Sexy Woman

Hello.

Our first morning in Cusco was bright and the air had a freshness that rivaled a snowy Tahoe breeze. Not as cold, but way nicer than anything Lima had to offer. Mark instantly felt the word of vacation seep into his extremities until he made a quick bee-line for the el baño down the hall. In the light of the day, the hostel and surrounding town took on it´s true persona. The night before was wet, dark, lacking oxygen and some locals may or may not have been rude, so it was difficult to grasp the true grander of our where abouts.

All of Cusco is very similar to Spanish or Italian style housing, with terra cotta (red clay) rounded roofing tiles that seemed to connect from house to house in layers all the way up the hillsides. Very much like corrugated stairs for the gods. The outsides are an off-white stucco with a lot less graffiti than Lima, but still there. The inside of our hostel had the same stucco walls with mutli-colored paint from room to room. The ceilings are very high and open with exposed vintage wooden beams with antique candles hanging.

The hostel owners are a family that has resided in the building for multiple generations. Every room has tons of photos of the family´s cousins, nieces and nephews. Each room has a photo of one of the family members with their name on the door, which is where they had grown up. Now they are the hostel rooms. Our room was called Biblioteca and was above the front door and the cobblestone stairway. Our windows had wooden doors as blinds and opened like mini french doors, with little terraces holding pots of flowers.

We went down stairs and Anin, one of the little girls photos on the room doors, took us to the computer room where breakfast awaited us. We tossed a handful of coca leaves in our mugs with teabags of choice, made our jamm sammiches, then headed out to start touring Cusco. Not too sure how fast the weather can change from sunny to thunderstorms, we took advantage of the sun and packed our bag for the first temples of the "Sacred Valley."

Fact time. Saqsaywaman (sounds like sexy woman) is right on top of Plaza de Armas. It´s name means "Contented Falcon" and was built under the rule of two Inca´s during the mid 1400´s to the early 1500´s, until the Spaniards began dismantling it to build churches and houses for themselves. The Spaniards didn´t actually dismantle or build anything, they killed and tortured all the local artists and laborers until they learned which false idol was their new boss. After time, the original religions and true culture became enslaved to the European ideals until sadly on the hilltop directly next to Saqsaywaman is a thirty foot Jesus statue. Most likely build with the very stones stolen from Saqsaywaman.

Speaking of the stones at the incredible Saqsaywaman, Mark was excited to see some of the seventy ton rocks placed with razor tight precision that he´d seen on the History Channel´s Ancient Aliens. Their theory is that UFo´s had been visiting Earth for centuries or longer. Their proof is in all of the religious texts and stories of lights/angels in the sky, vast amounts of paintings with ships in the skies, temples and pyramids with astrological positioning and alien art on the walls, and rocks weighing over twenty tons being moved without the technologies of today. Anyways, cool story that´s more plausible than 95% of all religions, the other 5% hasn´t been discovered yet. DMT?

So we climbed up the steep road behind our hostel, passing several different guys trying to get us to take the horse tours of all the temples around Cusco. Mark said "no gracias" for reasons having to do with el baño and sitting on a moving saddle for hours. The road then turned into a cobblestone staircase that almost reached into our lungs and stole the air from our bocas (mouths.) As we reached the top we were offered two ticket deals: S/.70 for one day or S/.130 for ten days in the Sacred Valley. We chose the S/.130 ticket which had pictures of all the temples on it and we get a hole punch on each picture as we visit that site. On each temple is a sign that says No Horses. Glad we didn´t pay that guy as the bottom of the hill.

We walked around Saqsaywaman and immediately were blown away by the degree of masonry the Inca were using. Manipulating whole hillsides and limestone slabs as big as hillsides, to be able to control water with ease. Aqueducts flowed from pool to pool for bathing, partying and rituals galore. All of them filled in with dirt, grass and flowers now, which is quite pretty, but you can still imagine the groups of naked ancients splashing away innocently, enjoying our true creator, Mother Nature.

We made our way to the larger stone walled temple that was featured on Ancient Aliens. Holy Shit, those rocks are stupid grande and literally razor tight fitting! We are not saying aliens did it, but it would be incredibly costly and difficult to do that with cranes and tractors of today. Much respect to the Inca´s and their laborers for building such unimaginable creations. Much disrespect to the Spaniards for forcing them to tear it down in the name of god.

As the sun at 12,000 feet left Mark´s bacony forehead and arms ready for night time, we made our way down to Cusco. There is a little market neat Plaza de Armas that sells everything except tortilla chips and salsa, Anna´s favorite munchy. So she pulled a MacGyvercervezas. We opened the can and saw it was more of a noodle, steak, onion, spices soup style dish and ended up crushing the yucca into it. Pretty good going in, not so much coming out. Wanting to see Cusco as night, we grabbed a bench in the Plaza and enjoyed getting offers of Incan jewelry, shawls, beanies, chiclets, cigarettes, and a multitude of other stuff. Anna then videoed some locals practicing dance moves for what looked like a parade or something. Then we headed to bed.