The second time around to a vacation spot feels like returning to your childhood home- in a strange way. This is exactly what I felt like going back to Cusco. Having visited Peru- Lima, Cusco, Sacred Valley and 4 day Camino Inca trail to Machu Pichu- going back felt great. There were many other spots not visited that I was personally looking forward to. And as expected, Peru did not disappoint.
Even the second time around was not repetitive and I have a newfound appreciation of the lost civilization. Although some elements of culture remain present even today, most of it feels lost to the Spanish invasion. Having no written records, it is comical to see interpretations of guides based on their imaginations! For instance, the exact same room in the Machu Pichu ruins that our guide described as a "bathroom" was being described by another guide as a "meditation room". Wonder if that is why we have evolved to spending a lot of time thinking about our lives in the restroom today! Jokes apart, here is a day-by-day description of our Peru vacation.
Day 1- Travel day
A direct flight from EWR to Lima is convenient for sure.
We took an afternoon flight and reached Lima around midnight. There are a few hotels right outside the airport and the first time we went to Peru, our group camped out at the airport. I did not want to do that and hence, we checked into a hotel, and showered and it felt like as soon as we shut our eyes, it was time to wake up and leave for the airport for our 6am flight to Cusco. In hindsight, it would have been better to sleep in and take a later flight!
Lesson #1- Sleep in and you will enjoy more. No need to pack the itinerary to the brim.
Day 2- Cusco
Kids were sleepy but excited to meet Kiki- a resident baby Alpaca of Union Hotel. Kiki did not disappoint and neither did the breakfast we picked up from hole in the wall cafe before our 9am Cusco City tour. Having a teenager with 4 years of Spanish under her belt is a blessing we did not knew we needed!
This Cusco city tour was booked from USA. Although, it is fair to say that if you wanted to show up and then book a tour, it is fairly easy and options galore too! So, no need to sweat if you do not have a tour planned. Having Soles on hand however, is not up for discussion.
Lesson #2- Withdraw a lot of Soles for you will need them. Our tour guide lend us his 100 Soles for tickets. A bit embarrassing, but we made up in form of that extra tip.
This Cusco City Tour was enjoyable. It took us to the outskirts of Cusco city to sites like Sacsayhuaman, Q'enqo and Tambomachay. This tour taught us the basics such as Inca was not name for the entire population but Inca really was the "President". Inca was followed by nobility- royal bloodline and then by royalty- priests and scientists. Lastly, it was the common person. All sights we visited showcased the way of life during rule of the Inca. Places of military significance, ceremonial and spiritual grounds, residence of the Inca etc as well as some commercial stops were thrown in for a good measure. Stop at the Women owned artifact institution where they showcased difference between "plastic" wool and Vicunia wool. It felt wonderful to touch a $3000 vest made of softest wool. Atharva purchased a regular Alpaca wool hat here and sported what kids said was "plastic" wool sweater that I had purchased back in 2016 on my first trip to Peru. Highlight for kids was to be able to feed grass to Alpaca, Llama and Vicunia and along with Kiki we had met in the morning, these furry gentle friends made a home in our hearts!
Plus back near the city, we visited Qoricancha or Temple of the Sun and Cusco Cathedral. Most tours pick up at the hotel and many drop off at main squares. Cusco being a very walkable city, it is enjoyable to walk back soaking in sights of lively squares, colorful street vendors and locals just being out and about.
Given we had left at 4am and by the time our tour ended, it was 4pm, we decided to eat dinner early and our guide recommended the closest Peruvian restaurant- El Mason de Don Tomas. Arya really wanted to eat street corn. Even the guide suggested she wait until the last day but to our surprise, this restaurant served corn and bread with some spicy dips and olive oil. Lucky coincidence or power of manifestation. Who knows!
Back at the hotel, kids just went to bed. Harshal and I took this chance to enjoy live music and a cup of hot coco tea and hot cocoa! Relaxing end to this long day.
Day 3- Super Sacred Valley
We visited many places and each place had an important significance making this a Super Sacred Valley tour. This was thoroughly enjoyed by our kids- possibly because they were well rested and this part of the blog is penned by Atharva Haridas.
MORAY
Moray is an experimental farmland. Different microclimates because the lower circles are more humid because of rainfall, all rainfall goes lower and lower. Didn’t flood because the Incas made a hole in the bottom of the bottom circle which led to the canal draining behind the mountains behind the moray. Made over 20,000 types of potatoes and 300 types of corn. Only important people knew about it, like royalty, engineers, architects, and agro-engineers.
FOOD DEMONSTRATION AND STORE
On the way to the Salinara salt mine, we stopped at a general store that taught us about salt, chocolate, and banana chips and corn. We learned that there were three different grades of salt. The first grade was used for cooking, the second grade for barbecues, and the third grade for medicinal purposes. We also got to sample some chocolate. The first one had 70 percent real dark chocolate, the second was made with quinoa, and the third made with golden berries. We also got to sample some banana chips, and some dried corn. We didn’t learn a lot here, but the food was very tasty. I also saw some different statues that were handmade, and some different stones and jewels, like lapis and emerald and quartz. We ended up buying the golden berry chocolate and the mango chocolate.
CHINCHERO
Chinchero is a town built at 3,900 meters above sea level. It mainly housed middle class and some upper class people. There were trapezoidal windows in the wall, which housed mummy’s of dead important people. They are kept in the fetal position, because the Incas believed in reincarnation. No one knows where the mummy’s went, because when the Spanish people came to Cusco, the Incas fled and took the mummy’s somewhere. The Incas that stayed had to become Catholic, because the Spanish people would torture them by tying their limbs to four horses and threatened that the horses would run in different directions. Hence, there was a Catholic church. However, the church used to be a Sun Temple, for the Incas. There was also some farms in Chinchero. Also, we went to a place where Llama, Sheep, Alpaca, and Baby Alpaca wool was turned into different garments. We learned that the base colors of the Alpacas and Llamas are white, grey, brown, and black. They first wash these by shaving a root called saqta, then, they add water to it and it makes a natural shampoo, which humans can also use. They wash the wool in the shampoo, then they dry it and then they can use it. They do this washing process for the wool is very dirty when they harvest it, because the Llamas, Alpacas, Sheep, and Baby Alpacas don’t take showers. They can harvest those base colors from above off the Llamas and Alpacas without using different dyes. However, they only use natural dyes to make different colors, like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. We didn’t learn how to make all of the colors, but we learned that red is made by squishing parasites and using the blood as red. They also used different types of minerals to change the shade slightly, for example, they used salt and Llama bone to make the red into different colors. Since the colors are all-natural, the lady who was showing us put it on as lipstick. Since it is parasite blood, I wouldn’t recommend it, but you can if you want. They made orange from another root, yellow from another root, green from different plants, blue from human pee and fermented seeds, and purple from different roots. They then spin the wool, and it’s okay if it breaks because they can just put it back together. After spinning, they weave it into different patterns and make it into blankets, soft toys, hats, gloves, and more. I got a blue and green hat.
MARAS SALINARAS(SALT MINES)
Next, we went to the Salinara salt mine. It is probably the best thing we have seen so far. It is has been around for 2,000 years, but it probably will only be around for about 10 more. This is how it works. There is a lake in a mountain, and it drips water from the bottom onto a salt structure, creating salt water. This is a very rare feature, to have salt inside of a mountain. The salt water then travels through the rest of the mountain, then eventually out of the mountain. The Pre-Incas, or people before the Incas, saw some salt water coming out of the mountain, and made over 4,000 pools. The way these pools would work, is that the water coming from the mountain would go into these pools, then the people would make some type of plug to stop the water, so there would be still salt water in the pools. The sun would then evaporate the salt water, solidifying the salt in the pools. The people who owned the pools would then go in the pools with special boots and dance, breaking up the salt to harvest it. The three types of salt mentioned in the GENERAL STORE section were all made in one pool, so the people had to do a special kind of dance. Then, once the salt was broken up, they would harvest it and put it into bags, then sell it. This is how they would make their living. They also could only harvest the salt in the dry season, because the rainfall in the rainy season makes it harder to evaporate the salt water. Each pools makes about 200-300 kilograms of salt per month. They do this is in May, June, July, August, September, and October. The engineering is spectacular, because they managed to make the one river coming from the mountain into 4,000 canals, each going to a separate pool. If you factor in the fact that all of this was made over 2,000 years ago, it is really fabulous. There is also a different side to this, and that is the political side. The major company that was buying the salt from the people stopped buying it, so there are a lot of salt bags just lying there. There are 700 families who own the pools. Also, they never sell their pools to outsiders, they only trade and bargain within the families. The only way to get a pool as an outsider would be to marry into a family that owns one. Each family owns about 10-25 pools.URUBAMBA
At, Urubamba we ate our lunch. We had the buffet and the dessert. We also had an Inca Cola. There is a story that Coca-Cola came to Peru to try and get the drink popular, but the people already had Inca-Cola. They also had live music, with many instruments, like a ukulele, a zampona pan flute, and a recorder. It was a nice stop, mainly as a food and rest stop.
PISAQ and SILVER JEWELLERY DEMONSTRATION
We arrived at Pisaq, which is a town with a beautiful view, and many terraces. Our tour guide told us about the many things. There were houses at the heights, which usually housed architects and engineers of the Incas. There were also holes in the side of the mountain, which were used for tombs of people. The Incas would do a ceremony at the town, then bring the mummy’s to the mountain into the holes. There were also terraces. They were almost looking like steps. At first, i thought the terraces were primarily used for agriculture, but our tour guide told us that it was mainly used for defense. If a landslide happened, or a house on the mountain fell, it would go and crush the town below if it wasn’t for the terraces. Then, our guide told us about the symbols of the Incas. There was a plant looking shape, which almost looked like the adidas logo. It had three different sections, each representing a different thing. The first section represented a Puma, also representing Cusco. The city of Cusco looks like a Puma. The second section represents a condor, representing Machu Pichu. The third section represents a snake, representing the Urubamba river. We then saw some vendors on the side of the street who were selling toy llamas and chess sets. We then went to the Pisaq town, where we learned about the process of silver. They start from a stone, and they turn it into 100% pure silver. They say the stones have to price on it, because it is said that gold is the tears of the sun, and silver is the tears of the moon. They then made the pure silver into 2 types of things. A sheet of silver, and a rod of silver. The rod can be made into a finer and smaller rod, which can be made as necklaces. Then, they turn the fine rod into an even finer rod. They can use this to use bracelets. For example, the man showed his bracelet, which he hand braided the many pieces of silver. Then, he showed us how the sheet can be used. It can be used to make almost medallions for the necklaces. He also used different types of stones for coloring, getting each one from a different place. For example, he got green serpentine from Machu Pichu, lapis lazuli from Chile, etc. Each piece is hand done, and takes a very long time. There was one Inca king figure that took a year to make, and costs 100,000 USD.
Day 4 and 5- Short Inca trail
Day 4- Early morning 4am pickup was not a fav with kids but this was one inevitable day...we hiked the Inca trail 2 day option. Our guide was excellent and we infact used his recommendation to book the Rainbow mountain tour.
Day 5- This was the day for actually looking at the ruins as well as we got to spend time in Aguas Canlientes town and took a short hike to a waterfall. We unfortunately did not
Day 6- Rainbow Mountain
This was the day for Rainbow Mountain. We loved this tour and as expected Arya raced up the mountain as Harshal and Atharva tried to keep u. My goal was to make it to the top and I did just that and enjoyed myself.
Day 7 - Lima City Tour
This was the day packed with all things Lima. It was hot and sweltry and we had a late night flight back. Magic Fountains was probably trying to squeeze in too much....but overall this was a great trip!
