Woke up feeling terrible. Head pounding, very nauseous, bad tummy…Henry was fine. Altitude sickness feels a lot like a terrible hangover. Crawled down to breakfast but couldn’t really eat anything. Most other people seemed bright-eyed and bushytailed but perhaps I only saw the ones who were feeling okay. We left the hotel at 8.00 on two buses again and drove up above Cusco to an Inca site called Tambo Machay which was probably a site for water worship. We were introduced to our Peruvian guides: Wilfredo, José Luis and Danny from the tour company SAS (South American Sites).
We walked downhill to Puca Pucara which means ‘Red Fort’. Beautiful views from here and a good vantage point for the Incas to protect the area. Walked further down in the direction of Cusco and stopped for our lunch in a wooded area. Had our first taste of how we were to be spoilt on the trek. There was a Peruvian band playing to greet us; three toilet tents; bowls of water with soap and towels; a splendid buffet and a long tent, with tables, stools and table
cloths, for us to eat in. I was feeling much better and hungry after my meagre breakfast so was able to do justice to the lunch and washed it down with Inca Cola and coca tea. Lots of stray dogs running around hoping for titbits. After lunch we were introduced to some more of the people who will be looking after us on the trek.
Then we continued downhill to a large Inca site called Sacsayhuaman (and pronounced disrespectfully as ‘Sexy Woman’ by all the guides). This was an amazing place with massive stones which originated in quarries 10km away. How the Incas cut and shaped them, let alone moved them, is wonderful to contemplate. They left small gaps between the larger stones to allow for heat expansion and so enable the walls to withstand earthquakes. This is one reason why the incredible, mortar-less Inca walls still stand today while much of the Spanish architecture has suffered. There is a mound known as the Inca’s throne but also called the sliding place because of the long, smooth channels in the rocks down which the local children slide. There is a theory that the Incas also brought their children here to play and, by observing them, decided on their future place in society. If they seemed to be fast runners for example then they might become chasquies: the messengers who ran the trails connecting the Inca
Empire together or if they built things with stones then they might become architects.
We walked through a short but pitch-dark tunnel before climbing up to look down on what may have been the main part of a garrison. This large area is shaped like puma’s head with its massive zigzag walls representing the raised hackles and the street pattern of Cusco below it is
(or was before it expanded) laid out in the shape of a puma’s body. We walked down into the city and back to the hotel for showers (some of them hot; others not!) and a change of clothes before walking up to a Peruvian restaurant in a street close to the cathedral to have a meal together. Henry and I tried a small piece of roasted cuy – rather gamey.
