Getting Out Of Town, Cusco, Peru

Diane: Today we took a taxi out to the Incan ruins of Tambomachay and then walked 8 km back to Cusco passing 3 other ruins on the way. Our guide, Arturo, gave us some background on the ruins as well as helped us find our way back to town. The rainy season is with us here in Cusco, but we had sun for most of the day.

In Tambomachay, the Incas took a natural spring and channeled it into 3 waterfalls, which several hundred years later continue to work perfectly. The water flow never varies throughout the year.






The nearby hillside was covered with locally woven blankets, making a colorful scene.

Just beyond Tambomachay was Puca Pucara, a good photo opportunity, but not terribly significant as far as Incan ruins go.

We walked through fields to get to the Moon Temple, which protected us from the midday rain. We continued through the countryside to Q'enqo, which means zigzag. Carved into the rock were perfect zigzag channels, which may have flowed with llama blood during religious ceremonies. There were also steps that didn't really go anywhere. Additionally, there were faint carvings of a puma and a condor on the rock.

Beyond Q'enqo, we stopped at a trout lake and restaurant. Miki and Arturo spent half an hour with bread crumbs trying to catch trout with their hands. After Arturo gave up, Calliope decided to give it a try. I've seen Miki catch ducklings, cuy, a sea animal called a muy-muy, and a bug that makes a cool noise every time you press on it. So, fishing with his hands was quite in character.

And then on to Sacsayhuaman, which was my favorite stop of the day. We went through a cool, totally dark tunnel.






Then we passed through a field of ruins covered with flowers.










Finally we found ourselves overlooking a grand meeting area across from three immense rock walls.














Only the largest stones here remain. As late as the 1930's, people were still using this site as a quarry, taking away beautifully cut stones for their own uses.

The amusement-park highlight was a natural stone slide. It looked to me like the slide had smoothed over the years from all the people sliding down, but perhaps the Incas had also figured out how to polish stones. I felt there needed to be water flowing down the slide in order to make it slippery and there should be a gentle leveling off of the slide at the end to promote a safe landing. Without either, I wimped out and waited for some of the others to slide down first. What a blast, when I finally decided to take the plunge.

After tearing ourselves away from the non-water slide, we moved on to the White Christ overlooking Cusco. It's not a quaint little town.

Finally we headed down a couple thousand steps into town. As a newcomer to town, I was quite impressed that Arturo chose stairs that led directly to our hostal.