The Christians Won the War, but the Worl

A visit to Cuzco reminds of the evil done in the name of religion. The pious Spaniards who conquered the capital of the great Inca Empire proceeded to methodologically destroy Cuzco because it was a pagan city. The Spaniards tore down the Inca city and used its great stones as building blocks for a new Spanish Cuzco. Signs of Cuzco’s glorious past abound, but mostly in bits and pieces.

The first thing to do in visiting Cuzco is to get out of town and go see Sacsayhuaman (pronounced: socks-eh-woe-man), the vast Inca temple just outside Cuzco, for a lesson in Inca costruction using stones so finely quarried that no cement was needed to hold them together. Now you can return to Cuzco and easily tell the difference between the work of the master Inca stonemasons and the crude Spanish work in brick and stone. Now you will find Inca parts of walls and buildings all over Cuzco.

At 3,315 m or 11,500 ft. above sea level, Cuzco is not an easy visit. Even if you don’t get altitude sickness, you will be perpetually out of breath. Climbing a flight of stairs or the smallest hill will leave you gasping, so take your time. Walk slowly and savor the sights. There are no great sights in Cuzco. People flock here because it is the jumping off point for Machu Picchu. Nevertheless, wandering Cuzco’s attractive streets is a worthwhile activity, as long as you take it
easy.

There are several fine colonial churches, especially in the Plaza des Armes, the center of Cuzco’s attractions. Running out of the square, Callejon Loreto has some of the best Inca walls in town.

Machu Pichu gets all the attention, but there are several other notable Inca ruins in the vicinity which should not be missed. A day tour by bus or van with a local guide is a good way to see the most important of them. The trip will include Sacsayhuaman and other Inca establishments and probably stop at an Indian village market.

I know we were in Cuzco for most of 2 days and 3 nights, but I have no recollection of where or what we ate for our three squares a day. Must be the Coca tea.

Quick Tips:

Coca tea, made from brewing the leaves of the coca plant, the source of cocaine, is the local remedy for altitude, and unless you live in Leadville, Colo., you will benefit from drinking coca tea. It will not turn you into a drug addict, but I think it fogs the brain a bit, at least that’s the only reason I can think of that explains why my memories of Cuzco are more fuzzy than those of the other places we visited on this trip, all of which were at significantly lower altitudes.

Thanks to the Spanish influence, restaurants in Peru make great flan, the must-have dessert.

Less than 20% of the Earth’s atmosphere is between Cuzco and the Heavens. Get outside at night, find a dark spot, and look up. The display of stars is staggering. And don’t forget sun block. Solar radiation is intense.

Is the water safe to drink? It sure is in coca tea.

Watch how much you order for meals. Altitude sickness, and at this altitude, figure you will get it, tends to kill the appetite.

Sign up for a 1-day tour of Sacsayhuaman and the valley around Cuzco. Be sure your trip includes shopping time at one of the local markets. The largest and best known market is Pisac, but markets are not held every day in each town. A good tour will take you to where the action is. These local market days are great places for pictures and shopping.

Best Way To Get Around:

You can get to Cuzco by a long bus ride or by car, but it is a dangerous route. Fly in from Lima.

I suppose you can find your way around the local sights on your own, but remember, neither your body nor your brain is working anywhere near normal because of the high altitude. Hire a local guide or take a packaged tour. It is well worth the extra cost for the wear and tear it will save you, and they know where they are going.

Machu Pichu is reached by a train ride down the Urubamba Valley, on the east (rain forest) side of the Andes.

The streets of Cuzco lend themselves to walking, but remember the altitude.

3,000 feet lower than Cuzco, Machu Picchu has a warmer, more humid climate. The Conquistadors never found the city, sparing it the destruction the Spanish inflicted on Cuzco and other Inca towns. When Machu Picchu was rediscovered in 1911, it had only suffered the ravages of sitting empty for centuries, bad enough to be sure, but cleared of the jungle overgrowth, is now one of the wonders of the world. The 140 structures making up Macchu Picchu are the most extensive and best preserved Inca remains.

We took the early morning train from Cuzco(3½ hours), down the Urubamba River Valley, whose slopes are littered with various Inca ruins, to Macchu Picchu station—the station for Machu
Picchu is not the station named Macchu Picchu—at the bottom of a cliff, 1,800 feet below the city.
Vans transported us uphill to the entrance to the city. Entering Machu Picchu is bit of a let-down, but hang on. The path climbed uphill between the Inca stone walls of the houses lining the street, and then we reached the central plaza and, with the city spread out around us covering the top of a small plateau.

The best view of the city is from uphill behind Macchu Picchu, looking down over the ruins and across the Urubamba Valley at the mountians.

Our guide gave us the standard lecture on how the Incas built Macchu Picchu as a fortress hideaway to protect the Emperor from invaders, but never got to use it. Recently, archeologistsMacchu Picchu is, as the real estate agents say, all about location, location, location. Who wouldn’t build here if they could?

The long day trip from Cuzco gives plenty of time to see Macchu Picchu, but you can overnight at the site or down in the river valley nearby if you want more. Whatever you do, reserve ahead.

I spent a lot of time on the evening train back to Cuzco outside on the platforms between cars, looking at the stars, a really impressive heavenly display.

Visitors are limited to 2,500 a day, weather permitting. Reserve ahead.

Altitude sickness comes in several forms, the most dangerous of which is life threatening pulmonary edema - your lungs fill up with fluid, effectively drowning you while on dry land. This is to be avoided. If you start wheezing and coughing and gasping for breath and feel totally exhausted, even at rest, you are in big trouble. Seek medical help right away. The most effective treatment is to go downhill as fast as possible until you can breath again. There is no way to predict who will suffer this. Even experienced climbers can succumb on Mt Everest. Fortunately, life threatening altitude sickness is rare, but milder forms of altitude sickness are not.

The most common form of attitude sickness is shortness of breath, and at 10,000 ft., you will get it unless you live in Leadville, CO. Next most likely, affecting about 40% of people, is a splitting headache. We have found by experience that Ibuprofen works best among OTC pain killers for altitude headache. So apparently does coca tea. Worse but still not dangerous cases include headache, nausea, and vomiting.

Also, and here is bad news, avoid alcohol and drink lots of water or juices. You will not sleep well at night, and booze magnifies the effect.

It takes months for the human body to fully adjust to high altitudes, but the symptoms described above abate in 3-7 days. Hang in there and load up on Ibuprofen and coca tea. Take lots of pictures, for coca tea will hamper your memory of what you saw. If you are lucky, the worst thing you will experience is shortness of breath with exercise, exercise here defined as the effort needed to climb three or more steps.

And while we are on maters of health, lay on the sun block. Less than 20% of the Earth’s atmosphere is between you and the sun at this altitude, making the sun far more powerful than lower down. Wear a hat with a wide brim and long sleeves.