"The Naval of the World" ...
Okay I think I´m in love. This city of Cusco is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. A cross between a beautiful colonial Spanish town and an old Inca Village, there is so much to see here and not nearly enough time to cover it all.
We got off the plane from the jungle and straight away we could feel the burn of altitude in our lungs. For the first 24 hours, we felt drunk and breathless - even a couple of steps wears you out! With a bit of practice though, our breathing came good and we have been tottering about the place endlessly. One of our tour group has had to go to hospital with Alititude Sickness. They have put her in a Hyperbaric Chamber until they can fly her back to sea level. I felt really sorry for her as she is here on her honeymoon and will now have to cut it short. We have another of our number in hospital as well with Salmonella - it is a hazardous place!
Phil and I have split up for a few days - I decided that after being so sick I was too weak to manage the pilgramige up the Inca Trail. Phil is now on day two of the four day hike and I hope he is okay. I´ll get to him to write about it for you all when he is finished. We are meeting one another at Machu Picchu on Monday morning at dawn (I´ll go by train).
I am here in Cusco with another girl from our tour group, Kathryn, who is from Mentone (she went to Kilbreda!). We went to the ruins of Qénco and Saqsaywaman yesterday which was about a two hour hike up the mountains out of town. What an amazing sight though. Qénco is the Inca Temple of Mother Earth and is where they used to mummify their dead in readiness for rebirth. It is also where they kept their calendar systems - very intricate carvings that allow sunlight to reflect on certain points of rock to tell them when to harvest and when to plant, etc (Think Indiana Jones).
Saqsaywaman (pronounced Sexy Woman) was the centre of Inca power when the Spaniards arrived here and the scene of the final battles between the Inca and the Conquistadors. The name itself means "Satisfied Falcon" and they call it that because it is said that the Vultures fed for ten years on the bodies of all the dead Inca. There are huge stones, some weighing 300 tonnes and noone has been able to work out how the Inca built these mammoth structures. They used no mortar, no metal tools and had no animals to help them (If you ask a Lima to carry more than 5 kgs, he spits at you!). There are no gaps between any of the stones and whilst the Spanish buildings are wiped out after each earthquake, these Inca Temples have withstood all for hundreds and hudreds of years.
Today I am off to visit the squillions of Churches and Museums ... and to do a little last minute shopping for Alpaca gear!
Love to you all - I have been missing you.
B.
