Going South

Sad to leave the beach and sunshine we relished in the rays as long as possible, watched one last sunset over the ocean and set off towards Trujillo to board our night bus to Lima on Thursday January 26th.   Our last meal in the northern part of Peru was as interesting as ever as we watched two ladies pull out a T.V. on their streetside stand to watch a soap opera (stealing electricity from the building next door we prsume) and conversed with a very charismatic Peruvian man who knew only a few english phrases like-¨The women drive me crazy, but I can`t get enough¨, and ¨I work as a gigalo.¨ Quite a great way to say goodbye to the north.  Our bus was surprisingly comfortable with seats that reclined nearly all the way back to beds, silk blankets, pillows and headphones.  They also showed some movies to pass the time, including-Zookeeper!

Trying to stay away from large cities and urban sprawl we opted to skip Lima and head straight to Cuzco, which sits in the southeastern part of Peru and would serve as the beginning point of our trip to Machu Picchu.  We arrived in Lima at 6:00 a.m. and had eight hours before our next bus, so exhausted and famished we headed towards the bus station cafeteria to kill some time and get some breakfast. It´s scary to realize how vulnerable you can be no matter how careful or paranoid are. While enjoying our food and time out of a moving vehicle I fell victim to the stealth thieves that we have so cautiously been trying to avoid, and of our eight hour layover in Lima five of them were spend trying to overcome language barriers in order fill out an accurate police report.  No bueno.  Everything was taken care of (also insured, thank god), and I`m very happy that we were both unscathed during the incident.  It sort of made me think about the deep attachments we have to material things. I realized that they are just things and are (for the most part) replaceable.  They don`t make a person who they are and in the end...they don`t really matter so much.  That person may have stole my posessions but they could never steal my experiences. 

Relieved to be getting out of the area and the constant reminder of momentary lapse of caution we hopped on the next transport preparing ourselves for 20 hours (yes almost an entire day) on rolling wheels across some of the most terrifying terrain I`ve ever seen.  Luckily the bus line did a great job of detouring our attention away from the steep cliffs we continously swayed over with food, bingo games and movies. So as Ecuador had a strange obsession with blood and gore movies, apparently Peru seems to love awful romantic comedies and for the third time in two weeks we were subject to watching-you guessed it-Zookeeper. At this point I`m honestly not sure which genre is worse.  

With both of us on the edge of insanity nothing could have been more gratifying than stepping off that bus and as we weaved through the cobblestone streets of Cuzco alive with local vendors adorn in colorful attire an overwhelming sense of tranquility and curiosity came over us.  We were truly moved by the sacred atmosphere of the oldest city in Peru.  Traveling with limited funds and minimal baggage space almost made wondering the streets of Cuzco painful as every nook and cranny is filled with beautiful artisan crafts and some of the most breathtaking art I have ever seen. The whole city has quite a laid back attitude and I was constantly amazed at the equal fusion of Indiginous and Catholic history present through the entire area.  Statues representing Inca kings stood in plazas next to ornate catherdrals with buildings flying the rainbow flag representing the indiginous tribes of the area. I enjoyed the inclusion, even though the Spaniards still pillaged the majority of the ancient city.

Our first night in Cuzco was spend jumping between multiple venues playing live music.  We met a man on the street in the afternoon that invited us to his show and said he played a mix of folklore. Expecting a musical experience similar to Huanchaco we were a little surprised when we showed up to hear a mix of American grunge tunes-although I`ll give him credit he could actually do Eddie Vedder some justice. and it was quite enjoyable.  The next music we pursued was held in an underground bar that was a bit more rowdy and alcohol infused.  We arrived a bit late and as the lead singer was ripping his shirt off, pouring beer over himself and mumbling ¨Roadhouse Blues¨ through a mega phone held up a microphone-all while the band played with beautiful symmetry and ease-I couldn`t help but think that was probably similar to what an actual Doors concert would have been like.  We ended the night at an interesting, but rather fun Discoteque where we could freely make fools of ourselves knowing fully we would never see anyone in there again. 

As we throroughly explored the night life of Cuzco, we decided that we would delve into the deep history of the area the next day.  Outside of city, on the edge of the Sacred Valley, lie some of the most complex and important ruins of the Inca times. We decided the walk would be nice as it was just a little over 2km from our hostel, however that short distance consisted of about 1,000 stairs and a significante elevation change, so needless to say we were extra excited upon our arrival to the beautiful site!  The first of the ruins we visited is named Saqsaywaman-or in tourist slang ¨sexy woman¨ and was a perfectly fitting puzzle of enormous mortarless boulders creating three large platforms, which form sort of a zig-zag shape.  Although to us it seemed very large and extravagent the site is actually only 20% of the orginal architecture, but contained some boulders topping 125 tons!!  We also visited a ceremonial temple dedicated to Pacha Mama (mother earth) called Q'enco which was used for primarily as a center of worship and was sort of a labryinth containing caves and secret passageways throughout all of the rocks.  It was so hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that these extraordinary structures were built soley on manpower.  I mean talk about teamwork! Just the size of the rocks was to be marveled at, but the fact that they were moved to the top of a hill and continously chisled, heated and polished until they fit together perfectly continues to blow my mind.  It´s amazing what a civilization with no written language could accomplish. The last of the sites we visited was the Temple of the Moon.  Because of it`s distance from the rest of the area, and the amount of walking we had already done, we decided to pay for some horses in order to make the trek a little bit more timely.  Having both grown up riding we were excited to be able to saddle up and take a ride through the Cuzco country side.  Despite the horses looking a bit underweight and the saddles being pretty thin, it was quite enjoyable to ogle at the beautiful sites around us, while not gasping for air hiking at such a high altitude.

In addition to the breathtaking ancient sites that decorated the area it was quite enjoyable to watch all of the locals patronizing the valley.  Around every corner you could catch groups of people having a picnic or enjoying the sunny weather, but mostly everywhere you looked groups of people were playing soccer games, using whatever they could find in the area for goals.  Also nearly every child that walked by was carrying or kicking around a soccer ball-I just loved it!

Besides marveling at the ancient sites in the area we spend a great amount of time walking around the local market.  Cuzco has one of the biggest indoor markets in the world where you can buy anything from a cheap hot lunch, to a custom made traditional skirt to alpaca meat. It was quite an experience to be swept away amonst the chaos of the locals bustling around between booths and the vendors chanting in a sing song manner in an attempt to entice you to their products.  It was like nothing you would ever see in the states, and aside from the pile of cow heads delicately covered with a cloth (oh yeah eyeballs still attached) and the rancid smell that inevitable followed I thoroughly enjoyed perusing the beautiful garments and elaborate culinary displays.  

(I apologize for the lack of photos. As the computers are all in Spanish I am deathly afraid of pushing a wrong button and erasing my hard drive.  Look for a plethora on facebook soon!)