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I realise that it has been a few days since my last update, but that is due to the rather inconvenient fact that the Incas didn't put plug sockets in their temples and so I was offline for much of last week and catching up with rest/moving on since.So please find below the next instalment of the journey and I will update in a few days with photos and stories of the Inca Trail.Best wishes to everyone.I am missing you all!
12th March 2011
Day 3
Cuzco, Coca and Culture
I slept in a little on Day 3 (Saturday).I wanted to make sure I was properly rested.I had also given in the night before and decided to start taking the Diamox, as the nurse at the travel clinic suggested.It can be used as a prophylactic treatment before climbing to higher altitudes and I was not sure if it was this that had started to work that morning, or if it was the good sleep (despite being woken by others in my 8 bed dorm at 1am, but what do you expect for £7 a night?) that meant I was feeling better.Of course, I could have also been beginning to acclimatise (or 'acclimate' as my American dorm mates informed me was the proper term when I looked at them blankly) to the altitude - around 3300m above sea level just in the town itself.
I breakfasted on the free tea and bread rolls in the hostel and then decided to follow the Lonely Planet walking tour (page 220 if anyone is coming and needs the reference, Ali!).I did again try the coca tea.This consisted of selecting several green leaves (they resemble bay leaves used in cooking) popping them into a cup of boiling water and waiting for the strange smell to begin to emanate.I can't say it is a nice aroma.It is how I imagine drinking tea made from leaves you find on your garden rose bush might be scented, and indeed, taste.Allegedly, the properties of coca in its raw form are mainly similar to caffeine: it is a mild stimulant that helps keep you awake, settles your stomach and works to reduce altitude sickness.Now, I have no idea whether there is a proven biological mechanism for this, or if there has been any kind of randomised controlled trial to prove it's effects (it would be an interesting design - could you 'blind' people to it's distinctive taste, or make placebo coca?).Also, I suspect there was likely a placebo effect of believing this plant would help me get around town without feeling as woozy as I had done the previous day, but I was happy to trust the locals' knowledge.The tea actually didn't taste as bad as it smelt, and I finished up and headed out.
First stop was the Plaza de Armas.This is the central square, filled with local Cusco residents, people touting their street paintings, women dressed in traditional Inca clothing carrying baby alpacas and llama and asking for money for photographs, and people selling various alpaca hats, not only are they complete with llama decoration but are also reversible too!The Lonely Planet warns that one might feel like a walking cash machine, being asked to shell out every two steps, but it is worth it to take in the fountain, the little children running amongst the pigeons and the magnificent cathedral, flanked by two smaller churches, the porticoed buildings and the cobbled streets.
At this point I must again mention the source of great fascination to me.The traffic!Not quite as busy as Lima, but this time, along with the incessant sound of honking horns, there were policemen and women on every corner, blowing whistles and waving some traffic on and stopping others.However, sometimes, they seemed to just stand and watch the traffic go by.Even when they were making their merry piercing blasts on their instruments, I couldn't fathom what the rules actually were.Some cars just seemed to ignore the whistles and go anyway, others politely let people across and still more just hurtled blindly through gaps that no British driver would attempt.I have still yet to see a crash.
On my walking tour went, meandering through two more plazas (squares, one of which had been the site of a political rally for the ongoing presidential elections the previous evening, until I reached the local market 'mercado San Pedro'.Here, I stopped for a 'jugo' (fruit juice) and picked mango from a dizzying menu.Here I watched Cusco go by, delighted by the three children playing happily and fighting over a 'choclo' (corn on the cob with kernels the same size as those I had eaten in Lima two nights before) on the next stand.I then explored the market, taking pictures of the different aisles: jugos, fruit, vegetables, meat, spices, and then the eating area at the back of the market, where I had 'Escabeche de Pollo' (pickled vegetables and roast chicken).You can see all of these delights in the photos I have posted.In particular, I was fascinated by the amount of offal available for sale: chicken feet, pigs heads, ox tails, and what I think were the jaws of either cows, or alpaca.It seems no food is wasted here in Peru, something we Westerners could perhaps embrace in a time of austerity.
Next I wandered down Calle Nueva, a busy and manic little street with people selling everything from mops and buckets, car radios and mattresses, and then back via the Plaza de Armas to Calle Triunfo, the site of one of the many Inca Walls in the city.To explain for thoe of you reading who don't know about Incan architecture, the Incas were very clever and for their temples they used large blocks of solid rock chiselled to shape that slotted together without mortar and held each other in place.It doesn't sound remarkable until you spot the stone with 12 different sides to it (perhaps see if you can locate it in my pictures) which neatly jigsaws with the stones next to it.
From here, I wandered up to San Blas, a hilly, artistic part of the city with a church and main square where some locals were practising their traditional dancing.I started to walk toward the Inca site I wanted to visit and ended up chatting to a girl who was also consulting her Lonely Planet book.Her name was Marika and she was from Italy.Marika spoke excellent Spanish and this was hugely useful as we got to the gates of the Inca site and she was able to translate the ticket prices to me.We paid for our tickets and hiked up a reasonably steep incline to the ruins of the Sacsaywaman temple.Tourists are fond of referring to this place as 'sexy woman' to get the pronunciation somewhere close, but it is apparently greeted with indifference from some locals!We walked up to and around the huge statue of Jesus which stands guard over the city and I was reminded of how deeply religious the country is.We took some great panoramic shots and Marika helped me to try chewing the coca leaves for the first time.This was definitely worse than drinking the tea!Initially, it made me feel like I was going to be sick - trying to pulp down 10 or so leaves whose strange smell I have previously described with my molars wasn't the most enjoyable thing I had tasted since beginning my journey.Still, once I had chewed a few times and the green leaves had become a more discrete ball of fibres, I duly kept it in my mouth to see what would happen.After about ten minutes, the whole of my mouth went numb, rather like having had a lignocaine injection at the dentists.Not entirely unpleasant, but a little strange.Once again, I am sure the placebo effect helped with the shortness of breath I was experiencing from the climb above the city, and it did take my mind off it temporarily while I wrestled with the taste.
Sacsaywaman was quite remarkable.It was the site of a battle in 1536, between the Spanish and the locals.We slid down a smooth granite rock face (copying the local children and smiling at the mother who exclaimed that her boy was going to set fire to his trousers by doing so repeatedly, or something similar, in Spanish!). We saw the site for the offerings of llamas, the remnants of look out towers, and the walls allegedly in the shape of a puma's teeth.However, not much of the area remained as many of the stones had been carted off down the hill and used to build the Cathedral and may other buildings in Cusco town.
Marika and I wandered back into town.I ate an 'anticucho' (a skewer of marinated beef heart with a potato on the end) bought from a street stall to stave off my hunger cravings, and we went off in search of a restaurant.The food was excellent at the Inca Fe Café, but the service a little laboured, but I really enjoyed my first taste of succulent alpaca steak with a cheese quinoa risotto.We went for a quick pisco sour in KM 0 (I think it is so named as it is the 'beginning' of the Inca Trail - rather than KM 82 where the trail now begins) and went our separate ways for the night, agreeing to meet in the morning for a trip to Pisac, which is where I will continue my story.
If you are still reading, adios amigo!
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