A Tour of a Peruvian Market, Cusco's South Valley, and the Churches on the Andean Barque Route

March 30: Day 7. After a very restful night’s sleep, and again being able to sleep a little later than usual, we ready ourselves for another day of touring and meet up with David and Linda for a really good breakfast.

Inside the San Pedro Market

Today we had our choice of excursions, one to the highlands outside Cusco, visiting several villages and the Maras salt fields; or a tour of southern Cusco and the valley south of the city. Feeling we had seen enough mountain highlands already, we opted for the latter while David and Linda decided to head for the highlands.

Our tour begins as we board our bus for a very short ride to the San Pedro Market, a typical mercado offering local produce ranging from fruits, vegeta bles and meats, to hand-woven sweaters, other apparel, and crafts.

Need a hog?

Entering the market, our senses are immediately enlivened by the arrays of colors and smells that permeate this city-block space. There are aisles and aisles of offerings that are sectioned and attended to by local mamis. Going from one shop to the next, we notice that often the items for sale are identical to their neighbor’s. So whoever’s able to make a sale either offers the best price or makes the best sales pitch.

All kinds of breads

As we go from section to section we see colorful displays of fruits, vegetables, breads, dried beans and lentils, cheeses, fish, chickens, hogs, and fresh-cut flowers. We also find sections of toys, knickknacks, souvenirs, and a whole variety of apparel and crafts. There is also a long lunch counter with many people eating while food is being prepared which accounts for the pleasant mix of aromas that fill our nostrils.

Really cheesy!

We leave the market and board our bus for a ride through southern Cusco. Our guide points out many landmarks and notes that Cusco serves as an educational hub for much of southern Peru with students from rural areas attending the three universities we see. On Cusco’s southern outskirts, we enter the South Valley of Cusco, a tourist name that was given to the set of attractions located southeast of the city. Running along the Vilcanota River, tourists can view the archaeological sites of Tipón and Piquillacta, Andean towns and villages with different traditions, and the churches in the villages of Canincunca, Huaro, and Andahuaylillas on the Barroco Andino Route. We are headed for the churches.

Chapel of the Purified Virgin of Canicuna

The Barroco Andino, or the Andean Baroque route, predates the Incas and runs through the South Valley and connects the Incan capital, Cusco, with the jungle of Madre de Dios and Lake Titicaca. This route was important for the transport of gold, silver, coca leaves, and animal fibers. Our guide tells us that the churches along this route served as resting points for travelers.

Inside of the Chapel

Our first church, the Chapel of the Purified Virgin of Canincunca, is located in an ancient Wari center next to the small lake of Urcos. We are told the construction of the chapel began at the beginning of the 17^th century. Inside the church, we see that the construction consists of a single nave with inner walls richly decorated with murals and gold leaf ribbons.

St. John the Baptist Church in Huaro

Many of the paintings represent flowers, fruits, birds, and symbols similar to those found in Andean textiles. While we consider the church to be lavishly decorated, our guide tells us that of the three churches we will visit, this one is the most austere. We also learn that the income generated by admission tickets and gift shop sales of the churches is used to maintain the churches and improve the living conditions of local inhabitants through the social work of the Jesuits.

Mosaic stonework of Church entrance

We board our bus and ride to our next church, St. John the Baptist Church, in the town of Huaro. Built by Jesuits in the 16^th century the church is noted for its decorations, paintings, and murals representing a blending of indigenous and colonial styles. Originally, local artists were commissioned to create the continuously changing murals and decorations, often one on top of the other. The present and final layer was painted in 1802 by Tadeo Escalante, an artist of both Incan and European descent.

The "Sistine Chapel of America"

Escalante painted scenes from the Old and New Testaments showing the aftermath of human life and his vision of death, the final judgment, ascension, and hell and incorporating Andean symbolism and colonial beliefs. What strikes us as we leave our bus and enter the church is the intricately laid stone mosaic entrance. Our guide tells us that this stonework had been paved with asphalt for many years and was only discovered fairly recently when repairs to the asphalt were being made.

Hungry?

Inside the church we find a choir loft, central nave, presbytery, and a main retable, but it is the murals with their violent depictions of death and hell that really grab our attention. Although the murals and decorations are in need of some maintenance, there is no question that this church is more lavishly decorated than the previous one.

We leave Huaro and ride to the Indian village of Andahuaylillas to view our final church, The Church of St. Peter the Apostle, considered the “Sistine Chapel of America.” Built by the Jesuits between 1570 and 1606, the church earned it’s Sistine Chapel moniker due to its exuberant baroque decoration with paintings and murals.

Want to pay for a photo?

We enter the church and are overpowered by the jaw-dropping display of gold, woodcarvings paintings, and baroque decoration. We learn that many of the paintings and murals are attributed to artist Luis de Riaño who did many of the works in the 1620s. The church also houses a collection of canvases from the renowned Cusco School, two massive pipe organs decorated by de Riaño, a Baroque altar with woodcarvings and motives covered with goldleaf, and a massive triumphal arch that frames the main altar. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures inside any of the three churches on the Andean Baroque Route. We are guided into the church’s gift shop adjacent to the church.

Cusco Cathedral

The shop offers all sorts of religious items, many of them handmade, to encourage us to make a purchase and support the Jesuit social program. Jane selects a handmade wooden cross painted gold to give to a neighbor.

We leave Andahuaylillas and ride back to Cusco. We are back at our hotel before the highland excursion, so we decide to take a walk, get some lunch and explore our surroundings.

Chapel of The Monasterio (our hotel)

Barely a block away from our hotel we spot a pizzeria/café. Inside we order a sandwich lunch and start talking to the owner about his pizza and hours of operation, thinking this might be a good place to bring David and Linda for our dinner tonight. The owner, Eddy, is delighted in our interest and points to a table that he says will be reserved for us. We set a time and leave to continue our exploration.

Our hotel is just a couple of blocks from Cusco’s historic center and main public space, the Plaza de Armas (just like in Lima). Built during the colonial period, the square is bordered by two of the city’s most important monuments— the Cathedral of Cusco and the Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesus (Church of the Society of Jesus).

Templo de la Sagrada Familia

As we walk around the square and attempt to take pictures, it is obvious that we are tourists and we are bombarded by a deluge of street vendors selling their wares. Our guide told us that Peru has a fairly liberal immigration policy and people are flocking to Peru from many different countries, especially Venezuela. Unfortunately, there are more people coming in than there are jobs to support them, so the only recourse is for people to take to the streets selling anything that will eke them out a living. One particularly tenacious group is the street artists trying to sell their paintings, and we are repeatedly approached by one who calls himself “Picasso.” He has a whole armful of textured paintings on canvas that he thumbs through while delivering his sales pitch. We say “not interested,” and walk away.

Mmmm, pizza!

He follows. After repeating this process three times, Capt. Larry cracks and says “okay.” Jane selects a canvas of Picasso’s interpretation of Machu Picchu. We give him $30 USD and he leaves happily while we know we paid too much. We finish viewing the plaza and head back to our hotel and meet up with Dave and Linda.

David and Linda are delighted with our beer and pizza dinner suggestion. They are famished after skipping the “guinea pig luncheon” on their highland excursion!

Thank you, Eddy!

We head down to the pizzeria and Eddy has our table ready for us. We are being treated like famous celebrities and Eddy’s bonhomie seems genuine. Immediately after we are seated, a complementary tray of Pisco sours arrives at our table. Since this was our last day in Peru, we wanted to spend all of our Peruvian money and Eddy was glad to be the beneficiary! We ordered two pizzas and the beers kept coming to our table. We finish our meal and thanked Eddy for his hospitality and good food. Back in our hotel we turn in early for an early rise and travel day tomorrow.

 

Incan Lifestyle, Textile Weaving and Stonecutting- We Journey Back to Cusco

March 29: Day 6. We sleep in later than usual.

Our hotel with park entrance in background

There was an opportunity to get up early and go back into the park before we had to leave Machu Picchu, but we really didn’t think that a second visit would add anything to the first. After breakfast with David and Linda, we pack our bags for our return journey to Cusco. We board the bus, say goodbye to Sanctuary Lodge Hotel, and descend down to Auguas Calientes to meet our train that will take us back to Ollantaytambo.

Original foundations with water duct

The train ride was not as eventful as our first experience and didn’t include a meal. Instead, we were given snacks which included quinoa bars that Linda found to be very delectable. Not only is quinoa regarded as a supernutrition food, it is a major staple in the Peruvian diet.

Arriving at Ollantaytambo, we leave the train depot and stroll across a large plaza.

Original foundation f Inka House

This plaza serves as the town’s center from which a grid of parallel streets emanates. Dating from the late 15th century, our guide tells us that the town has some of the oldest continuously occupied dwellings in South America. We arrive at the original Inca section, Qosqo Ayllu, which is the best preserved living Inca town in existence. Our guide points out the original stone walls, foundations, and canals with flowing water which are over 500 years old.

Breakfast, lunch & dinner!

He notes it’s the closest you can get to a real Inca town at the height of their civilization.

We are taken into one of the homes, aptly named Inka House, that rests on one of these original foundations. The home consists of one large room with a dirt floor; a sleeping area; a kitchen with a fireplace that has no chimney; and an altar complete with skulls of ancestors, condor wings, burning candles, statues, and fresh flowers all meant to bring peace and harmony to the family living there.

Inside Inka House

What grabs our attention the most is a herd of about 30 guinea pigs eating plant clippings on the floor. Our guide informs us that all of the animals are female with the exception of one male. The introduction of the second caged male into the herd will result in the males fighting for control of the herd.

Inka House kitchen

He points and says the animals have names: “breakfast, lunch, and dinner!” Guinea pigs, or cuy, are an excellent protein source easily bred and raised. They do not require a large living space, can be fed readily available, low-cost plant material, and are ready to be bred again almost immediately after the delivery of a litter. Cuy resemble rabbits in both their characteristics and taste.

We leave Inka House and return to our buses for a journey back to Cusco. Just outside the town limits of Ollantaytambo we notice large structures built high on the side of the mountain.

The altar

Our guide tells us that these are storehouses the Incas built to store their grain. Their location at high altitudes, where more wind and lower temperatures occur, defended their contents against decay.

Mountain storehouses

We followed the same route back, but instead of going into Cusco we stop at the Sulca House Museum on the city’s outskirts. Featuring the art of tapestry weaving, the museum serves as a workshop for the teaching of professional-level textile art that was started with the migration of Pedro Sulca from the Ayacucho region, where the textile tradition is very old, to the area. A colorfully dressed museum representative told us that the techniques and looms were developed and improved through three generations of the Sulca family. The tapestries are made from 100% natural, hand-spun alpaca wool that is dyed using both natural and artificial dyes.

Learning about tapestry weaving

The museum has four art rooms displaying pre-Inca and Inca traditional weavings. Additionally, there are also displays of modern art and live art demonstrating the weaving and dyeing of wool.

3D tapestries

We ambled through the museum and marveled at the artistry. Capt. Larry was especially impressed with the 3D tapestries. We were directed outside to a barnyard area where a herd of llamas and alpacas that produced the wool for the tapestries were kept. We were given plant cuttings to feed the animals which became quite boisterous and greedy at the chance of getting fed.

Sacsayhuamán

We boarded our buses and headed to our next destination, Sacsayhuamán (SAC say WAM an, sorta like sexy woman!), a citadel built by the Incas on the northern outskirts of Cusco during the 15^th century.

Feeding the animals!

Architecturally, the complex is composed of dry stone walls constructed of huge stones built on-site with workers carefully cutting the boulders to fit them together tightly without mortar. Precision cutting and fitting of the stones allows them to be so closely spaced that a single piece of paper will not fit between many of them. Archaeologists believe that this type of construction allowed the structures to survive many of the region’s earthquakes.

Precision cut and fitted stones

The site also contains a large plaza, capable of holding thousands of people, designed for communal ceremonial activities. After the Spanish conquest, the site was partially demolished and the Spaniards removed many of the large boulders to build their buildings in Cusco, and only the stones too large to be easily removed presently remain.

Monasterio chapel

We walked across the capacious plaza to a wall displaying the impressive stonework and return to our buses for a short ride to our hotel in Cusco.

Our hotel, the five-star Monasterio, is a converted monastery built in the 16^th century. We enter the hotel through the majestic gilded chapel, a popular venue for upscale weddings. We are told that chapel photos are not allowed, but Jane furtively manages a couple of shots. Our room, a former monk’s quarters, has all of the modern-day amenities.

Enjoying dinner

We are struck by the opulent paintings in the guest areas and learn that the hotel houses one of the finest collections of 18^th-century religious art from the prestigious Cusco school of art. We meet up with David and Linda in one of the hotel’s restaurants for an excellent dinner of—you guessed it—Peruvian dishes! After dinner, we head back to our room and turn in for the first of our two night stay.

Baby llama

 

 

A Day for Viewing Incan Ruins

March 28: Day 5. Jane is sick. And Capt. Larry isn’t feeling so great either.

Coca leaves

Even though we had kept ourselves well hydrated and tried to pace ourselves so we wouldn’t overdo it, it looks like we’re showing signs of altitude sickness. Our physician had prescribed medication to treat altitude sickness, but we decided to hold off pretreating ourselves to see if it would really be needed. We started the medication and Jane got another drug to help her with nausea. At breakfast, our tour directors suggested that Jane try some coca tea which is “what the natives drink.”

Ollantaytambo terrace ruins

Sure enough, at the coffee bar we found a jar with coca leaves in it and she made a tea with some hot water. By the time we had finished breakfast, Jane was feeling a whole lot better!

We left our hotel to travel to the Incan ruins at Ollantaytambo. The main feature of the ruins are terraces on which the Incans raised their crops. During the Spanish conquest of Peru, Ollantaytambo was fortified and served as a stronghold to resist the advancement of Spanish troops.

Ready to roll!

The Spanish were defeated here by the Incans in 1536 and our guide recounted the highlights of that battle. We toured the ruins and climbed the terraces before heading back to our bus. We took a short ride to Perurail’s Ollantaytambo train station where we will take a train to Aguas Calientes, a short distance from Machu Picchu. We are gathered at the depot when a group of colorfully dressed Indians appear. Beating drums, dancing wildly, and singing they start to escort us to our train.

A pisco sour

 Jane, never missing a chance to dance in the street, started second lining, when one of the dancing Indians grabbed her arm and started swinging her through the street. He danced and gyrated with her all the way to the train, never letting her go. It was a fair distance to the train and at that altitude she was starting to struggle.

We boarded our train and were awed by how sumptuous the privately chartered, domed cars were.

The Urubamba River

We hadn’t been on a car like that since our domed car experience in Alaska. No sooner were we in our seats when a waiter came around and took drink orders. Capt. Larry and David disregarded the warnings about alcohol exacerbating altitude sickness and ordered Pisco sours. Drinks were followed by an excellent Peruvian lunch. The 90-minute train ride slowly coursed along the Urubamba River for approximately 27 miles.

The King and Princess

After lunch we were entertained by two Indian entertainers who reenacted a historical love story about an Incan king and princess. During our ride we saw a lot of farm fields and 3 Andean condors— generally considered to be the world’s largest bird of prey. Our train ride ended in the small town of Aguas Calientes which apparently has been recently renamed Machu Picchu Pueblo. Here we would board a bus that would take us on a 25-minute, winding mountainous ride to Machu Picchu. Our bus ride ended directly in front of the steps of our hotel, Sanctuary Lodge, which is a stone’s throw from the park’s ticket gate entrance.

Machu Picchu ruins

 We would have the rest of the afternoon and a few hours tomorrow morning to explore Machu Picchu before our train would take us back to Ollantaytambo. We found our room and luggage and quickly got ready to go into the park. Our group gathered at the visitor’s entrance where we were divided into two groups. David and Linda’s group would take a more rigorous hike through the park, while our group would have a more sedate exploration of the ruins.

Terraces and Machu Picchu Peak

Our guide, Eddy, provided a very knowledgeable and excellent background and discussion of what Machu Picchu was all about to the Incas. The Incas built the citadel around 1450, but abandoned it about a century later with the arrival of the Spanish conquest. The site is on a narrow saddle between two mountain peaks: Machu Picchu and the smaller peak, Huayna Picchu. We explored the Guard’s Quarters and probed the ruins of the Royal Tomb, Temple of the Sun, and the Royal Palace.

Rainbow at Machu Picchu

While we were looking out over the ruins, a rainbow formed and our guide commented how lucky we were to come to the park when the weather provided excellent viewing conditions and visitor attendance was unusually low.

We returned to our hotel where we had a couple of hours to collect ourselves before gathering for dinner.

Ruining ourselves at the ruins

The hotel had an open bar so Capt. Larry moseyed down for a happy-hour drink. The bartender produced his drink along with strips of llama and alpaca jerky which tasted pretty much like any other jerky. As 1800 hrs. approached, people started filtering into the bar to participate in the scheduled Pisco sour demonstration. The bartender started by telling us about the many different kinds of Pisco that were made and the differences in taste between them.

Ready for pisco sour class!

He passed around samples of the Piscos and then demonstrated each step in the making of a Pisco sour. It was time for dinner so we made our way to a table in the dining area. Jane and Linda were once again rolling their eyes as the Peruvian dishes started coming out of the kitchen! As we ate, we were entertained by a folk band playing music on traditional instruments. After the band finished, one of the band members coaxed Capt. Larry into forking over $20 for a CD of their music. Gotta support the local economy! We finished our meal and went to our room to crash for the night. It was a brutal day.

A mountain bunny!