Peru Trip Report, Day 5: Chinchero, Cusco; Day 6: Pisac: Lost in the Ruins!!

DAY 5, Dec 1, 2014: Ollantaytambo to Chinchero, then onward to Cusco:

We enjoyed a walk in the early morning to the famed Apu lodge to admire in close quarters Wirakocha chiseled into the mountain face.

We had asked Marco to pick us up at 8am the next day, tour Chinchero before dropping us off at our apartment at San Blas Cusco. Again the plan went off very well.

Leaving all our bags in the car. we toured Chinchero. Marco was so reliable! Of course we carry our passports, money with us always in pouch under clothing.

CHINCHERO:

At Chinchero.. at 9am... one hour after we started from Ollanta. We had fished out our boleto integral (ticket) which included entry here.

Known to the Incas as the birthplace of the rainbow, this typical Andean village combines Inca ruins with a colonial church, some wonderful mountain views and a colorful market.

Here's the old lane with water duct in the middle...the whole village is on a hill with steps going up/down.

Our map helped in orienting ourselves. it has a trail of how to cover the ruins... short as well as long options.

We walked through the authentic market first... the craftspeople man the stalls. These are natural dyes made with herbs, corn and even insects. 

The lady is demonstrating how to get this shade... this is a natural lipstick.

  
the weaving frame, 


hand knitted small hats. 

 These are painted gourd shells... bought one later. 

interesting headgear.

  alpaca wall hangings..

PLAZA:

On the southeastern side of the church is the great plaza that today is the town's Main Plaza.

 On its western side there is a wall containing big trapezoidal niches that can easily let a person stand up inside; they must have been used to keep the nobility mummies and idols that presided over ancestral ceremonies. 

That wall with niches has a genuine carved andesite cornice.

 By the middle of this plaza is a bust honoring Mateo García Pumakawa Chiwant'ito who was born in the house located in front of the bust; the house has small arch windows on the second floor. 

Mateo Pumakawa was Chinchero's Quechua chief, Official and Warrant Officer paid by the Spanish army; he fought against the Tupaq Amaru II Revolution helping to bring about his defeat in 1781. When being old aged he wanted to repay what he did against his people and race and joined the Angulo brothers in order to fight against the Spanish crown. But, he was defeated and hung from an arch like the ones that are seen in Chinchero, in Sicuani in 1814.

Chinchero was wrecked and modified by the "idolatries extirpators". Its destruction began when Manko Inka after his campaign in Qosqo decided to discharge his soldiers so that they could go back to their farmlands and take care of their families; he went towards Ollantaytambo passing through Chinchero and burning it so that the invaders who were persecuting him could not have either food or lodging.

CHURCH:

Subsequently in 1572, Viceroy Toledo founded the "Doctrine of Our Lady of Monserrat of Chinchero" and ordered construction of the present-day Catholic Church that was finished by 1607, that is the year found in the writing over the main arch inside the church. The whole church was built using as foundations the finely carved lime stones that belonged to a great Inkan palace. 

Toward the left side of the Virgin is the battle representing chaos and Tupaq Amaru's faction. and Saint Paul.

middle is the Monserrat Virgin, what we see here to her right is the victory celebration that coincides with the Thanksgiving procession and Saint Peter holding in his hand the heaven's keys.

St Peter mural below...

The entrails of the fine Inkan building were filled up as high as the roofs with earth brought from some other sectors. It was in the 1960s when the Inkan palace was discovered under the Catholic Church. The Inkan palace must have been very important because on its facade facing to the southern plain presents openings of triple jamb that indicate its category. 

there are images representing Pumakawa symbolized in form of fighting victorious Pumas; and other images representing Tupaq Amaru symbolized by the "amaru" (serpent-dragon) as chaos and squalor representation.

Inside the church there is a canvas representing the same dark-skinned Monserrat Virgin, where it is possible to see angels sawing the mountain; that artwork was painted by Quechua Cusquenian School artist Francisco Chiwant'ito and dated in 1693. Juan Carlos Estenssoro wrote about that canvas: " This Virgin, although, Spanish typically, is related with some others of the purely Andean imagery such as the Virgin of Galleries, in which Virgin and mountain are combined". Angels have condor wings..

Cobble stones have Incan symbols... snake here. flowers or inti. Condor, puma.

WAKAS:

We walked toward the ruins of the shrines. Shrines ("wakas" in Quechua) are carved out of natural limestone formations and are called "Chinkana" and "Titiqaqa." Another shrine to the west is called "Pumaqaqa" which is a rock sculptures of two pumas. To the west of the church one can explore these shrines and various ancient inca farming terraces.

After exploring the ruins we traced our way back to the plaza. 

Water channels of the village.

Chinchero village plaza, man blowing a conch statue.

We loved Chinchero, the market much better than even Pisaq, the church is awesome, the ruins nice and scenery top notch too. We had been one of the 1st visitors that day at 9am and had the whole place to our selves… again a lovely experience!!

When we reached Cusco we asked Marco to drive us to Supermercado Orient... no parking allowed there on the street, so we raced through the store, bought 7liter water bottle, some provisions before getting dropped at Quinoa villa boutique apts, Cusco.

QUINOA VILLA, SAN BLAS, CUSCO:

cocoa leaves on our entrance door. 

Stocked the fridge on arrival. top shelf: milk, cream cheese, butter.

bread, zucchini, tomatoes; bananas, apple.

the drinks are part of minibar which we did not use.

Our bottle filled with fresh yogurt came in very handy.

 Snake on the washroom door!!

 Carpet slippers

After checkin at Quinoa villa , a lovely apartment in the San Blas area, we walked to the main plaza, Cusco.

Love these ornate wood balconies.

we set out for Plaza de Armas…

Cusco… The word originated in the phrase qusqu wanka ('Rock of the owl'), … the legend is as follows:

Manco Cápac ( "founder royal") was the legendary first Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cusco. Manco Cápac was a son of Sun God Inti and Mama Quilla (moon). Manco Cápac and his siblings were sent up to the earth by the sun god.

Ayar Awqa (Ayar Auca), one of the siblings, became an owl and flew to the site of the future city and transformed into a rock to mark the possession of the land by his ayllu ('linage') ... hence the name Cuzco...rock of the owl...their golden staff landed on the spot where they built a temple for their father Inti… the famed Korikancha.

Hatunrumiyoc:

We walked through Hatunrumiyoc, with its original Incan walls. 

Hatunrumiyuc means has large stone (House that has a Big Stone). 

Not just the 12 angled stone, the whole wall is gape-worthy.

This palace was built by Inca Roca (1230), who was the son and successor of the founder ruler Manco Capac and it was the residence of his family or lineage called "Ayllu Waqa K'irau" which means, where the sacred object lies.

During the Spanish Colony era, it was built over retaining many original incan features and belonged to the Marquis of San Juan de Buenavista. Now it belongs to Archibishop palace, Museum of religious art and it is situated one block from the Main Square..... It has this stone perimeter wall we admired on our way to the plaza. 

Inside is a great Renaissance courtyard with stone arches and tiles on the walls, and lovely fountain. (this is included in the boleto integral and we visited the inside on our way back)

Plaza de Armas:

We reached Plaza de Armas. Known as the "Square of the warrior" in the Inca era, this plaza has been the scene of several historical events, such as the proclamation by Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Cuzco, 1535.

In 1781, the Plaza de Armas was also the scene of the horrible death of Túpac Amaru II, the indigenous leader of the resistance against the Spanish conquistidors.

The Spanish built stone arcades around the plaza which add ambience. The main cathedral and the Church of La Compañía both open directly onto the plaza

Boleto Integral:

We bought the boleto integral for 30soles which includes:

Catedral, Templo del Triunfo (church of triumph), Templo de la Sagrada Familia (Church of the Sacred Family), (all in same complex),

Museo Arzobispal (Archbishop palace which as I mentioned earlier has the outer walls everyone gapes at)

Templo de San Blas

Temple de San Cristobal.

We visited the 1st set that evening; San Blas church the next day, never visited the last one as it’s a little off the center.

Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin, also known as Cusco Cathedral is built on the palace of Viracocha Inca the father of the famous Pachacutec Inca.

Iglesia del Triunfo, The Church of Triumph:

Iglesia del Triunfo, The Church of Triumph, was built in 1536, just three years after the conquistadores settled in Cusco. It was built over Suntur Wasi, which was an Inca ceremonial building adjoining the palace of Viracocha,(where the Cathedral is built now). All these are great best examples of colonial baroque style and we enjoyed the exquisite wood carving and gold leaf plating.

Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus (Church of the Society of Jesus):

Next we visited Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus (Church of the Society of Jesus).  This church is also on the foundations of the palace of the Inca ruler Wayna Qhapaq, or Amarucancha. Its façade is carved in stone and its main altar is made of carved wood covered with gold leaf. It was built over an underground chapel and has a valuable collection of colonial paintings of the Cusco School.

We bought a separate ticket for this church and climbed the bell tower to enjoy the view over the plaza:

Museo Arzobispal (Archbishop Palace):

A slight drizzle started and we walked back visiting the Museo Arzobispal (Archbishop palace) on the way. In Inca times it was the palace of Inca Roca. After the conquest the building was partially dismantled to build the family farmhouse Valverde Contreras and Xáraba, Marquis of Roca fuerte, currently known as the Archbishop's Palace. It has a stone perimeter wall and inside is a great Renaissance courtyard with stone arches and tiles on the walls, and half the pool adorns the manor located in prime location. Recognized for its walls is the "The Stone of 12 Angles.

Cuy is the guinea pig which is a delicacy in Peru... this souvenir shop is online too.

That was the end of our 1st day in Cusco, Dec 1st, 2014.

For the next day we proposed to have a taxi for the whole day, to visit Ccochahuasi animal sanctuary (CAS) first and then go onward to Pisaq. Taxi was arranged from Inka travels by hotel for $85

DAY 6, DEC 2, 2014:LOST IN PISAC RUINS!!

6.30am: Hotel Quinoa Villa Cuzco, breakfast brought by the staff. They take our order the previous night. Pan cakes, cheese, fruits, yogurt, fresh juice.

 I made food for the rest of the day and packed it up to eat on our hike

 Fresh yogurt...

Taxi came at 7.50am...the driver was an Italian with fluent English.

In retrospect, I think we relaxed because of his fluency and did not stay alert as we should have… we would have saved ourselves much trouble … but more of that later…

Mirador Ccoraoo:

We enjoyed the scenic ride asking for photo stops along the way at Mirador Ccoraoo etc…

Ccochahuasi animal sanctuary:

Reached Ccochahuasi animal sanctuary—they are a family run private organization, dedicated to rescuing and looking after animals which have suffered mistreatment of any kind from former owners or poachers or illegal hunters who commercialize protected species. I had chosen this because we wanted a close encounter with condors in case our Colca Canyon visit later in our trip did not give us the opportunity. We did get to see many condors in flight at Colca also but this visit was great as well to see the mighty condor in close proximity.

The sanctuary is a picturesque place. 

 We petted the cute alpacas.

We saw monkey, macaws, eagle, alpacas. 

A puma (cougar/mountain lion) family was a highlight. We got to pet the 2 month old cub as its mom lazed nearby and dad paced in the far corner. 

We then entered the netted enclosure for the condors, and saw one in full flight right near us… it was a nice sight. 

Vicuñas:

The vicuña is aggressive and was spitting at the owner…

It is the wild ancestor of domesticated alpacas.

Vicuñas produce only 0.5 kg of extremely fine wool a year; the animal can only be shorn every three years, and has to be caught from the wild. The wool is sold on the world market for over $300 per kg…the product of the vicuña's wool is very soft and warm. Its properties come from the tiny scales on the hollow, air-filled fibres. It causes them to interlock and trap insulating air. It is finer than any other wool in the world, measuring 12 micrometers in diameter, it is sensitive to chemical treatment, the wool is usually left in its natural color.

The Inca valued vicuñas highly for their wool. The vicuña was believed to be the reincarnation of a beautiful young maiden who received a coat of pure gold once she consented to the advances of an old, ugly king and it was against the law for anyone but royalty to wear vicuña garments...

A vicuña wool scarf costs around US$1,500 and a men's topcoat can cost up to $30,000 now!!!

We saw some cuys

 and the indigenous coloring and weaving process, 

 and walked through the gift shop.

There is a pay as you please system and we dropped 50 soles into the donation jar as we had been taken around exclusively by the owner and given a private tour. They asked us to pick up some small souvenirs of our choice for free and we got a couple of pencils with condor, camel toys on them.

 Mirador Taray:

We saw Mirador (viewpoint)Taray on the way, 

proceeded on toward Pisac. 

We told our driver our focus was the ruins and not the market. He said we can look at the market first as it’ll become crowded later. And then go onward to the ruins. He gesticulated the directions and said come back here when you are through. Now this turned out to be a bad mistake and misdirection by the driver but we were blissfully unaware at that point…

The market was just setting up…it was 9am… we wandered through,

Smart young ladies 'manning' the stall here...

I took this pic and the random lady sitting there demanded money for including her!!

Didn't want to get into an argument, so posed for a pic and then gave her money!!

 bought a small bag very well crafted for 12 soles 

and went in the direction of the ruins as the driver had suggested. 

Parque Arqueologico de Pisaq:

I had a map and we asked the girl at the ticket counter of Parque arqueologico de Pisaq for some directions and a map. They had a map only on the wall and it did not tally with mine. They could not clarify and told us to walk up and we started off climbing the lovely terraces

 Some terraces are propped up with sticks.. 

  Higher and higher we went and enjoyed the view of the scenery sprawling below. These terraces are called Andenes and the Spanish named the whole mountain range Andes because of these extensive terraces.

 We heard lovely flute sound from the top and were the only ones hiking. We had no sight of any ruins, so sat at a scenic spot and had our packed lunch.

 How impressive the agricultural terraces are (andenes),  it is just simply amazing how these ancient Peruvians mastered the difficult geography and by means of irrigation systems and retaining walls created these astonishing constructions.

  We decided to get down, saw a lovely art school. 

 Reached the car at 12 still with no inkling of our mistake.

“Had a good time, back to the hotel now?” The driver asked.

“We didn’t see any ruins… climbed on and on but there were only terraces” we said

“Oh… tourists drive up and see the ruins from there” he said

“Well we ARE tourists and we told you we want to see the ruins, we would like to drive up too… how far is it…  drive us up now” We asked

“Oh… it’s a little far…” he hesitated… “if you want, I can drive you. It’s already going to be 1 o’clock though, they close by 4”.

“Never mind, go up” we said, he drove up the hill and we arrived at the upper entrance. 

 This is the upper entrance--paradero alto-- to the ruins. This is where he should have driven us in the morning and I was pretty annoyed I had spent precious energy and time trekking up terraces.

Our water was running out as well.

PISAC:

 The ruins at Pisac show a complete Inca village including agricultural terraces, two residential areas, a sacred plaza and food storage areas.

The location of Pisac ruins allowed the Incas to control the route that connected the Inca Empire with Paucartambo.

The driver pointed at 2 ruins in the near vicinity, the citadel and qala qasa and said “the 3rd one is the sun temple but it’s very far and you have to come back all the way back. I’ll wait around here at the entrance. They close by 4.”

We walked off to the ruins, not knowing there was another misdirection …

I had researched deeply and made my own notes of all sites we were visiting and printed them  but there was some jinx that day and I did not consult my notes…It turned out to be another costly mistake/misadventure which I’ll describe later in this post…

Andenes/terraced farms:

Pisaq was a ceremonial center, administrative center, cemetery, agricultural center and urban area,  is thought to also have been garrisoned.  It has an excellent defensive position and is located at a strategic location in the valley and is just 33 km from Cusco.

The terraces of Pisac—there are 500 in total.  Corn was grown on the lower terraces, potatoes in the middle, and quinoa grain on the high terraces. 

The agricultural terraces are nothing short of spectacular.

Not only did they create these high on steep mountainsides, each terrace included an elaborate drainage system below the surface.

There are two sets of andenes or terraced farms. To the north of the semi-circular Pisaqa are a large number of that extend a huge distance all the way down to the valley floor. On the south side there are also a number of terraces, but these end when they reach too steep a drop.

The town and these terraces supposedly have the form of an Andean Patridge – P’isaqa in Quechua and the origin of the name Pisac....

There are inca burial caves on these cliffs in a nearly inaccessible hillside across a ravine from the settlement  not yet fully excavated by archeologists.

 Qantus Raccay, one of three residential areas in Pisac.

 It is composed of rough stone buildings, walls with niches, and small squares. These were probably military garrisons and, in the style of a medieval castle, shelter for villagers in times of war.

From here you can appreciate some of the best views of the terraces of Pisac.

 Inca baths:

 We walked through the military quarters, citadel and qala qasa marveling at Incan ingenuity and the stunning views. These are fountains of the Inca baths, curious for their elegance. They perhaps served a religious purpose, perhaps for pilgrims? Archaeologists call them the “purification baths”

 The path now climbs up steep staircases and niches carved out of the rock itself, alongside a cliff and through the Q’alla Q’asa (Split Rock) tunnel. 

 Faced with a vertical rock face, Inca engineers decided to enlarge a rock fissure and bore through the entire cliff—how they did this, with no iron or steel implements, remains a mystery.

 Sun temple and intihuatana:

Went up to the last set of ruins which is the best anyway, with the sun temple and intihuatana.

All the while, there was practically no one else around… we had the magnificent place to ourselves… though it felt surreal to have an exclusive experience , had the disadvantage of not having anyone to follow when the path was not well marked..

Bought this chime from this guy for 20 soles. ceremonial center in sight. The best view of the Intihuatana, which means “sun calendar” in Quechua, is from above like this...

 Like the sun temple at Machu Picchu, the Intihuatana is an oval building of perfect masonry encasing a votive rock. The pillar atop the rock was used to track the sun’s movements, and, fascinatingly, the sun rises precisely above one peak to the east on June 21 and another on December 21. The walls of five other temples surround the temple, including one that was probably devoted to the moon.

To the right is a series of restored baths that flow into an underground canal. In front of the Intihuatana is a sacred chacana (Inca cross). terraces at Andenes Acchapata leading to the ceremonial center.

 Windchime guy told us it was a much shorter way to exit down to the village from there… 30 min as opposed to 2 hours of retracing our way back!

We decided to go down to the village and get hold of some one’s phone, ring up our hotel and contact our driver to drive down to meet us. We followed the arrow and when no arrow was to be seen, went in the general direction, saw some more ruins and got lost. 

 the shed seen yonder was where we took refuge in the drizzle and got help from the security guard when we got lost.

LOST!!

 The path down was terrible ...in fact it was hardly a path...and I was slipping and sliding. I had new balance walking shoes which were not giving good grip. Son in hiking shoes was fine. I could not go on... I WAS IN TOTAL PANIC AND THOUGHT I WAS STUCK! I could not go down nor could I pull myself up on the treacherous slope!!Thankfully son pulled me back up to safety.

We traced our way back to the last post where we had seen a security guard and were again confused which arrow to take. It was starting to drizzle, our water was over and only some raisins and a granola bar remained. We ate that for a burst of energy.

While we were debating whether we should just go back to the entrance, the guard came up to us. It was past 4 and they were probably shutting down. Our basic Spanish was hardly adequate to convey our plight. We were requesting him to call the entrance guard on his walkie talkie and tell our driver to meet us down. He understood us; unfortunately we did not have our taxi number or the driver’s name.

We were saying Inka travels, describing car’s make, color, driver’s orange jacket, white hat…with a steady drizzle pouring down on us. The guard asked us to come to his covered shack so that he can sort things out. We followed him, sat on the bench with a bunch of local women.

As luck would have it, a German guy came over for shelter from the rain.

We asked him, “Hello, do you speak English or Spanish?”

He said “a little of both”…aaahh… our savior had arrived!

He had just climbed up from the back just then, had not seen any ruin, much less the entrance, he told us. He supplemented our efforts to communicate with the guard, the call went through and the guard gestured us to take the left arrow for our taxi when we saw 2 arrows saying village, one pointing down, the other left.

Now this looked wrong to us but still with the guard gesticulating we followed the path. The other one looked treacherous to attempt with my shoes.... so here we are after our misadventure!!

The views were astounding from here as well… the terraces do look like partridge wings. Pisaq is supposedly named after the bird.

We reached the end of the path and were on the road winding up to the upper entrance and down to the village… a looong way to walk to either… no sign of our taxi or any one else. It was now around 5!!

We looked around and started walking toward the bend of the road. Two men walked towards us, talking rapid Spanish which we hardly understood. We asked them for a taxi, they nodded and asked us to follow them. We walked to the bend of the road and saw our taxi… we breathed a sigh of relief and rushed there, but saw it was just the same make, not ours. It appeared to be their taxi, we asked them to leave us at the village market, they quoted 20 soles and we hopped in. In 5 minutes, we were at the market parking lot, where our taxi and driver were standing.

There was a lot of gesticulation and loud talk between the 2 drivers… we asked our driver to give them 20 soles as we had only bigger notes for which they did not have change. Son had been livid but I had told him to keep his temper and use a calm tone to explain to the driver what had transpired. Bought a bottle of water and guzzled it down…

Our driver quietly asked… “would you mind telling me what happened?”

I closed my eyes and listened to measured words from son who was telling the driver “We are VERY disappointed with the whole drive today ; we had specifically said we are interested in the ruins; we had trusted you to give us correct directions and put us at the correct entrance as you are the experienced local vs clueless tourists like us”. Son said “My mom did not sign up for a whole day of strenuous trekking, we should have been taken to the upper entrance in the morning. And you should have waited at the mid way road to pick us back up... Don't know why you expected us to hike back all the way to the upper entrance!!”

“Where to now?” asked the driver. Our earlier plan was to go to Korikancha after Pisac. We had wanted to be dropped there and release the driver as his day would have been up. “Korikancha is likely to be closed now, might as well go back to apartment,” we said. Driver said, “I’ll drive via Korikancha, see if it’s open”. We reached Korikancha by 5.30, son went up to the guards and learnt it closes at 6. I did not feel like rushing through before it closes, decided to put it off for the next day. We got dropped at our apartment.

When the receptionist asked us how the trip went, son explained our disappointment using short sentences and speaking slowly so that the girl will understand our complaint! The hotel had set up the trip and we said we specifically went through them to be sure we’ll get a good deal… we had had much better experience hiring our own taxi for our earlier trips. This had been a horror!

We had scheduled Saksaywaman, Tambomachay, Qenko, Puka Pucara and Cristo Blanco for a ½ day tour the next day. We said we did not want a repeat of today’s experience.

The girl listened without a word... we hoped she understood what we had told her. She did have decent English for regular exchanges but she did not react at all hearing our complaint. We really regretted our Spanish was not good enough... it's so rude to expect our hosts to know English, we should take the trouble to learn the native language of the visiting country!

We had our meal and relaxed in our lovely apartment. In an hour’s time, the bell rang, the receptionist was at our door, saying “Inka travels apologise for your day, they are cutting $20 from your bill, it’ll be $65 for today instead of the agreed $85. Tomorrow we’ll ensure a good day for you. On the hotel’s behalf, we are giving you a free ride to the bus stop at 6.15am on the day you leave Cusco for Puno by Inka express bus. Sorry for your troubles!!”

So… that was the end of Dec 2, 2014. VERY EVENTFUL INDEED!! So thankful that I returned back in one piece!!

On going through reviews of Pisac by travelers on Tripadvisor forum and others, I can see many mentioning getting lost... so I guess we have joined a club now!! HAHA!!

Next post is at:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/06/peru-trip-report-day-7-saksayhuaman.html