Pachacútec Was a Rolling Stone

This morning I met up with Monica, (the sweet German lady who helped me plan this whole trip) and a guide named Miguel to go mountain biking through the ruins surrounding Cusco.



Evidently my repeated blasphemy on this blog is not falling on deaf ears, as the beautiful weather I've been blessed with so far on this trip turned into dark cloudy skies, threatening to rain and washing out my pictures. Try to enjoy, and I will sacrifice a small animal in order to appease something (maybe just my appetite) and get the blue skies to return.



First stop was Tambomachay, a temple/bathhouse built on a natural spring where high-ranking Incas would wash their souls, waited on by servants.



Water still flows from the spring, and along the little aqueducts and canals. Pretty amazing.




Next up was Puca Pucara, which was probably some sort of military outpost (great view of the city) and/or a waystation for chasquis (the messengers that ran all over the Incan empire relaying verbal messages (no writing system)).



This is me, looking awful bad-ass in my helmet and gloves. It was majorly extreme, yo. I only ate it once, when I tried to hop UP some rocks. Miguel made it look so easy! I didn't land on my face, though, so the thousand-dollar-smile is still intact.



Next we rode down to the Temple of the Moon, which isn't a main draw but I thought was one of the coolest spots. It's a natural cave, but then when you go inside it's been carved to form an altar that is lit by the full moon.




Carved on the entrance to the cave is a snake. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, so I'll go into it. The Incan naturalistic belief system is that there are three worlds, that of the gods (represented by the condor), that of the earth (represented by the puma) and that of the dead, or the underworld (represented by the snake).



Me again, this time sitting on the throne reserved for the Incan priests. I just love how the man-made structure is incorporated right into the natural landscape. So much cooler than a giant ornate cathedral. Oops, there I go again.

We stopped for a picnic, then rode on to Q'enqo.




Another temple, with another cave/altar carved into it. There's these little channels going off the altar, where evidently the sacrificial blood (or possibly chicha) would run off. Depending on which side it ran, the priest would predict whether there would be a good harvest or a bad one.



This sculpture out front may have been a giant puma, but we don't know because it was destroyed by ... well you know the rest. I wonder if that's why I keep seeing the Autobots symbol on taxis everywhere here in Peru. Because it looks like a cool futuristic puma. Hmm.

Finally our bike tour led us to Sacsayhuamán (or sexy woman, as British tourists and jokey tour guides call it), the greatest of the Cusco ruins.



Built by the emperor Pachacútec over a hundred years, out of giant stones that were brought in by thousands of workers from as far as twenty miles away, it's pretty stunning. There's a story that the city plan of Cusco was originally laid out in the shape of a puma, and Sacsayhuamán is the head, with its zigzag walls forming the teeth.



The site is also famous for being the last stand of the Incans against the Spaniards. Spain had already conquered Cusco and installed a puppet regime, but there was a resistance movement that took back Sacsayhuamán and nearly defeated the Spanish in a siege of the city.



Thousands died, and when the Incan troops were defeated, most of the stones were carried off to build houses and other stuff in Cusco.




Across the field is this crazy structure of volcanic rock, well-worn with grooves by years of people using it as a slide. No, seriously. But I think it must have looked to the Incans like it had been left behind by the gods.



There are also some caves here (check out the man-made v. natural contrast...love it) that supposedly led to underground tunnels that travel all over Cusco, maybe even under the churches (since they were originally Incan temples), but the Catholic church isn't saying.

We rode back to the city, stopping for juice along the way.



Then I headed out to the Central Market. Wow. What a crazy place. I saw a woman literally selling snake oil, a man pushing a three-tiered handcart that contained live chicks, eggs, and full-grown chickens, and people with all manner of dental and spinal abnormalities. Unfortunately, I didn't take a single picture, because I had been repeatedly warned about thefts in this place, and after all, it's not a freak show to them. I'm sure Wal-Mart looks just as disturbing to a Peruvian.

After the visual and auditory overload of the mercado, not to mention the throbbing pain in my knees and lungs from a morning of rock-hopping in the Andes, I decided to treat myself to a relaxing lunch at a San Blas quinta, which is a traditional open-air restaurant.




Oddly, I was the only one in the place (I guess they're more popular with locals on the weekends) but that didn't stop me from ordering the trout ceviche. Which was excellent, by the way.

Tomorrow I head into the Sacred Valley, and then on Wednesday and Thursday I'll be up in the Machu Picchu. Does this trip just keep getting better or what?



This was over the door to the quinta. I don't know what it means, but I like it.