October 28, 2011
Friday morning I walk a couple kilometers to the "Monumento Pachacutec" which is a tower with a statue on top of the Incan emperor "Pachacutie" who is the greatest Inca emperor who basically turned the Incas from a small village into an empire in his lifetime. After that I walked down to Cuzco's central market where they sell everything very similar to the Belen Market in Iquitos. As I am walking around I spot a section that sells ayahuasca and also "San Pedro" which is an hallucigenic cactus plant. So I buy some San Pedro since I haven't tried it yet. Here is a little that I just read about it the day before:
"San Pedro cactus- San Pedro, known as Wachuma in the “Quechua” Andean language, is a cactus that grows naturally in the high altitude, San Pedro contains a number of psychoactive alkaloids, which make it useful as an entheogen for shamanic ceremonies. It is generally cut into slices and boiled for a long period of time creating a green liquid juice which is consumed during ceremonies.
- Ayahuasca effects last 3 to 5 hours, whereas San Pedro lasts 10 to 12, but on a more 'gentle' journey
- San Pedro can be taken day or night, whereas Ayahuasca is recommended to be taken only at night, for there would be too many visual distractions from the journey if taken during the day".
After the market I come back to my hotel for a little nap before heading out on my city tour of Saqsaywaman, Tambomachay, Pukapukara, and Q'engo which runs from 2pm-6:30pm. Our guide's name is "Benjamin" and he is bilingual and really knows his history and archaeology. It was a spanish/english tour and the only other english speakers there was a family (Gloria, Jason and their 3 kids) from Victoria BC, Canada!! What are the odds of that and they live just 5 blocks from where I used to live in Victoria!.
Our first stop is Iglesia of Santa Domingo and Qorikancha since the church is built on top of the old Inca stone site. The big stones at Qorikancha are unbelieveable stone structures cut to perfection and the same size. The engineering was incredible as they lined up windows perfectly so you could look through 3 small windows simultaneously (see photo). This place was filled with Incan gold until the Conquistadores showed up. It was here in 1536 that the Conquistadores had to protect themselves from the 1000's of Incas that were overwhelming them after Manco Inca became the rebel Incan leader against the spanish where the Conquistadores barely survived that attack before mounting their offense to take the strategic spot of "Saqsaywaman" which is located a kilometer away high in the mountain.
Our next stop was "Saqsaywaman". Most gringos just pronounce it "sexy woman". The stones here were huge and some were 136 tonnes which were originally there when the Incas built this structure. The Incans had used this to stop the flow of water into Cuzco so to weaken the Conquistadores which is why the Conquistadores needed to take it against all odds. There is an artificial lake that the mountain water runs into and the Incans could control its flow and where it goes. It was neat being there and remembering from my book "The last days of the Incas" that this battle was fought in 1536 (475 years ago) and the details of this battle where the Incas were the closest to exterminating the 500 conquistadores and the Incas were up on high terraces as the Conquistadores used ladders to climb the terraces as the Incas fought them. Juan Pizarro was killed during that battle.
Our next stop after that was " Tambomachay" and there wasn't a lot of ruins there so a relatively quick visit. On our way back to the bus I stopped by to see what the venders were selling and I noticed a chess set that was Conquistadores against the Incas so I bought it for $10US. Most people who remember my Asian trip will remember I bought a hand crafted marble chess set in Vietnam for $3US which ended up costing me $100US when it came to airline weight restrictions and I ended up giving it away in Indonesia as it was becoming too much of a burden. I only have a few weeks left and so it should be manageable.
After Tambomachay we drove 100 meters to the next site called "Pukapukara" which was another small site of Incan ruins. Then our last ruin was "Q'engo" which was a burial site for the Incan emperors until the conquistadores showed up. It was a big rock that had a tunnel into it and burial chambers starting with the first Incan emperor. After that Benjamin had us stop at some gift shop that I assumed must have a commission in it for him as they explained to us the different types of llama fabric and how to tell the real stuff from the knock off stuff venders sell. I ended up buying a couple Incan key chains for 5 soles each.
Tomorrow I am doing a tour of the "Sacred Valley" which starts at 9am and goes to Incan sites that are farther out of Cuzco and for Sunday I booked a tour for Moray and a salt mine area and then for Monday and Tuesday I booked my Wayna Pichu and Machu Pichu tour by car. I was going to do a trek but it isn't the Inca trail so no ruins along the way and my legs said "no" to that idea. I might spend Wednesday in Cuzco to see anything else that I have left to see before grabbing a bus to Puno and Lake Titicaca.
Friday morning I walk a couple kilometers to the "Monumento Pachacutec" which is a tower with a statue on top of the Incan emperor "Pachacutie" who is the greatest Inca emperor who basically turned the Incas from a small village into an empire in his lifetime. After that I walked down to Cuzco's central market where they sell everything very similar to the Belen Market in Iquitos. As I am walking around I spot a section that sells ayahuasca and also "San Pedro" which is an hallucigenic cactus plant. So I buy some San Pedro since I haven't tried it yet. Here is a little that I just read about it the day before:
"San Pedro cactus- San Pedro, known as Wachuma in the “Quechua” Andean language, is a cactus that grows naturally in the high altitude, San Pedro contains a number of psychoactive alkaloids, which make it useful as an entheogen for shamanic ceremonies. It is generally cut into slices and boiled for a long period of time creating a green liquid juice which is consumed during ceremonies.
- Ayahuasca effects last 3 to 5 hours, whereas San Pedro lasts 10 to 12, but on a more 'gentle' journey
- San Pedro can be taken day or night, whereas Ayahuasca is recommended to be taken only at night, for there would be too many visual distractions from the journey if taken during the day".
After the market I come back to my hotel for a little nap before heading out on my city tour of Saqsaywaman, Tambomachay, Pukapukara, and Q'engo which runs from 2pm-6:30pm. Our guide's name is "Benjamin" and he is bilingual and really knows his history and archaeology. It was a spanish/english tour and the only other english speakers there was a family (Gloria, Jason and their 3 kids) from Victoria BC, Canada!! What are the odds of that and they live just 5 blocks from where I used to live in Victoria!.
Our first stop is Iglesia of Santa Domingo and Qorikancha since the church is built on top of the old Inca stone site. The big stones at Qorikancha are unbelieveable stone structures cut to perfection and the same size. The engineering was incredible as they lined up windows perfectly so you could look through 3 small windows simultaneously (see photo). This place was filled with Incan gold until the Conquistadores showed up. It was here in 1536 that the Conquistadores had to protect themselves from the 1000's of Incas that were overwhelming them after Manco Inca became the rebel Incan leader against the spanish where the Conquistadores barely survived that attack before mounting their offense to take the strategic spot of "Saqsaywaman" which is located a kilometer away high in the mountain.
Our next stop was "Saqsaywaman". Most gringos just pronounce it "sexy woman". The stones here were huge and some were 136 tonnes which were originally there when the Incas built this structure. The Incans had used this to stop the flow of water into Cuzco so to weaken the Conquistadores which is why the Conquistadores needed to take it against all odds. There is an artificial lake that the mountain water runs into and the Incans could control its flow and where it goes. It was neat being there and remembering from my book "The last days of the Incas" that this battle was fought in 1536 (475 years ago) and the details of this battle where the Incas were the closest to exterminating the 500 conquistadores and the Incas were up on high terraces as the Conquistadores used ladders to climb the terraces as the Incas fought them. Juan Pizarro was killed during that battle.
Our next stop after that was " Tambomachay" and there wasn't a lot of ruins there so a relatively quick visit. On our way back to the bus I stopped by to see what the venders were selling and I noticed a chess set that was Conquistadores against the Incas so I bought it for $10US. Most people who remember my Asian trip will remember I bought a hand crafted marble chess set in Vietnam for $3US which ended up costing me $100US when it came to airline weight restrictions and I ended up giving it away in Indonesia as it was becoming too much of a burden. I only have a few weeks left and so it should be manageable.
After Tambomachay we drove 100 meters to the next site called "Pukapukara" which was another small site of Incan ruins. Then our last ruin was "Q'engo" which was a burial site for the Incan emperors until the conquistadores showed up. It was a big rock that had a tunnel into it and burial chambers starting with the first Incan emperor. After that Benjamin had us stop at some gift shop that I assumed must have a commission in it for him as they explained to us the different types of llama fabric and how to tell the real stuff from the knock off stuff venders sell. I ended up buying a couple Incan key chains for 5 soles each.
Tomorrow I am doing a tour of the "Sacred Valley" which starts at 9am and goes to Incan sites that are farther out of Cuzco and for Sunday I booked a tour for Moray and a salt mine area and then for Monday and Tuesday I booked my Wayna Pichu and Machu Pichu tour by car. I was going to do a trek but it isn't the Inca trail so no ruins along the way and my legs said "no" to that idea. I might spend Wednesday in Cuzco to see anything else that I have left to see before grabbing a bus to Puno and Lake Titicaca.
