10/28: Traipsing Across Hills & Dales to Inca Ruins near Cusco, Peru

We walked down to the post office to mail a ten-pound parcel home of souvenirs and gifts we had collected for the last six weeks. We were very fortunate that a man working there had a service where he packed the box and then sealed the entire thing in red plastic wrap. The total cost for his time, materials and postage via air mail, our only option, amounted to 225 Peruvian soles or about $70.

We only hoped it would arrive at our home safe and sound and with all of our contents in one piece. We remembered so well when we mailed a box home in 2016 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and half of the contents were missing and we got a lacy, black plus-size bra and all sorts of other items instead! Our son, Zachary, reported he finally picked up the box at the box office a month or so later and it seemed to be intact. Phew, as we were leery to take the chance on relying on a nation’s postal service.

One of Cusco's town squares with the familiar rainbow flag:

When we walked to the Plaza de Armas in the center of town, we saw there was a rally for service workers there.

One of the reasons we had wanted to stay four nights in Cusco was because the city was the perfect launch-pad for exploring many fascinating and inexplicable ruins. We hired a taxi driver to drive us to the nearby architectural ruins of Qenko but somehow the driver took us much further, all the way instead to the ruins at Puka Pukara located six miles north of Cusco and which we hadn’t intended to visit.

On the way we saw the mammoth, white Cristo Blanco or White Christ monument above Cusco we’d glimpsed yesterday from ta church atop the city. The statue looked very similar to photos of the statue of Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio that we’d be seeing in December. It was a parting gift to the citizens of Cusco from a group of Palestinian Christians who had sought refuge in Cusco in 1945. It was a symbol of their gratitude toward the city when they finally returned to their homeland.

At Puka Pukara, a fortress located about five miles from Cusco, we hired Wilson, a young guide at the site, to take us around the ruins as coming all that way without knowing about the meaning of the pink-stone Inca site would have been fruitless. He mentioned that all architectural sites in Peru had Quechua names. Puka translated to 'red' and Pukara meant 'fortress', words taken from the nearby red granite that was used in its construction.

During Inca times, Puka Pukara was located on the road that lead to the Antisuyo province of the Inca empire. Historians believe that it also protected access to Cusco from the marauding tribes of the Amazon river basin.

Wilson told us he believed the most important function of Puka Pukara was as a checkpoint as all the Inca trails started in Cusco because it was considered the central capital of the world. Though its name meant ‘red fort,’ some archaeologists claimed it served as a hunting lodge and storage place used by the Inca nobility.

Wilson explained that clay had been used with small stones to join the stones together. This area was used for common people, according to Wilson.

I read that unlike many other Inca structures nearby, Puka Pukara was built from irregular shaped stones which fit together poorly, suggesting that the site was constructed in a hurry from an imminent threat.

The bigger stones, weighing 120 tons, were like the ones used in the nearby archaeological site of Sacsayhuaman and built in 'stone over stone' construction. Double doors were only used by important people and the king’s family.

As it began to drizzle, the weather in Cusco, Wilson joked, was like a crazy woman as it was always so unpredictable!

Wilson mentioned that seventy per cent of the Inca temples had been destroyed by the Spanish conquerors who then ordered houses to be built over the destroyed temples which had been sacred places for the Incas who revered the big stones.

According to Wilson, the fortress's designs were made directly into the stone and not onto paper as was done at Huayna Picchu and the terraces at Machu Picchu.

The stones were carved into the mountain.

This is all that remained of the red fortress. In 2002, the government restored Puka Pukara, Wilson told us.

The caves at Puka Pukara had been closed because books said gold was in so many caves at Puka Pukara and they had become a safety concern. I also read the caves contained niches where mummies of lesser nobility may once have been kept.

Some of the rocks looked redder than others at the 'Red Fortress.'

At the highest spot of all the architectural sites near Cusco, Wilson encouraged Steven to shout something, so we could hear his words being echoed back from the mountains. I could clearly hear his ‘I love you’ repeated several times! The spectacular views over Cusco were very impressive.

The Incas were people who knew and could do anything in Wilson’s opinion. As two Inca trails met right here at Puka Pukara, centuries ago there was a hostel or way station called a tambo for messengers coming from or going to Cusco needing a place to stay overnight.

An interesting aspect of the architecture was the concentric arrangement of the three walls that crowned the highest part of the complex. A single entrance led to chambers that could have been used to store provisions for those garrisoned at the site.

These stones were the base of a tambo.

Across the street from the site were more ruins. Wilson mentioned they had been a water fountain but the government sadly chose to divide the architectural site into two by routing a road in between.

Puka Pukara was a fairly simple site without a great deal to see in comparison to what we knew of other nearby Inca archaeological sites. After thanking Wilson for his informative guided tour, we began walking down the road toward Qenko, our original destination when we left Cusco that morning. It was fabulous having our first view of these vicuñas! A vicuña is one of two members of the wild South American camel family and live in the high alpine areas of the Andes, the other being the guanaco. It is a relative of the llama, and is now believed to be the wild ancestor of domesticated alpacas, which are raised for their coats.

On the way, we stopped for just a few minutes at the Sulca Museum cum shop as Steven was more interested in a hike than learning about the weaving and art of the Incas then.

I took a brief tour of the museum part of the gallery as I was intrigued by the gorgeous display of textiles and/or the rugs, all of which were cotton.

The store employee told us it took three days to make these zoomorphic Paracas figures of warriors who were represented by snakes which equated wisdom, condors who symbolized agility, and pumas who represented strength.

As you may recall, we had seen absolutely stunning Paracas textiles in Lima at the MALI art museum. The staff member, who was half American and half Peruvian, was quick to point out that Peruvian cotton was generally considered to be one of the best quality fabrics in the world!

He stated the Paracas people used silver and gold threads in their work. This kilm was technically used to bury people because only the best was wanted for the afterlife. The puma and snake symbols, so common in Andean art, were present here.

The employee/guide told me that there were 291 Inca different symbols that had been identified. Only ten per cent, however, have been interpreted. This was one of the most stunning textile pieces we'd seen to date.

The employee/guide mentioned that empty spaces in the weavings kept pieces aired out and fresh. Some people were buried five layers deep in textiles.

More of the museum/shop:

I know the guide had hoped I would spend time looking at buying something from the shop’s stunning selection of scarves and other items but Steven was encouraging me to leave so we could continue our hike. Darlene: You and I would have had such fun in that shop, I can't begin to tell you!

The lambs blended in so well we almost didn’t see them on the hill very near the museum shop!

We weren’t at all sure which path to take through the hills to reach the other architectural ruins we had set out to see that morning. We took a chance this was the right one. At least it would be far more attractive and adventurous than simply walking down the busy road/highway that was the only other option.

The trail was very soggy and muddy as it had just been raining. I wasn’t wild about traipsing over hills and down dales because I was concerned I might hurt one or both feet again on the uneven terrain.

Someone had luckily cut out a piece of the barbed wire fence to allow foot passage through this area as otherwise who knew where we’d have to backtrack to find an alternate path.

This looked like a scene from The Sound of Music except Julie Andrews was missing and we were in the wrong continent and country!

What a bucolic scene with the sheep grazing!

The first time I had seen a shepherdess and had reason to use that word!

Pretty crocuses dotted the countryside.

We didn’t know where we were, but we were somewhere, the wise one aka Steven said!

We think this was Amaru Markawasi or Temple of the Moon. IF yes, it was used for ceremonial purposes. However, we knew nothing more about the site and there was no one around but us, so on we wandered.

We just hoped this route would take us toward the small funerary site of Qenko! Walking all this way to see a sacred rock seemed rather crazy although it was an incredible hike, especially in hindsight.

We couldn't find any information about these ruins either on the way to Qenko apart from their name.

Just outside the entrance to Qenko, this woman was selling a variety of what I thought were lovely sweaters with interesting Peruvian designs on them. I bought a green cardigan for a ridiculously low price (28 soles or under $9) that I really liked but Steven wasn’t wild about the cut of it.

When she said I was her first customer of the day, it was all I could do not to laugh as I had heard that same line all over the world, even when it was often late morning! I was so glad I had that sweater later in the trip when we were in southern Bolivia and it was bitterly cold at night.

Qenko was one of the largest holy places in the region and was where, it was believed, sacrifices and mummification took place. It seemed like a pretty serene location but Qenko, which means 'zigzag' was once the site of one of the Incas’ most intriguing and potentially macabre rituals.

Named after the zigzagging channels carved into the surface atop the rock, Qenko was a large rock thought to have been the site of an annual pre-planting ritual in which priests standing on the top would pour chichi or llama blood into a ceremonial pipe allowing it to make its way down the channel. If the blood poured left, it boded poor fertility for the coming season. If the liquid continued the full length of the pipe, it spelled a bountiful harvest.

Neither Steven nor I felt like climbing to the top of the rock to see how the carved channels zigzagged their way down. There were some other symbolic animal carvings on the rock face, but they were very difficult to spot.

We felt so small as we walked among the massive rocks.

Water channels crisscrossed the site.

In the northern part of the ruins was a semicircular area formed by a retaining wall. We found trapezoidal niches and an enclosure that, according to investigations, was space for the diverse religious ceremonies of the Inca calendar.

In the distance was Cusco which meant we still had a long walk ahead of us.

Throughout our entire time in South America, we never grew tired of coming across llamas and other members of the camelid family. I hope you won't either as there are many more equally cute photos coming up in future posts!

Since we had hiked so close to Cristo Blanco, it was still a far prettier view than our first sight of it from the taxi earlier that morning even if it were from the back! We spent the rest of the day at the important religious sanctuary of Sacsayhuaman that predated the city of Cusco below.