The Trip: Cusco [Gaganymede]

The Trip: Cusco

08 March 2010 at 17:52
Traveling

We arrived in Cusco, the former Inca capital, one month after the rains that made the Urumbamba river destroy everything, causing many people to be homeless, hurt, sometimes killed. It also locked Machu Picchu. As cynical as it may sound, it allowed us to visit the town for much cheaper, since the tourists went elsewhere and competition roars. This is how we payed S/.10 for a hostal instead of 25.

We took cheap touristic tours to see the different sites of the region very quickly. The problem was we didn't have time to do anything properly. We visited the Sacred Valley, but we couldn't see, for example, the whole extent of Ollantaytambo.

Same thing when we did the "city tour": after a guided visit, we only had 10 minutes to walk around Qorikancha, which used to be the religious center of the inca empire. Still, I happened to find a painting representing the inca constellations.

We also did Chinchero, a village used as a reserve for the inca descendants...

I also visited the museums and stuff. The Contemporary Art Museum was very interesting because it showed the obession of the Peruvians with the Inca empire. I will not comment more on this in this post because it's a complex topic.

The Dream of the Pachamama, by Ruben Flores Encalada

I also had my tatoo.

When we decided to go, I met a German who told me he managed to get into Machu Picchu. He gave me infos and Ada, Peter and I decided to try our luck. After going through a cable-car above the river and witnessing tiny landslides, we arrived behind the mountain of the Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, my info was not complete and given the weather and Peter's knee, we decided to go back.

But we discovered something else. Officially, the site is closed for security reasons. But after talking with a few people, we learnt that there is a monopoly story behind it and it's quite fucked up. This is terrible for the region as tourism is the main resource.

I made a little donation for people who are suffering from the rains and the landslides.