Backpacking South America

Cuzco, last Inca empire and now gringo capital of Peru, was our jumping pad to visit Machu Picchu. We spent a few days here before and after our trip to Machu Picchu. Aside from some great (gringo) restaurants, bars and cafes, Cuzco is rich with history.

As the capital of Incan culture, Cuzco had numerous temples. When the Spanish defeated the Incas, they destroyed the temples and important sites of Cuzco and built their churches over the top of them in their effort to convert the people to Catholicism. So we decided to take one day and pay the hefty gringo entrance fees and explore some of the Catholic Churches and Incan Temples of Cuzco.

The most important religious site for the Incas was Qorikancha, the Temple of the Sun. This temple was re-discovered after the 1950 earthquake, when the Church that was built over top of it was partially destroyed and revealed significant remains of the Incan Temple.

Qorikancha has some of the best examples of Incan architecture. The construction was built to glorify the gods and to accurately identify the equinox and solstices. Interestingly, the temple was so well built that it has not seen any destruction from the many severe earthquakes that have destroyed many of the Spanish’s finest buildings.

In many of the Cuzco cathedrals, more than elsewhere in Peru, there was significant integration between the Incan and Spanish cultures in the art and construction.

The most interesting church we visited was the main Cathedral. It is comprised of three churches in one, all built at different times on the remains of the Palace of the Incan King. There were several interesting elements in this church. First, there were mirrors in this church. Catholic churches usually do not have mirrors in the church because they are sign of vanity, however, within the Incan culture when looking into a mirror one is able to see their soul. Therefore, the church used these mirrors as a conversion tool. And they still remain today.

Impressively, there are hundreds of beautiful pieces of Cusqueña artwork, completed by indigenous artists. Some were replicas of European paintings, while others were originals and incorporated elements of Incan culture, such as the llamas, maize (corn), or the Incan religious symbols of the condor, puma and snake. In Incan culture, the condor represents upper world, the puma represents the middle world and the snake represents the underworld. Sometimes the integration was for the localization of the story, other times it was a subversive act.

One painting of the last supper done by a Cusqueñan artist painted Pizarro as Judas – a good stab at the Spanish conquerors.

Another example of the incorporation of the two cultures were the choir stalls. The choir stalls were made of cedar wood and intricately carved of bishops and apostles. And delicately carved into the armrest of the chairs were bare-breasted pregnant maidens, which could indeed be deemed as vulgar in the Catholic Church, but were sacred to the Incan culture representing fertility, and therefore were allowed to remain.

Unfortunately, we were not able to take photographs inside the churches, so all we have to share with you are our best descriptions of these places.

It is hard to capture the beauty and sheer impressiveness of Machu Picchu in photos. Upon entering the site, we were instantly overwhelmed with the structures and the ability of the Incas to tame the mountain. Centered where the two portions of the Andes meet the Amazon, located on top of a mountain, it is hard to imagine so much foresight and effort going into building a city.

The stone structures of the temple do not use any mortar. The Inca’s carved the granite so all the pieces fit together perfectly. Most of the structure remains intact without significant restoration, even though it was built over 500 years ago and abandoned for hundreds of years thereafter.

An optional side trip from within the Machu Picchu site is to hike Waynapicchu and Huaynapicchu. They have 400 permits available each day to hike the mountain. The trick is, they are first come first serve. We arrived at the park gate around 6:45 and we got tickets 394 and 395 – only 7 were left! We felt lucky and were happy to get the permits for the 10am entrance, because we were told that at 10am, the clouds usually lift and you can get clear photos of the entire site.

We passed through the trail checkpoint to hike Waynapicchu shortly after 10. About 2 minutes in the trail forks. Our guide book had warned that the hike is not suited for people afraid of heights or with vertigo. We started down the trail to Waynapicchu, after a few minutes, it was clear that trail was a bit too precariously perched on the hillside. So we backtracked to try the shorter trail, Huaynapicchu. We were shortly met by stairs up the hill, exposed to a straight drop off on one side. Carra held her ground, refusing to go further. I headed on, up the stairs, holding the rock face. I made it to a lookout, but then realized the trail continued up, quite steeply. The next obstacle was a 50 degree rock face with a rope hanging down. From there, it was just a matter of squeezing through a couple tight spots and scrambling up a hill in the mud, and seeing nothing but gray mist with the hillside being a straight drop off the other side.

I felt a sense of accomplishment at the top and sat around a bit, hoping the mist would break and I would get that famous postcard shot of Machu Picchu. No dice. There were times when the clouds broke slightly, but I never got the full shot.

Here is a set of our photos from Machu Picchu:

Backstory

We were a bit worried that we may not be able to visit Machu Picchu. Peru and the Sacred Valley were hit with extreme rains this year and suffered severe damage from flooding. The only way to reach Machu Picchu is via train to Aguas Caliente, and from there, to take a bus 30 minutes to the site. The floods this year washed out several portions of the train tracks, trapping residents and tourists in Aguas Calientes and trains on both sides of the landslides.

The route to Machu Picchu was closed from Jan/Feb until April 1st. For the last few months of travel, it seemed up in the air and unclear as to whether we would actually be able to visit the sight. But as April approached, the targeted open date held firm and we purchased train tickets a week in advance in Arequipa.

Even after months of work, the train route isn’t clear all the way to Cuzco. It was necessary to take a bus to Piscacucho, kilometer 82 on the train tracks, to catch the train. From there, it was a 90 minute ride to Aguas Calientes on a 2-car train.

Visiting Machu Picchu was a key point of our trip. We had looked forward to visiting Machu Picchu, hoping that we would be able to enter in light of the terrible flooding that hit the Sacred Valley. We were in luck – with train tickets in hand, we were guaranteed to get to Machu Picchu.

*For a brief history of Machu Picchu check out this NOVA special: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/machupicchu/

* We actually haven’t seen the NOVA special because it is blocked outside the US…but we’ve heard that it’s really enlightening.

Our first stop in Peru was Arequipa – Peru’s second largest city. In the center, it’s colonial buildings remain largely intact. The white walls, clean cut corners and arched doorways take you back to the time the Spanish occupied the center.

Arequipa was charming and a nice transition from Bolivia. We spent a few days before and after the Colca Canyon exploring and relaxing in Arequipa. A big plus was most cafes had delicious coffee (a long time coming…) and great food. I know, we’re here in Peru and should truly embrace and enjoy Peruvian food, but we could not help but be drawn in by the Turkish and Middle Eastern restaurants. Arequipa was a welcome change and has set the mood for the rest of Peru.

Santa Catalina Convent

One afternoon, we decided to visit the Santa Catalina Convent located in the center of Arequipa. The convent really is a city inside a city. It was constructed back in the 16th century and endured several earthquakes and periods of transition which can be seen in the architecture of the “city.”

The monastery is made of silar, a volcanic rock, and is often then decorated with beautiful paintings. Over time, various earthquakes destroyed parts of the monastery and the nuns struggled to make proper repairs due to the lack of money. It was necessary to branch out from the dormitory as it became severely damaged after the 1582 earthquake and the monastery continued to out-grow its space. Eventually, the families of the nuns began to construct these private cells or rooms within the monastery where the nuns would live, either alone or with their servant. It soon became a real estate transaction. But, of course, they remained rather simple, but quite comfortable, and for some, rather spacious.

As time went by, it soon became not just a home and place of solitude for the nuns, but they too began to take in the poor or widowed women and their children or single women who chose to exert these virtues of the Catholic Church. However, as for the nuns, their only other contact with the outside world was through these little designated windows that were thickly latticed with a 2 foot space between the next one on the outside wall of the monastery that they were able to talk through when they received visitors. And, if the visitors brought them something there were these shelves built into the wall, that spun, like a lazy-susan corner cupboard.

They had their chapels, their gardens, wash area, courtyards, places of “government,” homes, cemetery, and even a community kitchen. This monastery was so well honored by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church that priests would pay special visits to bless this place and even send parts of their bodies after their death to commemorate the sanctity of this place. It pays to mention that the prioress of this convent was a very special woman, by the name of Doña María de Guzmán, who was a wealthy widow with no children who decided to dedicate herself and her fortune to the Monastery. Her remains reside in the Monastery and her cell, where she died is blocked off by glass in the Monastery and considered sacred.

We decided it would be a good idea to hike to the bottom of the second deepest canyon in the world – Colca Canyon. Just a bit shallower than the nearby Cotahuasi Canyon, the Colca Canyon is actually twice as deep as the Grand Canyon; however, it seems more like a really, really deep valley with steep walls.

I imagine the Grand Canyon to be deep with nearly vertical walls, which may or may not be true… I will find out soon enough. Regardless, it was amazing and worth the pain of the nearly 4,000 foot descent and ascent.

Our tour started at 3am. A bus stopped by all the hostels to various groups of day-trippers, two-dayers and the adventurous 3-dayers like ourselves. We quickly fell back asleep. We awoke around 8am as we were entering Chivay, a town at the mouth of the canyon. We paid our entrance fee and made our way along the canyon’s edge, mountains towering over us on both sides. We reached Cruz del Condor about an hour later and were quite lucky to see a number of the condors up close in our short stay.

From here, we were also over the deepest part of the canyon – a full 2,000 meters to the bottom.

We then made our way to Cabancone for lunch and then began our descent to the canyon floor. Approaching the canyon’s edge, ominous gray clouds were collecting and moving in our direction. We started the hike in the sun, but could hear thunder from the nearby stormclouds. We hoped we could make it down, before the rains came. We weren’t quite so lucky, but it wasn’t as bad as it looked.

The hike down wasn’t as steep or difficult as expected, but it was hard to look around and truly appreciate the surroundings for fear of missing a step and sliding down the canyon wall. Eventually, we made it to the bottom, crossed the river and made our way to a very rustic, mud-walled hostel.

We hit the trail by 8:30 on Day Two. We were set to walk down the valley, cross through two villages and end our day in 3.5 – 4 hours at Sangalle, an “oasis” with hostels and swimming pools. The hike was nice and our guide gave us great information on the local plant life, celebrations of the local villages and how the people earn a living.

We finally arrived at the Oasis, relieved to take a dip in the pool and lounge about in the sun. The oasis was actually much nicer than anticipated and we were very thankfully to stay the night at the oasis rather than hike out in the afternoon like other groups. Up until the Oasis, we had only encountered a few other hikers. Most of the people we encountered were from the local villages.

We had a great afternoon and got ourselves to bed quite early, so we could be fresh for the 5am start up the Canyon. We were some of the first ones on the trail and we started at a gentle pace to get the blood moving. In the dark, it was hard to see just how tall the canyon walls were, but as the sun’s rays peaked out, we began to feel dread at the amount of ground we would have to ascend.

As we progressed up the canyon, we could feel the air getting thinner and by the top, we were beginning to be in the direct sun – adding to our agony. Just under 3.53 hours later, we were at the top, looking over the terraced fields outside Cabanconde. From there it was a short 15 minute walk to town where breakfast was waiting for us.

Our last stop on our 3-day trek were the hot springs outside Chivay. We pulled in, quickly changed our clothes and enjoyed an hour of soaking and relaxation in the warm 90 degree pool. It was a great way to end the trip to the Colca Canyon.

We made a little visit to Copacabana, just for two days, in order to catch an early morning boat to Isla del Sol, where, according to the Incas, life began with the birth of the sun and the moon. It was both a very long bus ride to Copacabana and a seemingly longer boat ride across Lake Titicaca to the island for an afternoon. But, we made it.

Our trip to Copacabana happened to take 3 hours longer than we had anticipated because, apparently, there was a national celebration going on in this tiny little port town (one of the only naval bases in Bolivia) where we had to catch a little boat across the bay in order to continue on in our bus. It just so happened that this celebration lasted 3 hours and we were stuck in the hot intense sun at 14,000 feet above sea level.

So, there we sat on the dock, along with all the other tourists, waiting for a boat to take us across the bay (I think I could have swam faster than the amount of time it took for us to get across). Perhaps the greatest irony was finding out that they were actually celebrating/commemorating the loss of the Pacific Coastline to Chile in the Pacific War.

Once they finally stopped celebrating and the boats started running again, we crossed the lake on one boat and our bus crossed on another.

We finally made it to Copacabana and were very thankful that we had made a reservation at this cute little hotel overlooking the lake, La Cupula.

We bought our tickets for the next morning and prepared ourselves for a 2.5 hour boat ride to the island. It just so happened that we got on the slowest of the slow boats and watched all the other tour boats idle by at a slightly faster speed. No boat ever went fast enough to have a wake.

We took the afternoon exploring the island and decided to take a stroll across the island from the north part to the south part. It was a slow stroll, given the fact that we were over 14,000 feet high, but we had amazing views across the lake.

We had to pay fees at several parts of the islands. First, it was 10 bolivianos at the north end, then 10 for the middle section, and finally 5 to enter the south end. Why they just don’t have a set fee when you step onto the island is beyond me. It’s not like we had an option…we had to pass through. Our boat already left the dock on the northern part and we needed to arrive on the southern side by a specific time in order to catch our boat back to the mainland.

One thing is certain, Bolivia always keeps life interesting.