Day 10 in Peru we spent in Cusco. We’d heard so much about this beautiful city and were excited to have some time to explore it. We bought a tourist pass which allowed us to go to 16 different museums and Inca sights, and so our first day we spent visiting a few of them.
Sacsaywaman was built by the Inca in the 15th century and sits at over 12,140 feet. (To give you an idea of how high that is Timpanogos mountain in Utah sits at 11,750 feet!) 😲 Most people have to acclimate a few days before venturing out of Cusco its so high. It is a world UNESCO site and is located on a steep hill that overlooks all of Cusco. I had been hoping to get a better view of the city, and this tour really delivered in that aspect. Although scholars aren’t sure if Sacsaywaman was used as a fortress or place for ceremonial rituals, a Spaniard named Pedro Pizzaro wrote about it this way:
“On top of a hill they [the Inca] had a very strong fort surrounded with masonry walls of stones and having two very high round towers. And in the lower part of this wall there were stones so large and thick that it seemed impossible that human hands could have set them in place…they were so close together, and so well fitted, that the point of a pin could not have been inserted in one of the joints. The whole fortress was built up in terraces and flat spaces.” The numerous rooms were “filled with arms, lances, arrows, darts, clubs, bucklers and large oblong shields…there were many morions…there were also…certain stretchers in which the Lords travelled, as in litters.” Pedro Pizarro described in detail storage rooms that were within the complex and filled with military equipment.
Sacsaywaman also had lots of Llama which delighted the kids. They were able to get close enough to pet one, but feared it would spit on them, so they retreated. 😆 We then were able to hike up the White Christ, which is similar to Brazils and we caught it just as the sun was behind Christ’s head. It was pretty dang cool and amazing!
We stopped to have a picnic lunch at the top, and while there we got approached by a Peruvian horseman offering us to ride horses to another Inca site called Puka Pukara. However, because of our earlier “cash problem” due to us leaving our debit cards home, we had to be really really careful how much cash we used, and we were pretty sure this humble horseman didn’t take credit cards. He originally wanted $20 per person, ($120 for our family of 6) but all I had brought that day was 100 Peruvian dollars which is about $25 USD, so I just told him that I was sorry and showed him how all I had was the 100 Peruvian, and wouldn’t you know it, he said he’d do it at that price for all 6 of us! WHAT? So we decided we couldn’t pass that up.
We ended up taking his car up to his horse pasture about 5-10 minutes away and then he out fit all of us with horses with only Ady and Jamis needing to share. We then took the horses on a 30 minute or so ride to some other ruins called Puka Pukara which were old military ruins.
After that tour was over though we were a little surprised when our tour guide didn’t offer to take us back to where he’d picked us up, and said the tour was over. I guess at that good price he felt we’d gotten our money’s worth but that meant we were kind of stranded out in the middle of farm country. 😝 Adam thankfully had google maps, and figured we could hopefully hail a taxi as we walked, but unfortunately none came. We just saw it as another Peruvian adventure and ended up walking a few miles to our next Inca site called Q’enqo.
Unfortunately Adam’s phone was dead by the time we got there though and mine had accidentally been left home, so we didn’t get a single picture, but we at least checked it off our list and gave away some balloons and colored pencils to some adorable kids! 🥰
We then ran into another issue of again needing to find a taxi, and not having Adam’s phone working to schedule an Uber. We had one guy offer to take us at the site, but his car was actually super tiny and filled with tons of stuff, and we didn’t feel comfortable, so we kept looking. We thankfully ended up hailing one as we walked and eventually got home. But another super adventurous and exciting day in Peru!
