Cusco has become my hub when I explored southern Peru, but I never explored the city itself. I decided to spend some time in Cusco before I left the South for good.
I had a few ideas in mind. Sandy and Anna mentioned somewhere magnificent not far away from the town centre, going by an equally magnificent name “sexy woman” or Saqsayhuaman. The Statue of Christ, which appeared in my earlier research, happened to be around Saqsayhuaman. I decided to make one trip to both sites. Before I set off, I checked how I can get there by Google Map. It showed a direct path from where I stayed to the north and a quick 20 minutes walk will do. I only found out it was a steep climb when I made my way and it took me 40 minutes. Also because of the high altitude, I walked extremely slowly. While I took another rest after a few stairs, I watched the locals were running up with their dogs. They would smash us if they travel to sea level Hong Kong for a trail running race.
Saqsayhuaman was the historic capital of the Inca Empire. Here held some most amazing archaeological and architectural sites made by gigantic stones. Because it’s built on the mountain, it was also a prefect view point for Cusco Town. I took the time to walk around and started to make my way back to town centre around lunch time.
As I didn’t have a schedule, I just picked some random alleys as long as I was walking down. A lot of diners, hotels and souvenir shops were hidden along the narrow streets. Every time you looked up you can always catch a partial view of Cusco. As I passed by those well decorated restaurants, I found out there were a lot of vegan places. Guess I shouldn’t feel surprised as the very core ingredient of a healthy and vegan menu — quinoa was exactly from Peru. I chose one and sat down.
The next places I wanted to check out were those cathedrals in Cusco. The lovely Canadian couple I met in Via Ferrata described Cusco Cathedral with such strong and emotional words “unbelievable”, “amazing” and “fantastic”. With this built-up anticipation, I was a bit disappointed when I visited the cathedral. Then I realized they were from North America. I think on that matter European’s opinion had a much better authority. After Cusco Cathedral, I didn’t feel like checking more cathedrals. I found a desert place where it served pisco sour flavoured ice cream.
I quite enjoyed my time at Cusco. It’s not so impressive, but it’s very functional and nice enough. I can walk in the city for a whole day and never felt bored. Most of time I just moved from one restaurant to another cafe and to another street food stall. Sometimes I thought Peru was like a hybrid between New Zealand and South East Asia. I spent 6 months in New Zealand in my gap year before I came to Hong Kong. I deeply loved that country. The nature. The fresh seafood. The rugby. The Kiwi accent. Yet something was missing — the lively and changing vibe. South East Asia, on the other hand, never lacked that. In fact, it may have way too much and made you feel noisy and chaotic from time to time. The scale was balanced in Peru. It had unique landscape and beautiful scenery. And you can also get immersed in its passionate and approachable culture.
For my last day in Cusco, I went to Inca Museum. There happened to be no tour guide that day. I took a brochure and walked by myself. When I stood in front of a paining about the farming of Incas, a guy besides me pointed to a fruit in the painting with his British accent, “Have you tried that?” “No. What’s that?” I turned around and saw a lean and smart-looking guy. “We found it on our Salkantay Trek and our guide let us try some.” The British smiled at the painting. “It looked like I missed it.” I said. “Have a good day.” We said goodbye to each other and continued our separate tour.
I will head to Arequipa from Cusco. This time I will take a bus. When I traveled in a country, I always tried to take as many different kinds of transport as possible. For me it was a great way to experience a country. I booked a seat which allowed reclining to 180 degrees. This surely beat a flight.
When I arrived at the station for my night bus, I noticed a guy looked familiar in the waiting room. He also noticed me and smiled back. Oh, it’s the guy from Inca Museum!