Cusco, Heart of the Inca Empire: Peru (Archives), South America

I was breathless with excitement!

Or maybe it was just the altitude? Or the psychoactive effects of the coca tea we’d been drinking?

Flying into Cusco (previously Cuzco) felt like flying into another world. And it was: it was a world away, and a long time ago.

My husband and I were planning to walk the Inca Trail, and Cusco is the jumping off point for most trekkers. This is the UNESCO-listed capital of the ancient Inca Empire and the more modern home of Coca Cola: even though real coca (from which cocaine is extracted) was removed from the soft drink back in 1930s, the giant Coca Cola sign welcoming us to the city was the first thing I noticed from the airplane.

We were greeted at our lodgings with cups of coca tea, which is supposed to help with any altitude sickness. Sitting high in the Central Peruvian Andes, at 3350 metres (2 miles) above sea level, Cusco is a good place to acclimatise in preparation for the even higher passes on the trail. The tea must work, because aside from fatigue and headaches, none of our group of seven intrepid travelers suffered too badly. A couple, however, did have panic attacks when they thought about what might happen if they were drug-tested when they went back to work – even though the leaves are relatively low in psychoactive alkaloid.

Cusco is an intriguing mix of time and culture. Located in a fertile alluvial valley fed by several rivers, it was occupied for well over 3,000 years by non-Inca ethnic Quechua people. After the rise of the Inca civilisation sometime in the early 13th century, the city was conquered by Manco Cápac and became the centre of a small city-state: the Kingdom of Cusco. It is said that in the mid 1400’s, the city was redesigned and remodelled to look like a puma, the Inca representative of the earthly plane.

The invading Spaniards reached Inca territory by 1526 and overtook Cusco by 1533. They did their best to stamp out the native customs and beliefs, building awe-inspiring churches and monasteries on top of the original Inca buildings. Fortunately, the original structures were stronger than the Spaniards imagined, and the granite walls of the Coricancha / Qorikancha (and other original architectural sites) resurfaced after surviving an earthquake in 1950.

The customs have also survived and integrated themselves into the local version of Catholicism. For example, modern versions of ancient coca-leaf healing rituals involve a ‘priest or healer’ saying three Hail Marys and reciting a prayer to the traditional Quechua Gods of the underworld, the land, and the heavens.

I really enjoyed exploring Cusco – even though most of the time the historical explanations our guide was giving us went straight over my head. The different Spanish and Quechua (the most widely spoken indigenous language in Peru) names, and the accent – Peruvians speak their Spanish very quickly, and they speak English the same way: “j” sounds like an aspirated /h/, while “h” and “g” disappear somewhere down the back of the throat – made understanding difficult. I hit information overload very quickly, and contented myself with taking pictures and talking in sign-language to the villagers.

Of course, those pictures that I took were on my very first little digital camera and with a fairly underdeveloped-eye! Sometimes I can’t even crop these old offerings into a more modern 2×3 format without completely losing any semblance of composition.

But, they represent some good memories of a very special time and place. I hope you, too, enjoy them.

Sometimes you have to not think about what you are eating!

It was certainly a full and interesting day – and whether it was the excitement, the altitude, or all the stimulant tea, I thought about it long into the night.

Until next time,

Happy Travels!

Pictures: 05April2006