Cusco and the Sacred Valley

I spent a total of seven nights in Cusco, the Inca's ancient capital, before and after the Salkantay trek. It's a touristy city – after Paraty, the most touristy place I've been while travelling – but I rather liked it. The historic centre is pretty and there is lots to see. On the downside, every restaurant hands you a menu in English, every shop is selling the same Peruvian handicrafts and alpaca scarves, and people stand on the street proffering laminated cards and calling out “massage, lady, massage?”

Cusco's Plaza das Armas

I'd planned the lengthy stay to acclimatise properly to the altitude before my trek, having previously suffered a random asthma attack while climbing Mount Taranaki in New Zealand at less than 2,500m above sea level. Cusco is at 3,326m and the Salkantay took us up to 4,600m, so it was a sensible precaution. In the event I barely had any problems – a bit of a headache on arrival which faded by the time I woke from my first night's sleep and rarely came back with any force. In retrospect the random asthma attack was undoubtedly the effect of sleeping at sea level before the climb.

In any case having several days in Cusco meant I was able to get around and see all its sights. I began with the cathedral, which is actually three churches in one and is pretty impressive. The Cuscan style of religious decoration is heavy on the bling, with plenty of gilding, mirrors and images of Jesus, Mary and the saints dressed in costumes decorated in plenty of gold, silver and sequins. The cathedral's excellent audioguide told me that the mirrors, like other imagery used in the churches in Peru, is a hangover from Incan culture. As a culture which venerated the sun, the reflection from mirrors as well as silver and gold reminded them of it and the use of mirrors was a way of linking the old religion with the new.

In the course of the next couple of days I visited most of Cusco's churches until I got a bit church-ed out. One of them stands out though; the convent of Santo Domingo stands on the sight of the Incan temple of the Sun, Qorikancha. The Spanish managed to build around the Incan temple, which was made of massive blocks of dark granite, and even used some of the old temple rooms as rooms in the monastery. Nowadays the Incan bits are protected from the elements and you can see how the old world became the new in one building.

Having plenty of time also meant I was able to get out of Cusco and see some of the Incan sites near the city, as a kind of Machu Picchu warm-up. The Spanish did an excellent job of destroying most of the Incan stuff they found, which is why Machu Picchu stands out, but there's still things worth seeing.

Pisac ruins

On the Sunday I got in a colectivo – a sort of minibus-taxi – and went to Pisac, where there is a market and also an enormous Incan site with the remains of temples, houses and terraces galore, built along the ridge of a mountain above the modern village. Walking up from Pisac meant that only a small part of the site was busy with tourists and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring, although the steps were pretty tough going both up and down.

Cusco's Mercado San Pedro

The market was mostly handicrafts, with a small local produce market. The sellers were all female, all dressed in local dress of big knee-length skirt, blouse and cardigan and a bowler hat, and the produce varied from local fruit to potatoes and corn. It was interesting but I expected bigger and indeed the Mercado de San Pedro in Cusco, although I went the following Sunday when a lot of the stalls were closed, was a better market and less geared for tourists.

Closer to Cusco than Pisac are another set of Incan ruins. A bus dropped me off at the furthest from the city, Tambomachay, and I walked back down to Cusco along the road via the other three.

Tambomachay is a small site notable for a working set of ceremonial water fountains, although given it was throwing it down with rain when I went the effect was probably minimised. Across the road, Pukapukara is known as the Red Fort for its reddish stone, but again in the rain it wasn't that impressive sadly! I considered giving up on the walk and jumping in the first bus to come along as it was raining pretty heavily, but stuck to my guns and kept on going. I must have looked like a drowned rat and heaven only knows what all the cars and buses passing me must have thought as I trudged down the road. All was fine, despite the rain, until I sidestepped to get closer to the edge and away from a potential splashing by a bus and fell, splat, in the gutter. Luckily, as the Salkantay began the next day, nothing was injured but my pride.

However the third site, Q'enqo, made up for the discomfort with its rather cool altar inside a cave, and by the time I reached the fourth and largest site, Sacsaywaman (or Saqsayhuaman; it sounds like 'sexy woman'!) it had actually stopped raining and the sun was coming out. This made for a beautiful steaming effect as the sun's instant heat began drying the grass and stones and it was rather pleasant for a bit. I even dried off as I explored the site, although it did rain again about half an hour later.

Sacsaywaman

Sacsaywaman was the site of a big battle in 1536 and much of it was destroyed by the Spanish, but what remains is really impressive – particularly the zigzag fortifications which were apparently designed to be the teeth of a puma, with Cusco the body and Sacsaywaman the head. Close by there's a statue of Christ overlooking the city, which is large by statue standards but tiny compared to Cristo in Rio. It's a good place to look down on the city and its many churches and marvel at the mixture of cultures which produced this bustling city so high up.