A Series of Small Walls

Thursday 29 April
Cusco

So I went and bought a new padlock as I had to cut the other one open with a pair of giant scissors. One of the bad things about Cusco is the large number of touts offering you massages every five seconds. It was particularly annoying this morning as I has to cross the main square quite a few times today as I sorted things out after the previous night’s shenanigans.

However there was something else going on in the main square today. There was some kind of parade with lots of school children. They were all dressed up in uniform as though they were tiny soldiers – they had epaulettes, those rope things you get around the shoulder, all that kind of thing. It looked pretty cool.

I realised I had lost my sunglasses again. Oh well. I had made friends with a Canadian girl who shared a room with a couple of Argentineans and a Chilean. They were all heading to Sachsayhuaman (a..k.a. Sexywoman) today so I tagged along as I wanted to see that as well. They were all pretty cool people.

As well as Sexywoman there were a few other sites nearby, so we decided to do all of them as well. We took a taxi and went to one of the sites furthest from Cusco to work our way back. The first site was a series of small walls, though there was one rock in it that seemed to be a representation of Machu Picchu.

The second place was a temple built on a natural spring, and still had the water running through it producing a series of small fountains. It was starting to get cold and I had been unprepared for the exposed places that we were going, so it was a prime opportunity to buy the token alpaca jumper. I chose one with llamas on it. Well you have to really, don’t you?

After those two sites, which were pretty close to each other, we set off cross country to a random rock that was apparently of importance. It took us a while to get there and it didn’t help that I was only wearing Converse. But eventually we arrived and had a look around. It was apparently a temple of the moon, and there were various shapes cut out of the volcanic rock. It was clear that this rock had been formed by an underwater volcano, as it had the same jagged edges of the rocks in the Galapagos. We took a picture where we sacrificed the Canadian girl. Well, when in Rome, you know?

The light was starting to fade but with our Latin American sense of urgency we didn’t worry too much about that. We worked our way back to Sexywoman, having to cross a small ravine in the process. We ended up taking a cab once we were back on the main road as things were getting a bit late. We arrived at Sexywoman just as the sun was setting.

It’s a big old place, looking much like a fort even though it’s actually a temple. The rocks were six metres high on the ground level, and there were three levels (representing the three levels of the universe: the underworld, earth and the spirit world, represented by the snake, the puma and the condor). We hired a guide who told us about the history of the place. From the top we could see the whole of Cusco spread out beneath us, lit up in orange street lights as the night approached.

After that we returned to the hostel. There was a pub crawl on that night, so I decided I would go along to that. It ended up being pretty much just a normal night out, going to most of the bars I had been to before. I randomly met one of the people I was hanging out with in the Galapagos on the street, though at first I thought it was someone else entirely. Which was strange. We ended up at Mythology again. I think this was the night that was Queen’s Day in the Netherlands, and as such everyone was dressed in orange. I’m not sure why they celebrate that Dutch holiday in Peru.

I had some fun with a local girl and chatted with a typically tall Dutch guy who explained all the cheesy Dutch songs that were playing from time to time.

When I returned to the hostel I drank lots of water and found my sunglasses.