22 Sep 2002
(Yes, I'm getting behind. Can't keep up with youthful, healthy Garth!)
My plan had been to spend a couple of weeks in Cusco learning Spanish and taking in the archeological wonders of the surrounding Sacred Valley, then tackling the famed Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu. But reality was not obliging. My diary, oozing self-recrimination, reveals someone struggling to come to terms with the limitations - and failings - of time and body. Oh you have much to learn young man!
My experience with altitude in the Colca Canyon was a sign of things to come. It took me a good week to adapt to the 3400m of Cusco. Walking totally exhausted me, and ongoing gut problems didn't help. One night at dinner I had a sudden nose bleed, and the proprietors plied me with coca tea - the local treatment for soroche (actually, coca leaves were the solution to all health problems!). I eventually came good, but not before cancelling my booking for the Inca Trail and falling into a funk that I was wasting my precious time - the curse of being an optimiser in a chaotic world.
In any case, Cusco is an extraordinary city, literally built on Incan foundations. Many of the older buildings have a layer of Incan stonework at street level before becoming brick higher up. This is taken to an extreme at the Convent of Santo Domingo, which was built around the ruins of an Incan temple. It's hard to think of a more stark expression of colonialism.
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| Convent of Santo Domingo. The curved grey stonework is Incan. |
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| View over Cusco |
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| Salt pans at Salinas |
The experimental terraces at Moray took my fancy. These terraced depressions create a wide range of microclimates that may have been used for trialling different soils and crops.
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| Experimental terraces at Moray |
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| Sacred Valley |
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| Ollantaytambo |
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