Tambomachay, Puca Pucara, Templo de la Luna, Qenko, and Sacsayhuaman

After leaving the market we walked back over to the Plaza de Armas where we caught a taxi. Our original plan was to take the taxi to Calle Puputi, where we could catch the colectivo in the direction of Pisac and hop off at Tambomachay. The taxi driver tried to convince us to have him take us for 15 soles, but that was 7 more than the taxi ride and colectivo ride would cost us, so i politely declined. Then he offered to take us for 13 soles, which Ryan and I decided to accept since it would save us a lot of time and would cost under 2 dollars more. To be sure I understood correctly, I asked him if the 13 soles would include everything, to which he said yes.

When we arrived at Tambomachay, I handed him 15 soles and waited for change back. It was then that the following exchange happened (only in Spanish):

Evil taxi driver: You owe me 2 soles.

Me: No, you need to give me 2 soles.

Evil taxi driver: You owe me 17 soles total.

Me: No, you said that it would be 13 soles including everything.

Evil taxi driver: No, p*****o it was 13 soles to Tambomachay and then 4 soles to Calle Puputi.

It was at this point that I was so angry with him, not only for trying to rip us off, but also for assuming that I was some stupid American that didn't know the meaning of p*****o, that I threw 2 soles at him, jumped out of the car, called him a p*****o, slammed the door, and stalked away. Luckily there were numerous tourists and tour guides around, so I knew we would be safe and he wouldn't be able to come after us. I made Ryan stand with me near the car for 15 minutes, just in case someone tried to get in the taxi so that we could tell them not to because he would rip them off. However, no one tried and the taxi driver eventually drove away, and we were able to proceed happily on our way to see the ruins.

Actually, not too happily as I was still fuming, but the beautiful ritual baths and stream at Tambomachay quickly made me forget the evil taxi driver. From Tambomachay we walked across the street to the soundtrack of a braying donkey, passed by 2 llamas, and entered the ruins of Puca Pucara. At Puca Pucara there was a tour guide, who gave us a short 5 minute teaser tour, in hopes that we would hire his services. He informed us that the small rotund ruins had originally been used as a retreat to which the nobles would send their sons to become men and learn to work with the land. He also told us that there was a strong magnetic field on the site, which aided in the process. Despite his great self advertisement, we decided to not hire him since the site was the size of a postage stamp. We did, however, sit down and read about the site in our guidebook. It informed us that it was a hunting lodge used by the Incan emperors, a much less romantic and mystic story.

From Puca Pucara we set off on the long walk to the Templo de la Luna. An archaeological site that is free to enter, and as a result poorly maintained. Our walk started by walking along the side of the road, and we were joined by a young man who gives tours of several of the sites in the area, and was walking home for lunch. He told us some about the different sites, and recommended that we go to El Balcon del Diablo after our planned last stop at Sacsayhuaman. He said the ruins were incredible, infrequently visited, and just a short easy walk from Sacsayhuaman.

Templo de la Luna viewed from the distance

After following the road down through a small town, we saw a dirt road down and to the left. Instead of continuing to walk down the side of the road to the road, we chose to pick our way down the hill along one of the numerous trails and intersect the dirt road. Once down on the road we walked by a group of horses, which can be hired to ride through the ruins. We continued our walk down the dirt road alongside the stream bed at the base of beautiful valley. A road went off to the right, but we continued on down the road to what looked like a giant 30 foot tall rock. At first we were skeptical that this was the Templo de la Luna, but then we saw the ubiquitous women sitting in front selling souvenirs. We climbed to the top, and a boy came over and started telling us about a road that we could see climbing the hill across the valley. It turned out that it was an old Incan road used by Chaski runners, and extends all the way to Argentina. He then of course offered to give us a tour of the site, Qenko, and Sacsayhuaman in exchange for a tip at the end, which we politely declined.

Argentina here we come!

The Templo de la Luna was rather unimpressive, but there were some seats carved in the top, and stairs and carvings along the side, and the top afforded an amazing view. We picnicked on the grass under a tree with a view of the Templo and the Incan road, using a bottle cap to cut pieces off of our cheese.

After our wonderful picnic, we continued back up the road to where it had branched off and made our way down the branch toward Qenko. As we happily pranced down the road we suddenly came upon a puddle of mud with undisclosed amounts of horse feces mixed in that spanned the entire width of the road and went on for several hundred feet. Behind us were 2 British boys who were also stopped short in their tracks by the mud. Ryan chose to slowly creep along a ledge next to a barbed wire fence, but I in my clumsiness quickly fell off the ledge and into the mud. Since I was wearing sandals, my feet and ankles were quickly overtaken by the mud, and I chose to lift up my pant legs and splash my way through it. The 2 boys behind us took a similar approach although their feet escaped unscathed since they were wearing hiking boots.

Once we escaped from the mud we kept to the right of the houses, and were very shortly at Qenko. I asked the woman punching tickets if there was somewhere I could wash my feet off, and she pointed me to the restroom where I propped each of me feet up in the sink and scrubbed them off.

The ruins at Qenko were very fun to explore. Like the Templo de la Luna, Qenko is a giant rock. But instead of having carvings on the face of the rock, tunnels, steps, and shelves were carved out within the rock itself.

After Qenko we continued down the main road until we encountered the imposing form of Sacsayhuman in the distance and continued down the side road to the entrance. Sacsayhuaman was a defensive fort that protected Cuzco, and the walls are said to form the teeth of the puma which Cuzco is supposed to resemble. At the time of the Incas the fort had 3 towering and zigzagging walls stacked one atop the other, with 3 towers on top. These days the towers have toppled, but the imposing walls remain, although they are now swarmed by tourists instead of invaders.

Sacsayhuaman was our favorite site of the day. The stonework was massive and impressive, and you could imagine the difficultly that the Spaniards had scaling the walls. At the top of the walls there was also an overlook with an amazing view of the city of Cuzco, and Peru's answer to Christ the Redeemer.

See that little white thing on the left? It is actually a GIANT Jesus statue that overlooks the city.

After exploring, we made our way across the field of grass to the rodadero opposite where we climbed the stone steps carved into the side. After a quick picture opportunity in the throne on the top, we made our way to the back of the large stone hill, where we indulged our inner child and slid down the natural stone slides.

From the base of the slides we made our way through some of the ruins behind the rodadero, and then stopped to ask the man in the guard shack about how to get to the Balcon del Diablo. According to him it was a several hours walk from Sacsayhuaman, and too treacherous to undertake during rainy season, so we put those ruins on our next trip to Peru list.

From Sacsayhuaman it was an easy walk down the stairs and into Cuzco. That night we enjoyed a delicious meal at Pacha Papa. I had the grilled alpaca, and Ryan ordered the pork stew which we followed up with a delicious traditional pudding that was a lot like tapioca, only with quinoa substituted for the tapioca beads. Both were delicious, although I think we were both partial to the alpaca. This was certainly the fanciest meal of our stay in Cuzco, but well worth it for the delicious food and the wonderful setting in a candlelit courtyard beside a wood fired oven.

Grilled alpaca, stuffed peppers, and potatoes

Pork stew

Cuzco Market

We chose to start our last full day in Cuzco by completing our trio of market visits with a visit to the local Cuzco market. This market, like the one in Chinchero, caters much more to locals than it does to tourists. Unlike Chinchero, the market in Cuzco revolves around food and groceries instead of homemade textiles.

Upon entering the market through the northwest corner, we were greeted by a few densely packed rows of machine made hats, scarves and blankets before we emerged to row upon row of food. A few steps in we encountered 2 entire rows full of women with blenders. When we stopped to gawk at the potential deliciousness we were beckoned over by one of the women who had 2 empty stools in front of her stall.

I chose to have orange juice with mango for 4 soles, and Ryan chose orange juice with Papaya for 3.50 soles. Juice lady explained all of the medicinal uses of the different fruits to us, while her small son clung to her waist. When we asked her about the star fruit in particular (apparently it helps with breathing), she offered to put some in our juice for free. She piled it in the blender, along with orange juice, and in my case an entire mango, or in the case of Ryan half a papaya.

She may look friendly here, but do not be mistaken. Juice lady will return with a vengeance in a later post.

While we sat and enjoyed our juice juice lady gave us a local newspaper to read, where we encountered an article detailing more flooding in the area surrounding Machu Picchu. More homes were lost and more people had died. It was definitely a good idea to not try to get to Machu Picchu via Santa Teresa, because even if we had made it there then we would have been stranded.

After finishing the delicious juice we decided to explore the rest of the market. After picking up a few souvenirs we made it to the back of the market, where we encountered another row of women. This time they were selling coffee with milk and different types of breakfast sandwiches. We picked up 2 cafe con leches for 1.50 soles each, and 2 pan con huevos for 1 sole each. They were delicious, although cafe con leche lady was significantly less friendly than juice lady.

Cafe con Leche Lady. Notice that small glass pitcher filled with something that looks like balsamic vinegar? It is actually filled with a super concentrated coffee that you add to the hot milk to mix the cafe con leche to your personal taste.

On our way out of the market we stopped by the cheese area where we picked up some delicious queso fresco for our picnic lunch. And then we encountered heaven. An entire row of basket upon basket filled with different shapes and types of bread. We picked up our staple of small round breads that we had enjoyed several times on the trip. While placing our breads in the bag, the woman helping us happened to drop one on the floor. She picked it up and put it aside, although both Ryan and I were sure that as soon as we left she placed it right back with the others.