More Cuzco…

It was a good thing I canceled my half day tour, as it poured with rain for most of the morning… Cuzco was cold and dreary, so I stayed in my room, writing the posts on my exit from Bolivia and arrival in Cuzco…

During the previous day’s tour, I bumped into Adrian Alarcon and his wife Diana… He was on the Kawasaki Versus which was parked next to the Big Fella… Over the next few days, we would share information on our rides and having ridden all the way from Bogota in Colombia where he lives, he had been on many of the roads I was planning to ride on my way north…

"You really should ask Adrian to buy you a cover like mine...!! Doesn't he know you could catch a cold out here...??"

Having discovered this establishment, I knew that I could lure Patricia to Cuzco with ease...!!

I sat watching locals and tourists going about their business in the plaza below...

After lunch, the sun came out and I wandered about the main square and the few streets that led off it, taking photos of the town that was steadily growing on me, and becoming a place that I could come back to one day…

I sat drinking coffee, and planning a short route that I intended to walk before the weather closed in again…

Easter Monday as we know it is not a public holiday in South America… They have Thursday and Friday as part of their Easter Weekend…

The square had therefore emptied of the thousands of people that had been there on the previous few days, and it was possible to walk around without being jostled…

It was back to school for these kids on an outing to the Cathedral...

This cool wooden tram takes tourists on short rides around the Plaza de Armas and the streets surrounding the main square...

The Puma can be seen on every lamp-post in Cuzco, a reminder of the close connection the Incas had with this animal which to them represented strength and power...

I might have shared a few pints with fellow travelers at this establishment... But I can't be certain...!!

The Puma is the totem of Cuzco. The city was originally laid out in the shape of this animal which was an important symbol to the Incas… Before the Spanish arrived, Cuzco was the Incan capital…

Today, with all the expansion that has taken place, the city borders have expanded to such a degree, that it no longer resembles it’s former shape…

Light rain cut my walk short, and I spent the rest of the afternoon planning to ride to Nazca and from there to Lima…

Adrian had ridden up to Cuzco from Nazca, taking two days to make the ride…

“It is a terrible road…,” he had said, ” Many bends and sharp corners… It is higher than Cuzco and very cold up on the Altiplano… It is best to do it in two days, my friend…!! One day would be crazy…!!”

That night it rained heavily again, and on checking the weather report, I discovered more rain was forecast on the mountains between Cuzco and Nazca… I postponed my ride for yet another day…!!

At the Inca museum, I watched a woman weaving a narrow tapestry... The museum itself was a bit disappointing...

Prounounced "Sexy Woman" by tour guides, the name has stuck...!!

After a quick visit to the Inca Museum the following morning, I hired a taxi to take me out to the archeological site of Saqsaywaman…

The name alone is intriguing…!! Did the Incas carve a massive stone in the shape of a woman…?? Did they even have the concept of “Sexy” in those days…??

Apparently not…!!

My two day pass to see ten sites in and around Cuzco has expired, but undaunted by this little detail, and with the assurances of the taxi driver that we could talk our way into the site, we set off for the ruins…

The taxi drivers confidence proved to be unfounded, as we were politely but firmly directed to “take out things and duck” by the security guard manning the main entrance…!!

“Never mind…” the driver said, “I know another way in…!!”

I’m always up for bending the rules just a little, and agreed that we should try his “another way”…!!

He parked the taxi on a hill above the site and then directed me down a narrow path where I was assured that I would gain entry to Saqsaywaman, undetected…

This was as close as I got before a loud blast from a security guard's whistle, sent me back the way I had come...!!

Security was a lot tighter than my friend and I had thought…!! Guards patrolled the outer edges of the vast site, keeping in touch with each other by hand held radio, and ensuring that one did not enter without the proper ticket…!!

I was not about to shell out another R200.00 for a two day pass, (the minimum you can buy) just to visit this one site… I annoyed the guards no end by standing on the roof of the taxi and taking photos from there…!! My actions also annoyed the taxi driver, but I ignored his protests and told him that I was not about to pay him for a fruitless trip after he had assured me he would get me in…!!

The site is made up of very large slabs of rock, which were cut to fit together without mortar… It forms the “Head” of the Puma whose shape Cuzco was built in… Some of the “stones” have been calculated to weigh as much as 200 tons…!! They formed a massive wall, almost 6 metres high, that kept the Spanish at bay when they originally laid seige to Cuzco… It is the site of the only battle that the Incas managed to beat the Spaniards in…

Soon after Saqsaywaman was taken, many of the temples and other building were destroyed… What the Spanish could not accomplish, various earthquakes in the years thereafter, almost leveled the original complex…

Taking your pet for a walk in Cuzco is not the same as taking Fido to the park back home...!!

The manager of the hotel greeted my swift return from my trip to the ruins, with surprise… I explained that we were not allowed in and she went outside and berated the taxi driver for not offering a small “gift” to the security guard to allow me in…!!

I headed back to the plaza and walked around, still enjoying the sight of people bustling about…

I sat on a bench in the warm sun, doing some navel contemplation while planning my ride for the following day…

There is a very large police presence in Cuzco, and from where I sat I could see dozens of them patrolling the streets surrounding the square…

Petty thieves strike on a regular basis here, preying on the unwary traveler… There are also a number of people that sell “tours”, collect the money for them and then disappear without ever making the bookings they have promised to take care of…

There is no need to use any of these “touts”, as there are dozens of reputable tour companies on the verges of the main plaza…

I watched as these guys painstakingly restored the wooden balconies to their former splendour... Each piece of wood has been hand-carved, and dates back hundreds of years...

The statue and fountain of the Inca, which graces the central Plaza de Armas...

Something I thought you only picked up in India....!!

I wanted to chat to Adrian about the ride to Nazca, as I was still in a mind to do it in one day…

It was “only” 660 km and I had made bigger and longer rides than that recently, also crossing high altitudes and enduring cold weather…

Adrian was out on yet another tour, so I began packing, hoping to see him later that evening…

By early evening he was still not back, and I decided to make the ride anyway, checking on two villages along the way, that if needed be, I could stopover at…

An hour later, in pitch darkness, a large posse of riders roared into the courtyard and began unloading their gear from their bikes…

I went outside to see what all the cursing and fuss was about, and to make sure that my bike would not get boxed in… I was planning to get an early start the following morning…

Sunnier days in Cuzco... The Big Fella and Adrian's Kawasaki had the courtyard to themselves... But not for long...!!

That plan went out the window when I saw who was leading the posse and heard where they had just come from…!!

©GBWT 2012