Falling in love with the Andes

After leaving Explorer’s Inn, I headed to the Cusco area, where I spent the next two weeks before meeting up with Nick back in Lima. I spent most of my time in the Sacred Valley, and fell completely in love with Peru’s Andean landscape. Most people zip in and out of Cusco, booking expensive Inca Trail tours to Machu Picchu, one of the best (and certainly the most famous) set of Inca ruins. While the 3-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is supposed to be really great in spite of the hordes of tourists, I opted for more low-key (and much cheaper) alternatives. First, I spent a few days in Pisac, a tiny Andean town that still has a very traditional feel to it and is surrounded by stunning mountains. I mostly just relaxed there and recovered from the bumpy bus ride from Puerto Maldonado. I also finished my “Conquest of the Incas” book there, which I would highly recommend to anyone who is interested in Inca culture or who is going to Machu Picchu. I found the author’s portrayal of the Inca emperors and his recount of the conquest really interesting, and felt like it gave me a better appreciation of the Inca ruins I visited.

I spent most of my time in the Sacred Valley going on lots of really great, long hikes through beautiful countryside to different Inca ruins. There is not nearly as much biodiversity in the mountains as in the Amazon, but the high-altitude Andean plants are stunning nonetheless. In a letter to Ariel, Tim, and D, I wrote, “The plants here are craazzzyyy!!! There are strange thorny bushes that look like they’ve been spray painted metallic gold and silver, tons of different cacti with massive gleaming white spikes and bright red flowers, and giant agave plants that look like my mom’s aloe vera plants on major steroids.” Everywhere, there are also impressive, steep agricultural terraces carved into the hillsides.

One of the best days I’ve had on my whole trip was the day I hiked to Huchuy Cusco. These Inca ruins were briefly described in my guidebook as a former Inca summer retreat. This site isn’t even listed in Lonely Planet and some of the other guides, so I was surprised to discover how great these ruins are! Starting out from the town of Lamay, there was a single sign marking the trailhead... though it wasn’t exactly the trailhead because the actual trail didn’t start until you crossed a river and walked through a tiny town first. The scenery here was magnificent: the town was surrounded by looming mountains covered in a soft velvety green carpet of trees. In town, I asked for directions from an old man pushing a wheelbarrow filled with rocks. I didn’t understand half of what he said, as he spoke very quickly and in a thick accent, but the gist of it seemed to be, “Go straight up the mountain.” I could see dozens of tiny trails crisscrossing their way up the mountain, so I just picked one of them and hoped it was the right way. The area was so beautiful, I figured that even if I never found the Inca ruins, I would still get a great hike out of it.

After walking for an hour or so, I came across a middle aged Peruvian man herding his two cows. He was making his way straight up the mountain on a trail so narrow I hadn’t even realized it was there. I waited for him to reach the spot where his trail intersected with the wider switchback that I was on, so that I could ask him for directions. I ended up waiting about 20 minutes though, as one of his cows suddenly started heading off into the thick, thorny bushes and he had to chase after it. When he finally caught up to that cow, the other one veered off the trail and started heading back down the mountain. Finally though, he was able to chase them both down and get them back on track. When I finally asked him for directions, he told me that it didn’t matter which trail I took; all the trails seemed to go up to Huchuy Cusco, though some were steeper and more direct than others. I walked with him and his cows for a while but then found the stench of walking behind them (and the flies) a bit unbearable, so I walked on ahead.

The whole walk was incredible; I kept having to stop and marvel at the mountains all around me. It seemed like every time I looked at them from a slightly different vantage-point, they looked even more beautiful. As I climbed higher and higher up, I could see the whole lush, fertile valley spread out before my eyes with its sparkling river rushing through the town. All along the path, I could see long gray-green beards of moss hanging down in thick tangles from the rocks. After another hour or two of huffing and puffing (walking at high altitude is hard!), I finally reached the top of the mountain. It was satisfying enough just to reach the top, after having stared in awe at the size of the mountain from the valley floor. But it was even more exciting to discover that Huchuy Cusco was not just a few crumbling houses but quite an extensive and well-preserved complex of Inca ruins. Even more surprising, there was not a single other tourist there!

I was greeted by the caretaker of the site, Jorge, who asked me if I wanted a bit of information about the site. I expected him to give me a brief 5 minute explanation of what Huchuy Cusco was, but instead he proceeded to give me one of the best tours I have ever received in my life – and it was free! Jorge had been overseeing the site here for 3 years, living in a tiny hut by the ruins, which are really in the middle of nowhere. He had also studied archeology and worked at some of the other Inca sites, so he clearly knew his stuff! As we walked around the ruins, Jorge explained what everything was and he also gave me some interesting background on Inca history. According to Jorge, the Inca emperor Viracocha fell in love with a woman in Calca (a small town in the valley nearby), and built Huchuy Cusco (“Little Cusco”) as a second home so that he could be closer to her. Sounds romantic, but is maybe a little less so when you consider that he had more than two dozen wives! Huchuy Cusco was never very large, with only about 200 inhabitants, all of whom were either part of Viracocha’s family or lived there to serve him. Later, Viracocha fled from the Inca capital of Cusco to hide in Huchuy Cusco when the Chancas invaded. His brave son Pachacútec took the reins from his father, defeated the Chancas, and started expanding the Inca empire with a vengeance. Jorge showed me the 2-story structure where the emperor lived, the houses that his wives and children lived in, and the artisan’s quarter. He also showed me massive carved boulders of unknown purpose, a building that may have had some religious function (though archeologists disagree quite a bit on this), and a wall with 21 large niches that may have house mummies (the preserved bodies of dead ancestors). He then showed me a large hall that may have been used for entertaining, dining, and housing important guests. Pointing to the doorways, Jorge explained that it must have been an important building because all of the doorways had double jambs (“doble jambas”), that is double corners (“doble esquinas”). I excitedly observed that even the windows had doble esquinas! Jorge proceeded to show me water canals carved into the stone, the checkpoint linking an Incan road from Cusco to Huchuy Cusco, and an observatory in the hills above. He warned me that I shouldn’t visit the observatory if I was scared of ghosts though. When I asked him if he was scared of ghosts, he said, “No, yo los doy cigarillos” (Nah, I give them cigarettes).

I had such a great time walking around with Jorge, listening to him talk about the Incas, and asking him lots of questions. He was also very good at speaking clearly and simply, so that I could understand him. I probably only understood about 50% of what he said, but considering how much we talked, I felt like I really learned a lot from him! After living there for 3 years, Jorge had even made a few little discoveries himself: Inside one of the crumbling stone and adobe houses, he proudly showed me a tiny patterned imprint on the side of the wall. He explained to me that the imprint was probably made by a worker building it 600 years ago when he leaned up against the wall and imprinted the pattern on his shirt sleeve onto the still wet adobe.

Because the Incas did not have a system of writing, most of the history has come from the Spanish who conquered them. A lot of these sites are not understood very well, but this mysteriousness also makes them more interesting! I had so much fun listening to Jorge tell me about the different theories for what this or that was. Jorge’s explanations were all so detailed and interesting, and I loved how passionately he spoke about the site and about the history behind it. He also seemed to appreciate my enthusiasm and interest, and eagerly responded in great detail to all my questions. After walking around with Jorge for about two hours, I wandered around for another hour or two on my own. I climbed down the terraces to the artisan’s quarters, then walked around the main site again, and just enjoyed the stunning scenery all around me. Earlier, I had asked Jorge, “A usted le gusta vivir a qui?” (Do you like living here?). He replied, “Por supuesto!” (Of course!) and motioned with his arms to the mountain landscape that surrounded us. Walking around and admiring the mountains, I could definitely see where he was coming from.

After wandering around of my own for a while, it started to rain heavily, so I bid farewell to Jorge and started back down the mountain. I was so giddy about having such a great day, I even enjoyed walking in the rain! I felt so lucky to be in such a beautiful place, learning such interesting things, seeing such impressive architectural accomplishments, and meeting such a friendly, warm, and knowledgeable person!

Normally, I’m not a huge fan of hiring tour guides and would rather just read some background information and wander around on my own. But once in a while, I come across someone who just makes the whole experience more interesting and memorable. It reminded me of one of my best days in Vietnam, when I went on a hike through the karst rainforest with this guide Nuc. I had initially resented having to take a guide into this national park in Vietnam, and the guy running my hostel seemed to just pull Nuc off the street... but then I ended up having the BEST time with Nuc, walking really slowly through the rainforest, stopping to listen for animals and admire and comment on all the trees. In this case too, I was so surprised to find such a great guide in Jorge, who I felt really enhanced the experience so much, not just because he knew so much but because it was also just really great sharing his enthusiasm.