack the poor cyclists. And unfortunately the tale of the barking and not biting dog has no value here. The only strategies are being faster (and after such a chase I was happy not to be a prey animal, otherwise I would be traumatised by dogs) or stop and threaten the dogs. So Juan and me are at 1:1 score - for dogs having bitten our bike baggage.
While it was getting hotter and we were getting tired, Juan showed me something at the sky: the sun was surrounded by a rainbow-coloured huge ring!! At first I was scared, because if you don' t know what it is, it might seem a giant explosion or a meteorit approaching; just as the numerous scenarios I had seen about the dinosaurs'  extinction. But we were lucky not to share the dinosaurs' fate, as the phenomenon we were witnessing is called an "ice halo". That means that tiny ice cristals in the upper troposphere refract the sunlight just as the raindrops in a rainbow do and thus create a multi-coloured ring around the sun.

the ice halo over the plain

The ice halo follwed us some half an hour and we approached our aim: Cusco. And after a last, almost ridiculous pass Cusco appeared down to our feet. Arriving in the central Cusco we could't really believe our eyes: one beautiful church after the other, and many beautiful places, so I wasn' t sure which of them was the Palza de Armas. So Cusco is the city we were looking for: much great architecture, small lovely streets, many Inca walls in the city and archeological sites arund it,few traffic, and surrounded by the Andes.

part of Cusco' s Plaza de Armas (all main plazas are called Plaza de Armas)

cheese on Cusco' s market

corn in all colours you wish

in Sacsayhuaman, a ruin near Cusco

 An impressionating detail about the Inca ruins is the way the stones are put together: polygonal stones were put together like a 3D puzzle, without any space or adobe between the stones. And each stone has another form.

on the train to Aguas Calientes, the village near Machu Picchu ( in "expedition" class, and with panorama windows)

for whom was built this doorway? certainly not for me...Machu Picchu in the morning fog

Juan in the labyrinthic ruins

the Rio Urubamba 400m further down will flow to the Amazonas. Machu Picchu is situated between jungle (selva) and Andean Highlands, and the climate at its 2400m is warm

Brugmansia arborea., the trumpet-flowered tree. Its sap was used by the Incas as poison for human sacrifice



 

the postcard view. Machu Pic-chu means "old mountain"


For seeing Machu Picchu by sun rise (which turned out to be impossible because of the mist) we got up a 4am in Aguas Calientes to catch one of the first buses driving to the ruins. Having arrived there we had a guided tour and learned much about Inca history and the site Machu Picchu iself.

Machu Picchu can be divided in agricultural district (all the terraces you see in the photos were cultivated at that time) and an "industrial" one with houses, temples and places.
It is only the landscape that makes the ruins special: the steep mountain Wayna Picchu ("young mountain" in Quechua) behind it can be climbed crawling on hand and feet.
Around Cusco there are also other Inca sites, but they are not so impressionating, especially because they are not reconstructed as Machu Picchu is.

It appears incredible that 500 Spanish were able to conquer the Inca empire consisting of thousands of people. But this was only possible, as the Incas had conquered the Andean regions not long time ago and they were oppressing the people living there. Without collaboration by these people and adversary tribes, who saw the Spanish as a possibility to get rid of the Incas, the "conquistadores" would never have overthrown the Inca empire.

Now we have left Cusco and are on the way to our next aim: Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake,  and La Paz.