Elena’s woken and she’s still not good, today we’re going to need to find a pharmacy. It seems she’s got a real bad case of gastro.
We go downstairs for breakfast. It’s the same basic breakfast that’s served in most hostels in South America. Buns and jam, coffee, tea, juice and occasionally scrambled eggs. Elena settles for just a cup of tea. I’m told that the cup of tea is the same consistency as her rear end and the churning in her stomach signals that things are not over yet.
It’s fined up a treat and there’s no sign of the downpour from the night before. It’s a short walk down the cobblestoned lanes to Cusco’s main city square. I’m impressed, in fact it’s gorgeous. Lined with Spanish 16th century architecture and two cathedrals and a huge fountain of the Inca King that founded Machu Picchu it really was a quaint surprise.
We found Peru Rail and sorted tickets to Machu Picchu for tomorrow. Initially we were going to take a one day hike to the site, but given Elena’s state we want to take the easiest option. The only available train is a premium one and is a little more expensive, but has larger windows and a glass roof.
Next was organising money. Not more than 20m away from the rail office is a bank with several ATM machines (wow everything is on the square). After living so basic for the last month it’s a treat to find things with ease.
Now to find a Pharmacy, a young lass selling massages approaches us and we ask her, it just around the corner and off the main square. The pharmacist understand Elena’s situation and hand her tablets that’ll stop the problem over the next 3 days.
As I did in La Paz, I decided that I’d take a free walking tour of Cusco. Elena decided that given her delicate situation a 2 1/2 hour tour wouldn’t be comfortable for her so she retreated back up the lane to our hostel.
The crowd started to gather and a couple of young girls from Perth approached me. They recognised me from somewhere earlier on my journey but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out where.
The tour starts in the main square and does the urchin of churches flanking the square. We don’t go in as there’s charge upon entry.
Cusco was laid out in the shape of a Puma as it was a symbol of strength. The lane we walk is known as the spine of the Puma and we’re walking up hill to a church with if pronounced correctly sounds like “Sexy Lady” in English. This church is also known as the head of the Puma.
The up hill walk is no problem as I’ve spent enough time at altitude now to work out that rushing to be first is not the way to go, however I’m third to the top if there’s any ultra marathon readers out there. It’s from this viewpoint you get to see the whole city spread out in front of you.
Our guide has a couple of other places he wants to show us so we head off around the side of the hill into the local residential area. I’m amassed at the buildings and the little quaint doorways on these houses, some of which date back to the 16th century.
We’re all ushered into a small front room of a local house. It’s decorated with stringed instruments and pan flutes. This guy makes them all by hand, some can take up too year to make and he demonstrates each one explaining its heritage and origin. We’re all spellbound by his talent. He invites us all back for an evening of learning how to play these magical instruments for free.id really like to go but I’m not sure how Elena’s feeling and I really need to make sure she’s ok.
Through cobbled streets we walk along stone walls stacked in the 11th century by the people of the Inca. The walls are 13 degrees from vertical. No one knows why, but if you understand that the city of Cusco lies 13 degrees south of the equator you start to understand that these people of the Inca were very intelligent.
We stop by one particular wall that has 12 corners and is intricately laid in place. When you consider all stones are laid with no mortar and have withstood earthquakes thought the century’s without moving you have to tip your hat at their construction and genius.How did the people of the Inca get such precise lines on the stones? Well there are several explanations. One is that they had developed mirrors that once three mirrors were lined up the concentrated rays from the sun would melt the rock. Another is that they used a different rock and sand and ground the edges flat. Either way the craftsmanship to lay these stones would have taken years.
Passing by markets a young store owner points out that along the wall there is a shape of a Puma and a Snake, there would have also been a Condor but with the Spanish destroying large building and stamping their religion across South America during the 16th century a lot of heritage was lost.
As our tour ends we pile into a small bar to taste a traditional alcoholic drink – Pisco Sour. It’s now my drink of choice while travelling through Peru.
