South America - Venture Magazine Issue #2 Pages 10-11

Cusco Colours

Eric D. Lehman gets under the skin of the dazzling former Inca capital by going on a local transport tour!

After a short flight from Lima, we level out at 11,000 feet (3300m), not far above the valley of Cusco. The city fills the broken bowl of a valley, slums trailing up the hillsides. We land shakily on the tarmac and I finally get a proper view of the mountains, which look like a giant version of the Scottish highlands.

We had changed planes in the sprawling metropolis of Lima the previous night. The capital’s dirty streets were still empty when we dragged ourselves out of bed. In contrast, Cusco is clean and well-kept and the town teems with life. So much so that at first I don’t know where to look first.

My friend Johann and I are whisked off to our hotel. Nobody speaks English. I use my broken Spanish, though many people only speak Quechua, Peru’s main indigenous language. Finally in the comfortable room, we fall asleep immediately for a fifteen-hour stretch.

After showers and a spot of BBC news, we tumble downstairs to meet our tour group. The bus rumbles sluggishly around Cusco, picking up tourists at various hotels. While we wait, red- and green- clothed townsfolk try to sell us ponchos, water, knick-knacks – everything but their children. A group of girls are selling lambs, or possibly pictures of themselves with the lambs, or possibly their entire farms, we can’t be sure. At the first stop I buy some film. I still don’t use digital and I forgot to load the camera. I need it, because Cusco is colourful and beautiful, packed with tiny squares full of statues and fountains.

We catch glimpses of hidden courtyards as the bus labours along the cobbled streets. Modern-dressed Cuscans and villagers in highland garb mingle on the pavements and in market squares. Americans and Europeans slurp coca tea at cafés, enjoying the beverage made from the crop that’s illegal in their homelands but omnipresent here.

The first site of our day is the Iglesia de Santo Domingo, which was built directly on top of an Inca Temple of the Sun. The earthquake in 1950 exposed much of the Inca stonework and, with foresight, the people left it that way. The stonework is very impressive, but the church itself is mediocre and Johann and I talk with the guide about the current feelings toward both the Spanish and the Inca Empire. No conclusions are reached, and the guide remains carefully neutral.

By the time we leave the Iglesia the January rains have begun in earnest. The huge cathedral on the Plaza de Armas is next. The main building is flanked by two smaller churches, packed with the brightest, most intricate set of statues I have ever seen. Most take the form of Mary and Jesus in various poses. The cathedral is being renovated, however, and we can’t get a full sense of its splendour. But there’s no sense in getting frustrated, and we’re really in Peru to see the Inca ruins, next on the itinerary.

The tour bus struggles up the mountains outside the city to the ancient stronghold of Sacsayhuaman. The blocks of stone in these immense walls are gigantic, some topping out at 300 tonnes, larger than the biggest of those used to build the pyramids of Egypt. It begins to rain harder and we put on brightly-coloured ponchos, matching hundreds of other tourists in this rainbow garb. We try to study the extraordinary masonry, breathing hard in the thin air. But we escape briefly to slip up a stairwell and get a more panoramic view, which is unfortunately dulled by the thickening grey rain. Below, groups of poncho-clad tourists hop over puddles, resembling a plague of frogs.

The bus stops at a local shop, where some of the turistas buy alpaca wool. Johann and I sample coca tea in the snack bar, savouring the way it opens your breathing passages and reduces altitude sickness. Already we have become used to the bitter vegetal flavour that assailed our taste buds when we were first offered the drink at Lima airport, after our arrival. Johann says we’re probably already addicted.

The road to the Inca water shrine of Tambomachay ends in a natural alcove of wet green hills. The tiny lanes, originally built for llamas, are crowded with dozens of tour buses, and we’re instantly surrounded by Quechua women and children selling hot corn. We’re told they live in caves up on the mountainside and I can see more of them working on the hillside far above, with bright clothing hung on lines to dry, staring down at the interlopers who have made them dependent on commerce. Were they happier before these vacationers brought them money to pay for their goods? Perhaps it is only romanticism to think so.

Back down the slopes at the Qenqo shrine, sacred place of the puma, we explore a creepy sacrificial altar, dark water pooling on it like blood. Eucalyptus trees dominate the landscape, destroying native plant life with sturdy malevolence. It’s hard not to draw a comparison with the bloody Spanish invasion, and Johann and I discuss the confluence of cultures then and now, and how the modern world seems to be homogenising everything into one global superculture. Is it economic independence that helps people, rather than globalisation? Or does unification mean an end to war and prejudice, an end to the marginalisation of minority cultures? I can’t help but think that whether globalisation is finally good or bad for the human race, something important is lost during this process of fusion.

The bus takes us back into the winding streets of Cusco, past museums and tourist sites, past homes and restaurants, past a local market with seemingly limitless varieties of potatoes. The confluence of cultures, modern and ancient, is evident here in these narrow streets. Will those cultures, in all their variety and diversity, live on, or will they be reduced to a set of marketed tourist attractions? Perhaps globalisation will bring an end to human suffering, but I hope the earth does not become a stagnant pond of identical croaking frogs in the process.

SPOTLIGHT: THE INCAS
The Incas developed the largest and most complex pre-Colombian (i.e. before Columbus) state anywhere in North or South America, reaching its peak in the early 1500s when it stretched from the present-day borders of Ecuador and Colombia as far south as northern Chile and Argentina, including Bolivia and parts of Amazonia. The huge growth of the empire was directed by its most outstanding emperor (or inca), Pachacuti, who came to power in 1438, and whose own Quechua-speaking tribe rapidly conquered and subsumed the smaller states along the coast and around the margins, imposing their language and cultural values on their subjects. Cusco was their capital, created by military decree, the surrounding villages cleared away for construction.

The Incas never developed the wheel or the domestication of the horse – or gunpowder – but the empire was highly developed, economically, with a network of roads and trails reaching every corner, of which today’s “Inca Trail” is just one example. By the time of the conquistadors’ arrival, however, Pachacuti’s successors were fighting a civil war, making their subjugation by the Europeans, armed with new technology, relatively simple.

KUMUKA’S PERU
Kumuka has vast experience in running tours in South America and staff and guides have a wealth of practical knowledge and local insight. To visit the Inca heartland – Cusco and the spectacular lost city of Machu Picchu – you can choose from a wide variety of options. If you have a couple of months or more, choose from one of our major trans-continental overland tours, either using accompanied local transport, or on a specially-equipped Kumuka truck. For those with less time, local transport tours taking in the Peruvian Andes are available from as little as 8 days, with short add-ons possible, too.

WHY NOT TRY:

INCA HIGHWAY 8 DAYS
Lima, Nazca Lines, Arequipa and Colca Canyon, Cusco and the Sacred Valley

ADD-ON TOUR: TRAIN TO MACHU PICCHU 2 DAYS
Cusco, Aguas Calientes, Putucusi Mountain, Machu Picchu

ANDEAN ADVENTURE (KUMUKA TRUCK) 56 DAYS

or LATIN LANDSCAPES (LOCAL TRANSPORT) 56 DAYS
Otavalo, Quito and Amazon jungle trek, Banos hot springs, Cuenca (Ecuador), Punta Sol, Huanchaco and Chan Chan, Huaraz, Lima and the Ballestas Isles, Nazca, Puerto Inca, Arequipa, Cusco and Machu Picchu, Puno and Lake Titicaca (Peru), La Paz, Potosí, Uyuni salt flats, (Bolivia), San Pedro de Atacama, Calama, La Serena, Santiago (Chile)

LOCAL TRANSPORT – LOCO O NO?
People sometimes think we’re mad to be using local transport when we have the option of our own superbly kitted-out expedition trucks. But there’s nothing loco about Kumuka’s accompanied local transport tours. Our ethos is about giving you the best possible experience in every country, and we’ll take every opportunity to explore local life and culture. Your tour leader takes all the hassle out of public transport, queuing for tickets and confirming departure times and connections. You may occasionally find yourself squeezed on a market bus with half the village and their animals, but that’s an experience in itself. At other times, we use boats, trains, light aircraft and walking to get to our destinations. All you have to do is be in the lobby after breakfast and maybe carry your pack for a few minutes through town as you head for the next adventure. Buen viaje!

FLIGHTCHECK:
For flights to connect to all our Central American tours from the UK or Australia, contact your local Kumuka office.