Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So this is going to be a cheesy start to the blog, get ready for it - 'Cuzco is a city so steeped in history, tradition and myth that it can be difficult to know where fact ends and myth begins.Legends tell that in the 12th century the first Inca, Manco Capac, was charged by the ancestral sun god to find the qosq'o (the naval of the earth).When at last Manco discovered such a point, he founded the city´ (Lonely Planet Guide).That's kind of how it feels to be in Cuzco and that's the reason we haven't quite managed to leave just yet….We arrived in Cuzco around a week ago (time totally blurs when you're travelling - we had an actual debate in our hostel last night about what day it was and we were a day out…) feeling our worst.Cuzco is 3300m above sea level and we have officially discovered altitude sickness.The bus journey here from Ica was 18hours of hell.I woke up on the very edge of physically vomiting (yet another time I have thanked god that I bought travel sickness tablets at Heathrow Airport before we left) and Wills had to spend the journey in complete darkness under his sweater, an eyemask and sunglasses because he developed a migraine.When we finally arrived in Cuzco (feeling sick but totally wowed by the scenery - the city spreads out all across the mountains, a king of orangey red horizon of buildings, with the rainbow flag flying in the streets), my first port of call was to run to a farmacia literally just opposite the bus station to use my bad Spanish to buy Wills some migraine pills.No idea what was in them but they worked and our headaches turned into hacking coughs instead - we've been very popular in our dorms!So our time in Cuzco has been a complete random mixture of experiences and feelings and I think that's why we've enjoyed it so much.I think it's also marked our settling in time and we are definitely feeling like proper travellers now.
We've spent a lot of our time just wandering around the city which is more like Venice than any other South American city we've seen so far.The streets are cobbled and the architecture is amazing - especially around the main plaza, Plaza Des Armas, where the cathedral stands, with fountains in the square and coffee shops around the edge (with the universal Irish bar of course…).But once you leave the plaza and head up through the cobbled streets, you see true Peruvian life.There's always something going on in this city - we've watched street artists, spray paint artists and today we stumbled across a festival which we think was the Corpus Christi festival.Saints were paraded and we came across the children's parade which you'll see from the photos gave me the chance to take lots of photos of children (stalking them in the streets to get nice photos suddenly became easy!).We've also been visiting some of the religious buildings, churches and cathedrals, just because we felt we wanted to know more about the Catholicism of Peru.The churches are amazing, especially the cathedral here - with ornate carved pulpits and altars (in the San Blas church it took 20yrs to carve) that stretch from the ground to the ceiling, completely covered in gold leaf and with various saints in all the crevices.I really enjoyed learning about the saints and the way that Catholicism was brought here by the Spanish.In a lot of the religious art, there are typical Christian scenes but with Andean influences that were created as a way to `bring the religion to the people' so that they could relate to it.For example, in the cathedral there was a portrait of the Last Supper and the meal was the traditional meal of guineau pig.There was a portrait of Mary, Joseph and Jesus and Mary appeared pregnant but it was because she was wearing the traditional Andean skirts.There were also paintings which, when you looked closer, had cacao leaves painted onto the portraits by the artists, which are used extensively here.The cathedral was allowed to be decorated by tiny mosaic mirrors because the Andean belief is that the mirror is a gateway into a person's soul and if a person looks and is pleased with what they see then their conscience is clear.Some of the wood carvings also had prophets etc, next to voluptuous naked women because in the Andean culture, this is a sign of fertility and life.Some of the saints are really interesting too and still relevant to some of the Andean people.There is a black Jesus who they call the God of Storms and when the earthquake struck in I think the 15th century, they prayed to him to protect Cuzco.There are also saints for Good Deeds, a saint women pray to, to ask for good husbands and a Saint that mothers tell their young boys about who met an untimely death due to his 'philandering'.I'm sure there were other things but I've forgotten them and my accuracy might not be 100% so apologies!I've decided to start taking a notepad and pen with me when I visit stuff in the future because I always think how interesting something is and then forget it - is that geeky??Anyways, it's been really interesting to see the fusion of the cultures and religions but it's also brought mixed feelings and made us think about Colonialism more generally, which Wills and I had a good chat about last night over a couple of beers in the hostel courtyard.
So that's all pretty heavy stuff!But on the lighter side, we've just been having a great time meeting people, making leftovers from meals out last as long as possible (our record is some chinese rice that we've made last for 3 meals).The hostel is Pariwana Hostel right in the centre of Cuzco and its called 'the best hostel in South America by some websites!It has reeeeally comfy beds with actual duvets, hot showers with good pressure and an open courtyard with beanbags where people socialize.So we feel like we've been a bit spoilt.We also visited a chocolate museum here and had the best chocolate fondue EVER!We're visiting the Sacred Valley tomorrow and then plan to tear ourselves away from Cuzco.There are problems in Puno at the moment, which was going to be our next stop so we might have to take a detour through Chile.So that's been Cuzco, probably our favourite stop so far just because of the variety, with so much to do, so many random happenings and a little of bit of the 'real Peru'…
- comments
Bub I loves it x
Charly Ok, so I know that we have been best friends since we were 11 and I know that you are known for your fantastic way with 'words' when writing, Im thinking letters cards notes and diaries at 14 hehehehehe but these blogs are amazing Em. I think you have found your calling, travel the world writing a travel blog to get peole to visit the country..amazing. really makes me wish i was there, even with migraines and sickness, and yes I can imagine the hacking cough-the positive thing for me is that I have made it to another weekend and another week closer to my SA adventures.... keep us up to date on the next move. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jenny Love the bit about the guinea pig meal. I´m flying to Cusco tomorrow. Hope the border crossing doesn´t take too long xxxx
Deana Sounds amazing Emma, you're giving Andy itchy feet!! Take care you two xx
El I totally Agree with Carly, very articulate and enjoyable to read... the only problem is it's making me more jealous with each new blog! :)
Laura Gregory Excellent blog- you really should be a travel writer you sound so professional! x
Laura I meant to rate as 5 star but have somehow managed to rate as 4 star!