Cusco is the absolute, undisputed highlight of Peru. Unlike other places, I can remember it well.
On the scale of 1 to 10 in terms of tourist character, the city gets at least an eleven, and in this case is meant quite positively. I am looking forward to seeing one of the most interesting and attractive places in South America again. And I am sure that it will not disappoint me, even if the tourist ravages of time, such as in Machu Picchuhas changed or destroyed a lot.
viejo?
After breakfast (I seem to be the only guest at "El Mirador de Santa Ana") I head down into town.
The lady at the hotel reception advises me to take a cab for the way back. "Porque?" "Es muy duro, Viejo!" "Viejo?" Did she really say that? It kind of reminds me of Burma ("You trekking? Yes, why? ... You old!"). But she's right about one thing. The stairs down to the city are really tough. And a few hours later, on the way back, her warning will catch up with me in a painful way ...
Arms square
Cusco is not the only city in South America whose main squares are named after famous heroes and thus full of statues of those heroes. Unlike other places, however, here not war generals are standing in the light of admiration, but heroes of the Inca Empire, deceived and betrayed by the Spanish Conquistadors under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro.
After successfully climbing down the stairs, I am standing in the middle of the Plaza de Armas, the center of the city, once one of the holy places of the lost Inca Empire.
It is not surprising that this place is teeming with tourists, because if there is one place in Peru that is guaranteed to be part of any tourist itinerary, it is Cusco. From here, the most important sites of the Inca Empire can be visited, including, of course, the most important, Machu Picchu.
Most tourists are young backpackers, but also elderly people, most traveling in organized groups. This is recognizable by their not very good English/German/Japanese/whatever speaking guides, but also by the typical, somehow suspicious looks. Unlike the backpackers, they are not used to the potential imponderables of travel and smell at every corner some scoundrels looking to rob them of their shirts.
The Inca Empire
Whenever you think of the lost Empire of the Incas, you think of Cusco, the former capital of the then giant empire, covering an area of almost one million square kilometers and embracing, in addition to Peru, parts of Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia.
It can be compared with other empires of that time. An advanced civilization that, strangely enough, knew neither the wheel nor a writing system nor the processing of iron or steel, and yet grew into an incredibly large empire that was completely destroyed in an incredibly short time.
Cusco - capital of the Inca Empire
When you consider the fate the city had to endure, Cusco has lost none of its timeless beauty. Neither the battles of conquest and looting of the Spaniards under Franscisco Pizarro, earthquakes and other recurring strokes of fate have damaged the city, but not destroyed it.
It has remained the pearl on the Altiplano which it always was.
Today, Cusco is still the capital of the region of the same name and of the province of Cusco in the center of the Peruvian Andean highlands. It is located at 3.416 m altitude and has over 400'000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area. No wonder it was 1983 included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The history of the city is long and full of tragedy. Founded sometime in the 13th century, it soon developed into the center of the Inca Empire and the starting point of the rapid expansion of the Inca Empire under various Incas. The invasion of the Spanish in 1532 was preceded by a murderous civil war, fomented by the two opposing Inca brothers Atahualpa and huascar.
But as soon as the civil war came to an end with Atahualpa's victory, a new, much worse danger loomed in the form of a Spanish conquistador, who brought about the end of the glorious Inca empire with a modest force of barely 200 soldiers. The fact that the comparative naivety of the Incas did not know how to counter the treachery and the brutality of the Spaniards, is historically a disgrace of the Eurocentric colonization policy of the time.
But anyway, at least Cusco has survived the trials and tribulations of the crazy times more or less unscathed. A walk through the squares and alleys shows the incomparable beauty of the city and the heritage of the Incas.
The Piedra de los 12 Angulos
If I remember one thing for sure, it is the twelve-cornered stone, "la piedra de los 12 angulos", in the ancient Inca wall.
You have to imagine that the Incas processed huge stones of unimaginable weight in a way that even the biggest and heaviest ones fit exactly in and on top of each other.
The largest of them has twelve angles, and there is not the slightest space between them and the surrounding stones. The joints are so narrow that not the smallest finger fits inside. How the Incas managed this is unknown.
The exciting thing is that in many respects the Incas created cultural and architectural highlights that are unmatched, but nevertheless failed to invent the wheel, possibly the most important invention of earlier periods. This, along with a great deal of political naiveté, may have been one of the reasons for their defeat by the Spanish.
You don't have any trouble finding the ancient Inca wall (on which today a mundane building stands), because the said stone is where, inconspicuous from afar, dense clusters of tourists have gathered in front of a wall shooting photos and selfies like crazy. Once again, I try to figure out how the Incas managed to do that. In any case, hats off to an incredible achievement!
The touristic Cusco
I walk through streets and alleys lined with countless stores, all offering the exact same assortment of colorful bags and hats and gloves and sweaters made of alpaca wool, but also through secluded, quiet ones where a few Indian women offer their products. That the beautiful cuddly llama plays a certain role in this is not surprising. In any case, the trick seems to work.
Although far from wishing to buy anything, one of these self-knitted sweaters nonetheless looks more than inviting. However, it is at least three sizes too small for me, so I have to let this chalice (perhaps fortunately) pass me by (and all my attempts to find something similar fail miserably).
The way back - the miserable stairs
Towards evening - it rapidly gets colder as soon as the sun disappears - I slowly make my way back to the hotel. The constant up and down for hours has obviously left its mark on my darling knee, because on the stairs up to the upper realms, this horror structure of a thousand steps, each at a different height, I feel real pain for the first time in a long time. Damn!
And thus the naive idea that warmth and rest and a lot of exercise during the trip will fix my knee is finally fading. Far from it ...
Mileage: 4665
Matching Song: The Stooges - Search and destroy
And here the journey continues ...
