Climbing up to Cusco

Climbing up to Cusco

Wow, what a day Monday, May 6th was!

Bright and early that morning after 17 days at sea, Mrs. Gym and I along with several other shipmates staggered off the M/S Marina, with wobbley sets of sea-legs to start a pre-arranged 2-day intensive tour of the sacred valley of the Inca, high up in the Andes.  We all loaded onto a bus that would take us to the airport at Callao. Onboard the bus, we were met by our guide Luis who would be with us for the next 48 hours. Luis began with a running commentary on the geography of Peru. Then Luis and his boys looked after all our luggage and guided us through the airport to the gate. It was there that we discovered that our flight would be two hours late. This was an unfortunate setback. It would mean we would have no rest-time to acclimatize in Cusco before we embarked on an extensive 4-hour tour of the ancient capital in the late afternoon. Believe me, some time to acclimatize would have been nice because we were going up to a city that is situated at 11,000 feet above sea level. That’s right, another mile+ above Denver.

After nodding off a couple of times in the airport, our flight was finally called and we jumped into a StarPeru jet for the climb up to Cusco. On the way, Luis warned us about the change in altitude but I  thought he might be overdoing it a bit. Honestly though, upon landing in Cusco, the thin air hit me as hard as a brick in the face. It was a workout just getting across the air bridge and up the ramp into the concourse. Thank god Luis was there to lead us through the process of getting luggage and transferring us to narrow mini-buses, that could maneuver in the streets Cusco.

Our group consisted of 45 or so Marina veterans that had tacked on the Cusco/Machu Picchu tour to their sea packages. After landing in Cusco we were split into three more sub-groups. Mrs. Gym and I became part of “the Condors” a name suggested by our minibus guide Eyner. Eyner then provided more geographical narrative on the 20-minute drive to the hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel we checked in and were led to our room but had been told to return to the lobby right away. This is where the hotel stepped in to help the staggering zombies that labored off the minibuses. They served us some coca tea. Yes, it helped, but what I really wanted was cocaine! I was hurting! I needed an oxygen tank and don’t laugh, they have O2 tanks in reception but we had no time for that. We immediately re-boarded the vehicles and Eyner took us on a tour of Cusco. We toured three of the city’s main historic sites in a rushed exploration that started at about 3 pm and needed to finish before it was dark at about 6:30 pm. We made it through all three spots and although it was painful, it was worth it.

The first site was Saqsaywaman, a very impressive Incan ruin right above the city center of Cusco. We wound our way up through the narrow streets and emerged at the site that is located on a bench, at 12,000 feet above sea level, overlooking the city. We wobbled around behind Eyner at the site and viewed the ramparts built of incredibly enormous stones, that were so well placed together that you could not pass a sheet of paper into the seams between them. When the Spanish conquered the Inca they tried to destroy the site but many of the stones were too large to move. What stones they could loot were used in the construction of the homes, churches and administrative buildings of Spanish Cusco.

The next stop was Qorikancha, a former Incan temple located near the center of modern day Cusco. This is another example of beautiful Incan building techniques that was taken down to the foundations by the Spaniards. The Spaniards wanted to destroy the heathen temples but they liked the foundations, so they built a monastery on top of those foundations. Fortunately, there is enough of the Incan stonework left at the site for us to be able to study the function of the site before the Spaniards came and it is easy to see where the inferior Spanish stonework was built on top of the Incan ruins.

The third and last site we visited that day was the Cathedral of Santo Domingo or Cusco Cathedral. I think this is the most lavishly decorated cathedral I have ever visited in the western hemisphere. Not only was some of the enormous wealth of Incan gold and silver preserved here but the enslaved Incan artisans were able to inject many of their own cultural nuances into the beautiful artwork that adorns the alters, sacristy, transepts and chapels that are part of the greater cathedral complex. There is a depiction of The Last Supper on one of the walls that is particularly stunning. This oil painting has a few Incan twists to it. On the center of the table is a roasted guinea pig instead of  a loaf of bread and jug of wine has been replaced by an Incan vessel which would not have contained wine. The painting also contains a little jab at the conquering Spaniards, in that Judas has the face of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of the Inca.  This might have been one of the first editorial cartoons. 

After returning from the tour we ate a fine meal in our hotel, the Monasterio. I will tell you more about the hotel in the next article.

At Cusco Airport

Courtyard of the Monasterio Hotel (also built over Incan ruins by the Spaniards)

Looking down at Cusco from Saqsaywaman - 1000 ft. below.

Cutting the grass at Saqsaywaman

massive boulders cut and placed so tightly together that
a piece of paper can not be slid in between them.
Some blocks are tens of metric tons each.

Qorikancha's foundations are sturdy Incan rock work.
What you see here is the courtyard of the Catholic convent that
was built on top of the Incan temple.

This is an example of the Incan stonework.
There is no mortar between the stones which are cut to fit exactly.

Cusco Cathedral from across the main town square.
Unfortunately no pictures could be taken inside this beautiful building.