Leaving La Paz was a hard thing to do; I’d become accustomed to going to the Rover every night, but onto Peru I trucked and how wonderful my short time in this wonderful country was. I arrived in the old Inca city of Cusco. At first appearance it is a beautiful city, full of history and splendor; grand churches, old Inca streets and wonderful Peruvians. Then as you get to know it a little better you start to notice the Mc Donalds, the scams and the Americans. It truly is a tourist town of grand proportions.
On my first night the city provided a boisterous street party and free concert in the town square. The music was not as bad as the busses and the scantly clad dancing girls certainly made it worth braving the cold temperatures on the street. After the dancing finished Manni and I were asked to pose for a photograph with a 16 year old Lima girl visiting Cusco with her cousins. In a strange twist of events we ended up being offered copious amounts of rum and subsequently being invited to a club where we were the only gringos and for a night we felt South American in a city overrun with tourists.
A late night and an early morning, a rushed breakfast where I never finished my tea and a taxi to a bus. The long bus took me to a train where I sat backwards on the opposite side to the view, swallowing bugs and fighting Americans for the carriage window to take photos. It dropped us off at a touristy restaurant where we were shammed into eating there before being whisked onto a bus up windy roads and across bumpy ground. But when I saw the tip of Huayna Picchu towering over Machu Picchu it was all worth the extortion.
I was extremely jealous of Manni and his mother who I met inside the gates for having the luxury of climbing Huayna Picchu before I arrived. They showed me some photos of the spectacular scenery and I became even more envious. Together we marched up to The Hut of the Caretaker of the Funnery Rock, the place where you first get an overview of Machu Picchu and the "classic" Machu Picchu photo. We were so breath taken by the amazing UNESCO site sprawled before us that we had to just sit down, breath, and soak it all up.
I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful and awe inspiring in my entire life than Machu Picchu. It is simply the most stunning place in the world. From Huayna Picchu towering above, to the ruins themselves with their intrigue, the steep towering mountains on all side that portray the perfect backdrop of any city and the mystery of the Lost City. Whilst sitting on the agricultural shelves cut into the side of the mountain, I wondered what happened to the people of Machu Picchu. What was is used for, a fort, a prison, a royal retreat?
As I was walked under the arch to the city and through the small streets that weave past temples to the sun, houses for the noble and a grand courtyard I pondered what it would have been like to live here during it’s hey day. Either working as a stone mason, or tending to the fields that slope down the mountain side, or parched on top of Huayna Picchu as a look out guard, all the time gazing at the amazing beauty of the natural landscape that can’t ever damped the spirits. I imagined what the colours of the mountains would look like during a torrential downpour from the safety of my stone house and how the spring would change the hues of the landscape. I imagined hustle and bustle as llamas and chickens ploweing through the streets before exchanging hands. The chimney of houses puffing away whilst the aroma of llama stew wafted through the village, making anyone nearby immensely hungry. Logic implies that it wasn’t always a chocolate box, but walking through the village it’s hard to imagine it not.
Heading down to Lima I watches Peru get smashed by Venezuela 3-1 after a long overnight bus ride. I walked around the old city and despite people’s criticism it was a pleasant enough afternoon although I can understand not wanting to get stuck there for terribly long. I walked around the grand squares so familiar to South America that I will miss after I depart and stumbled across an amazing church with some very beautiful idols. There I met a friendly Peruvian man that accompanied me for a beer and told me his though on Peru, Lima and Cusco. He asked me questions about the Sydney Mardi Gras and told me that people in Lima are very open minded. He asked if I had any gay friends before telling me that it’s very commonly acceptable for guys from Lima to have sex with other guys, and that it wasn’t an issue. He was a friendly enough fellow... maybe a little too friendly so I took my leave and retreated to my hostel for a politically fuelled conversation before not getting enough sleep again and hopping onto a plane destined for Santiago.
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