The Lyons Diaries: Chapter 2

Puno, Cuzco and the Sacred Valley

Puno, Cuzco and Sacred Valley

Machu Picchu

The Amazon

Peru home

We had been told it was a somewhat bumpy ride as well. What an understatement! Fortunately, we departed Puno pretty much on time and really didn't have any unusual problems on the way. So the trip took a little less than 12 hours. BUT it was like being on a bucking bronco for the entire 12 hours! The real problem with the train is a 100-year-old roadbed that has been woefully abused and unattended for who knows how long. The train has probably been losing money for decades. As in most less developed countries, the concept of preventive maintenance (fixing something before it breaks) is simply beyond the imagination of people who are fighting to keep going for one more day. Now that the highway between Puno and Cusco is nearing completion it is unlikely the train roadbed will ever be repaired. Therefore, the fabled Puno-Cusco train will soon be history.

From this aspect, the ride was sad, in that it is so uncomfortable it is almost impossible for anyone except a real rail buff or a masochist to appreciate what an engineering feat completing and running the train for so many years has been. Of our party comprising 20 seasoned travelers, only Jim enjoyed the ride. Part of that was probably because he didn't have much trouble with motion sickness (which usually plagues him), nor with "turista."

The only diversion during the half-century (oops... half day) of pounding the rails came when the train made short stops at the one city and innumerable villages along out route. At each stop the local vendors materialized outside our train windows with their brightly colored wares, shouting in at the glassy-eyed travelers. Clearly, these small time entrepreneurs have a never-ending hope to making that one last sale.

One man was outside the train at Puno with fur hats which he gladly pitched in the windows for prospective buyers to try on. We were all saddened when the train pulled away before we could return his hats. Imagine our surprise when the train made its first stop and the very same man appeared outside the coach with his hats! After this also happened at the next stop (this time with different styles of hats), we decided that he was actually riding on the back somewhere and working the cars that held tourists each time the train made a stop. There was much speculation as to how many times a month he had to make this interminable journey to make it worthwhile. Actually, he did sell a lot of hats....

As our journey progressed, the heat began to build in the train car and we all opened our windows. Little did we know that for the next three days we would be coughing up black phlegm due to breathing the small bits of carbon that were flying in the windows. It scared me to death when I first looked in the mirror in the hotel in Cusco to see my teeth with black flecks on them. Then Jim explained what had happened.

Guidebooks and tour companies make much of this train ride as being... "a trip along magnificent tree-studded canyons through which rivers rage... through the prosperous Altiplano where Indian women and children herd llama, alpaca, vicuna, goat and sheep... of all the world's train rides only Switzerland offers such dramatically beautiful scenery...." WELL, we would like to take on these guidebook writers! We went through dry canyons with nary a raging river in sight. We saw no evidence of the altiplano being prosperous at all (the populace has to make a Herculean effort to exist in such a barren place, and are to be highly regarded for surviving where most of us would shortly perish).... not much one would call herds of anything beyond hungry farm animals standing alone on a desolate landscape. This did change when we reached the very highest part of the journey (around 1400 feet elevation) where there actually were several good-sized heads of (seemingly) wild llamas. As for herders, there was only one tiny girl with a recalcitrant donkey at one of the stops. For us, the scenery could not compare to Colorado, much less to the train rides we have taken in Switzerland. This is especially interesting because Peru actually does have a world-class mountain train journey, only it is between Cusco and Machu Picchu. Now, that is a world-class train ride... but I get ahead of the story.

At any rate, the train is a cheap way to get from Puno to Cusco (less than 70 Peruvian soles for a first class ticket - about $25.00 US). From the perspective of having completed the journey we are glad to say we survived, but it is not something we want to do again in our lifetime, even for Jim who enjoyed most of the trip. For Ruth Marie, once is definitely enough in this case. The rocking, bucking motion of the train caused several people in our car to become ill. Thankfully, I had my bout with tourista the day before. My stomach was not totally settled, but by not eating much and drinking copious amounts of bottled water, I managed to carry on. Jim, who has a problem with motion sickness because of inner-ear damage, did very well with all this movement. Like me, he ate little and drank a lot of water. Needless to say, we were very happy to get to the station in Cusco and finally to our hotel.

The Libertador Hotel in Cusco was our home for the next 3 nights. We felt as if we had fallen into the lap of colonial luxury! The Libertador is built in what was a convent during the Spanish colonial days. The convent had been built atop Inca foundations so there are places in the lobby and dining room where the stonework is still visible. All the public rooms are richly decorated with paintings and antiques from the colonial period. The restrooms off the lobby were the nicest of any we used on the trip. As had now become accustomed, there was mate de coca in the lobby. All you had to do was help yourself. The staff was efficient and very helpful. This is a beautiful place and if you can afford to stay there when you visit Cusco, do so. Even if you can't afford it, visit to look around and enjoy the art work.

After checking in and getting a bit of dinner, we fell into bed knowing that the next day would be filled to overflowing in order to see everything planned.

Pisac Market was at the top of our to-do list since it was Tuesday As the coach climbed the switchback road out of Cusco the views were outstanding. The driver took the curves at a breathtaking speed so in no time at all we were out in the country side headed for the town of Pisac and at least one person had become bus-sick from the breakneck twisting. We spent our time in the market making pictures but some of the more inveterate shoppers did quite well. One couple came away with five rugs of various sizes! Another lady added to her growing stock of sweaters. The market is located, of course, right in the center of town. We thoroughly enjoyed watching several little girls dressed in their native costumes as they ran up to visitors offering to pose for a few soles. To add to the drama, each of them had a fabric sling around her neck that held an adorable puppy. Later in the week we saw other youngsters carrying kittens and baby lambs in the same fashion as they "worked" the tourists for "photos for pay."

Whizzing through the countryside gave us the grand but sometimes fleeting opportunity to view the mountains as well as the Urubamba River and its stunning valley. It is easy to understand why the Incas considered it sacred, and why the Quechua still do. The terraced fields which climbed the slopes of the mountains were amazing. Over 360 varieties of potatoes are grown in Peru! Some of them don't even look like potatoes to our "Idaho spud" way of thinking. Some are blue, some purple, some yellow and others are shades of beige, brown, and white. We ate purple potatoes and bright yellow ones as well as the more normal colored type. All of them were good. Of course, the sweet potatoes are (mostly) orange, I think!

As the coach passed through small towns and settlements, we noticed that many buildings had red flags flying over the front door. Our guide told us that this is how the locals let everyone know the chicha they have brewed is ready to drink. Chicha is made from corn (many varieties of which are grown as well) that has been ground and fermented with the addition of a little sugar. In the past, chicha was made by women who chewed the corn and then spit the masticated results into a communal pot where it sat for three days of fermentation. Then the red flag was hoisted so that all who saw it could stop in for a drink. We were assured that today chicha is normally made by the more sanitary if less picturesque method. As with all good tourist stories, an opportunity arose for tasting this brew.

Since we were sightseeing out in the countryside that day, lunch was taken at a lovely inn called Posada del Inca. The Posada is located in a small town and functions as a hotel/restaurant. It too had been a convent at one time. One wonders what they did with all those Nuns! On the grounds of the Posada were a small chapel (but no Nuns), numerous fountains and lovely gardens along with a couple of resident alpacas who didn't ask for soles when you took their pictures. They did, however, try a little nibbling for fingers.

As we entered the grounds we were given small paper cups containing the aforementioned chica. The best description I could come up with was liquid tortillas under-laid with fermentation. Jim's assessment: "Not bad, could have stood a little more chewing." Fortunately, lunch was much better than the liquid tortillas. It consisted of a buffet of cold and hot foods as well as quite an assortment of desserts. The Posada was beautiful and we had sufficient time to stroll the gardens before continuing on to Ollantaytambo.

Ollantaytambo was an Inca fortress in its day. Today there is a small town built next to the protected ruins. The original site sits in the confluence of a steep side valley with the Urubamba River valley. The wind sweeps down both valleys with unexpected force, which creates a somewhat inhospitable greeting for those who visit. Ollantaytambo is the best surviving example of what a later Inca town looked like. The temple structures there were still under construction when the Conquistadores arrived. Since work stopped instantly at that point, the site gives many insights into how several building techniques were used by Inca engineers. The town itself had several functions. It was a military outpost and command center to guard against attacks by unconquered "savages" from the Amazon lowlands. For this reason there were an unusual number of storage buildings for weapons and military stores. In addition, there were more than the normal food storage facilities since Ollantaytambo was a regional center in charge of overseeing the growing of crops to help feed Cusco, and also had to store extra reserves of food for use during years of bad harvests. Ancient Ollantaytambo was divided on either side of a stream that runs into the Urubamba River near the Ollantaytambo train station (more of which later, when talking about the train from Cusco to Machu Picchu).

From an architectural point of view, Ollantaytambo is fascinating since it demonstrates most of the styles used by the Inca, and there are several points where you can actually see how stones were moved and lifted into place. It's also possible to see stones in various states of "finish" which indicates that some shaping was probably done before the stones left the quarry, and that additional shaping and smoothing would have been done to finish them as they were moved nearer and nearer to their final resting place in the building platform or terrace. Stone of various sizes for building Ollantaytambo were quarried on the far slope of the Urubamba River and dragged down the mountain, across the Urubamba, then up man-made ramps on the Ollantaytambo side of the river. This was a monumental task in and of itself. It is also very evident how stones received various treatment/finish depending upon their ultimate usage. Important buildings were highly finished, while blocks of stone used on less important buildings received much less work. Homes for farmers/workers were made of mud (adobe). Government officials received stone bungalows built at public expense, and temples were superbly constructed and finished. All of this makes perfect sense, of course. Think of the effort we put into building an average house, compared with the incredible resources society puts into constructing a modern temple (i.e., a government building).

Visiting Ollantaytambo is very exciting, but it is clearly not high on the scale of tour operators. Every tour in the Cusco region seems to descend upon the site at about the same time, late afternoon. There may be a worse time to visit, yet somehow I doubt it. As the afternoon wears on, the light gets worse and worse (actually, bad to worse to horrible), and the wind picks up until it turns into a mini-cyclone to greet all those exhausted tourists. It is clear the tour operators know what tourists find important (shopping), and what they do between shopping (make quick stops at archeological sites). When you visit, Ollantaytambo be sure to protect your cameras, since almost everyone ends up with dust inside their equipment. Dust is especially hard on video equipment since even the tiniest specks will cause dropouts on the tape.

As we passed through towns and villages in the Cusco region, we noticed that many of the houses had a metal cross, a ceramic bull and two small bottles placed in a cluster at the peak of the roof. We discovered that when a new home is completed (as opposed to just sprucing up an older place) these items are put in place with a solemn ceremony. The significance is as follows: the cross represents their belief in the Christ, the bull signifies prosperity, one bottle holds a bit of holy water and the other holds a bit of "fire water." So I guess they are covered on all fronts.

The drive back to Cusco took place as the sun was setting over the surrounding snow capped mountains. We dropped down into the city on those marvelous Peruvian switchbacks at a slightly slower pace than our ascent had been that morning, but only because our driver refused to pass anywhere except on blind corners or hills. As we descended, city lights twinkling to life below illuminated our way as the sun slipped to rest.

Our next day began with a city tour. The Santo Domingo convent is on the same street as the hotel so we began there. This convent was built on top of the Inca temple to the sun and moon. When the Spaniards arrived it was heavily ornamented in silver and gold, including a giant disc representing the sun (and thought to have weighed more than 200 pounds alone). In addition to entire rooms lined with gold, there was a "garden" populated with life-size replicas of plants and animals representing holy fields of corn fashioned entirely of gold and silver. All of it was melted down and sent to Spain.

The cathedral, which is located on the Plaza de Armas, was also constructed on Inca ruins, those purported to have been the location of the Inca Viracocha's Palace. The exterior and interior facades are Renaissance style and the interior is decorated with cedar and alder wood carvings. The paintings were from the colonial period and done by the "Cusco School," a group of native painters who blended Western techniques with their own artistic creativity to produce beautiful and sometimes unusual religious works. The depiction of the Last Supper shows Christ sharing the Peruvian dish of roast guinea pig with his disciples. Numerous object d'art of embossed silver reside in the cathedral as well. The chapel that impressed me the most was the one dedicated to El Senor de los Temblores (Lord of the Earthquakes). The crucifix is very dark and some guides say that it was made of dark mahogany wood and others say that it has become dark from the smoke of the candles that continually burn in front of it.

Around the other sides of the Plaza des Armas are other religious buildings as well as shops and restaurants. A block away is the permanent street market which is built around a smaller square which houses a park. The buildings are decorated with the wonderful colonial balconies that one sees all over South America. We really liked Cusco and hope to return there someday to do more exploring.

Excursions outside the city on this day included Sacsayhuaman and Puca-Pucara. Sacsayhuaman is frequently referred to as a fortress, and it may well have served that purpose at some time during its history. Remnants of the Inca army did lose one of its battles with the Conquistadores here, but there isn't much other evidence to support the fortress hypothesis. There is a lot of evidence that what we see today (the jagged rows of gigantic stone "teeth") is actually the foundation of a huge temple complex. It appears that when Pachakuti Inca restructured Cusco he incorporated the preexisting site of Sacsayhuaman into the overall plan. Since the Inca put their greatest temples at the highest elevations, it is assumed Sacsayhuaman was being turned into the greatest (i.e., highest) temple to the Sun. As with so much else, all this was stopped short by the conquest. It is commonly stated that Pachakuti Inca designed the new and enlarged Cusco in the form of a Puma, with Sacsayhuaman as the head (thus those jagged rows of massive stone "teeth"), and the main palaces and temples around what is now the Plaza de Armas as the body. Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate fact from myths started by the Spanish and exacerbated by the New Agers. All of the highly finished (and transportable) stones have long since been "borrowed" to construct what is now modern Cusco.

More is known about Puca-Pucara and several other temples and structures in the Cusco district. Partially since they were actually still used during the early colonial period, and because they were less accessible for use as quarries to supply the hunger for building material in Cusco. Of course, it didn't take the Conquistadores long to quash most of the outward adhering to the old religion after the fall of the Inca, so most of the structures were simply abandoned to return to the elements. Puca-Pucara (Editor's note: Is this perhaps Tambo Machay?), at least, seems to have been a highly religious site with health-giving waters shunted through an intricately carved system of channels and into the series of fountains so common in Inca holy places.

After splashing/tasting the holy waters at Puca-Pucara we returned to Cusco, where yet another folkloric show was on tap for the evening at one of Cusco's best restaurants, El Truco. When all was said and done and we assessed the many folkloric evenings, El Truco came out the winner for both its panpipe band and outstanding dancers.

We had been instructed to take only a small overnight bag to Machu Picchu (there are no luggage cars on this train - whatever you take must fit in the rack overhead). So when we returned to the hotel from our folkloric show we turned over our larger bags to the hotel for storage. The hotel also provided safe deposit boxes for those who needed them so that we didn't have to take passports, return tickets and such with us.

Filled with anticipation of our 4 A.M. wake-up call and thoughts of finally getting to Machu Picchu, we tried to get some sleep.

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