through the Sacred Valley. These are parts of the historical sites of the Incas.We piled into a comfortable minibus for around 30 people, and our enthusiastic guide Leo embarked on a great commentary on the sites we were to see. Clearly he is proud of the history as he told us passionately of the first principles of the Inca people – No Lazy People, No Liars, No Thieves. The Incas only lasted for 40 years and just 12 men led the people. It is seen by the people as a kind of “Golden Age” and Leo compared the most famous Inca leader, Pachacutec (“He who unites the world”) with Alexander the Great.
The journey took us through incredible mountains and valleys all day. The size of the landscape, and so high up, is amazing. Cuzco is 3,300 m above sea level and we travelled up to 3,700 m above during the tour. Incredibly, the land on the hills and mountains is often cultivated. One major impression of the life in the countryside was simply hard agricultural work – an old man pushing a bike-trolley with flat tyres, another old man carrying a bundle of materials on his back walking from what seemed nowhere to nowhere, many people coming back off the fields in the evenings. No wonder people come to the city offering cheap gifts and paintings to the tourists.We also stopped regularly at toil
et or tourist spots with stands and locals offering handmade gifts and woollen jumpers and hats. The most successful salespeople were the young kids in traditional costume, holding onto a Llama. They charged 2 sols per picture (around 60 Euro cents/50 english pence) and the tourists lapped it up. We also realised that we were one of literally 100's of similar tours, seeing bus after bus at different roadside spots.
The first real stop was to walk along the mountain-side and see the Inca ruins of Pizac. We have been surprised to find Guinea-Pig on the menu of many restaurants (around 3 times the price of a lamb or beef dish) and here we heard that many Guinea Pig remains had been found on the huge step-terraces of the Inca town, as it seems they were bred and used for fertilising the ground, as well as eaten as a delicacy. The Incas delighted in making their cities or sculpting their terraces in the shape of sacred animals and the whole area of Pisac is shaped like a Condor, a bird considered to be the messenger of the sun.Walking for just some minutes at a time at such altitude was a good little practice for the Inca Trail. We both struggled with shortness of breath for the first few minutes but got into our stride and adapted to the reduced level of oxygen pretty well. We know the trail itself will be a test but we are looking forward to it.
The other major stop we made was to Ollantaytambo, again a hugely stepped town with a great terraced area overshadowing the city. This time the stepped areas and the town are made in the shape of a Llama, another odd delicacy often found on the menu in Cuzco. The myth here is that Ollantay was great fighter. In return for his efforts, the ruler Pachacutec said he could have anything. Ollantay, having fallen for the daughter of the ruler, asked for her hand in marriage. The ruler was incensed – no common man could marry his daughter, no matter how good a soldier he was! – and refused. Ollantay started a rebellion but was crushed easily and had to retreat to this city – hence the name of the town, Ollantaytambo, is translated as “Ollantay's refuge”.Driving was an experience the whole day. The roads were often populated by tuctuc-like contraptions (Nicki described them as “a motorbike carrying a wendyhouse) as well as tourist buses and a few cars. Our fearless driver thought nothing of overtaking 50 metres before
a blind bend. I closed my eyes and assumed he was still alive because he knew what he was doing.Our day ended with an amazing drive across beautiful countryside to Chinceras, another beautiful town this time with a great church at its top. Clear messages said all over the church “no photos” – we were amazed at how brazen people were to ignore repeated requests not to break this rule. All around, locals offered goods again – a hand-made jumper for 10 soles, around 2.3 Euros/ 2 pounds, incredible.
Leo's emotional and excitedexplanation of the Inca history gave an
image of a golden age of perfect people. On the other hand, we felt some contradictions, such as the sacrifice of humans – young girls, to be exact – to the Sun whenever phenomena such as famines or drought ocurred. He also claimed the Inca's were huge people, and there is apparently a picture of a 7' 2” (2.18m) tall descendent of the Inca's, taken in 1929. But all the real locals we have seen have been much smaller than average European heights... It seems Leo is a master of the romantic notion of all things past being better than now.Our feeling about the day was mixed. We had enjoyed seeing the Inca sites, but observing the people and the way they live in the countryside feels almost voyeuristic. We both felt something a bit distasteful about “rich” people like us (at least in comparison to the locals) gawping from the comfort of minibuses at the struggles and toils of the country people. The tourism element is intrusive, but we are able to see these things because of tourism and development of the life in the countryside is possible thanks to the constant push of goods by the street-sellers. We have no right to complain and I follow Nicki's idea which is to look the people in the eye, smile and say politely “no gracias”. At least if we don't want to buy, we can be polite in our rejection.
Now we take a couple of days to prepare for the Inca Trail. It's 4 days and 3 nights of trekking across the mountains, camping in tents, taking the elements as they come and taking in some amazing scenery.
