Cuzco and the Sacred Valley of Peru March, 2005

Sharmaira from K Pullied tours met us at the airport in Cuzco and took us to La Posada de Andes a nice hostel 9,000 ft. elevation, she also had our Cuzco tours ready as well as Machu Picchu.

Mostly all the natives use the coca tea or chew the leaves. First they served us coca tea and told us to stay well hydrated and take it easy this first day. In order to acclimatize ourselves to the altitude, there were other things to do, sleep with your window open, take anti histamines and or what really worked for Pat was Diamox 250 mg. 2-3 a day and stay hydrated not only with water but with electrolytes or Gatorade. The coca plant grows vigorously in high altitude. The leaves contain carotene,riboflavin,thiamin,iron and calcium,while among its alkaloids besides cocaine, it has “ecgonine”,an active ingredient of atropine, an element that helps digestion and the assimilation of carbohydrates, which as we know is the mainstay of the Andes diet. It is also known that chewing and drinking the tea alleviates effects of altitude sickness, helping to relax the airways to the lungs and restore tone to the smooth muscles of the digestive system. Coca leaves are also exported to Columbia to be processed for cocaine.

Some other cruisers this week had other health problems of colds and tourista,” but they were treated with anti- biotics. It is convenient here you just go to the pharmacy without prescriptions and to see a doctor is inexpensive and easy. The Peru diet is limited and with the altitude you don’t feel like eating much and so Soup was main meal ,and delicious, most of the days. One night however Betty and Kevin Donohoe from S/V Citation and us found an Irish Pub Rosie O’Grady’s and we had a wee bit of St. Patrick’s early with some Jameson’s and Guinness. It was good because we are not sure we will be together on March 17 th.

Betty, Kevin and Scott decided to walk the Inca trail ,4 days and we decided we didn’t need to conquer those altitudes so we spent more time exploring the Inca ruins and culture in Cuzco and even went to Pikillacta in Southern Cuzco which was pre Inca ruins was culturally different in times and buildings . We then met them in Machu Picchu on Friday along with Alicia and her Mom.

A little bit about Cuzco and the Incas. The city is the heart of the once mighty Inca Empire and each year draws hundreds of thousands tourists to it’s cobble stoned streets lured by the city’s unique colonial splendor built on the stone foundations of the Incas. Lying within an easy hop is the country’s biggest draw the “Lost city” of Machu Picchu. Cuzco also has the most fascinating and accessible archaeology on the continent, not least the Sacred Valley of the Rio Urubamba. It’ s undisputed the ,once foremost city of the Inca Empire and Quechua population, that it is the archaeological capital of the Americas as well as the continent’s oldest continuously inhabited city. Massive Inca built walls line the city’s steep cobblestone central streets with Quechua- speaking descendants of the Incas. There is no question however that the economy is definitely relying on tourism. Cuzco is a city so steeped in history, tradition and legends that it is sometimes hard to tell where fact ends and myths begin. Few events have rocked this city since the Spanish conquest and it became just another quite colonial town. However it was the rediscovery of Machu Picchu in 1911 that has affected this town again to Peru’s foremost tourist center.

The Andes are the largest of all the mountain ranges in the world. Peru is located where this mountain chain enters the tropics, but is still in an area where glaciers contribute to the climate: with cold which dissipates as altitude diminishes, and with water which fertilizes the high, steep sloops and provides, as in few places on the planet ,a wide variety of climates and ecosystems.

Most of the Inca buildings had three windows. They were also designed for the solstice. Summer solstice Dec. 22nd.(the sun is reborn and the world is revitalized) and so if the sun was reborn the other divinities were also. The winter solstice is June 21 st. (when nature has ripened and matured.),his vitality descended over the earth at midday to receive the offerings placed on the altar. The dead return according to the Incas to communicate with the living, and so fiestas were held.

The Incas had as their gods a full circle. Condor would take their mummies souls up to the Sun and the middle was the earth or Pacchi Mama where life is lived and reborn with the Pacchi Papa .Any time a Quechena drinks they also spill a little on the ground to the Pacchi Mama and then the bottom if this trilogy is the under earth their death till the condor comes one again.

The Sacred Valley is called so because the Incas believed it had the Sun, fertile soil and protection from the mountains. There we saw many ruins and also the largest market on Sunday in the area. Markets are any thing from textile to selling live animals and lots of tourists in between. Quite colorful . We passed and toured a few small towns with ruins such as, Pisac, Urbamba, and Ollantay tambo

As you can imagine there are many churches in this city and the colonial art is mingled with the Andes Indian culture. In one of the Cathedral there is a piece of work by well known artist here Marcos Zapata , of the last supper. In this picture on the table is a platter of roast Cuy (guinea pig) and they were drinking from bottles ,instead of wine glasses, the indigenous drink made from fermentation of corn.

The Puma, condo and snake were beliefs to the Incas and they honored them feeding llamas Calm and gentle llamas