Peru – Travel to Cusco, Maras, Moray and Inti Raymi
Traveling to Cusco, Maras, Moray and Inti Raymi
San Blas
Cusco City Tour
Awanakancha
Maras and Moray
Inti Raymi
Cusco
Cusco is a city in the Peruvian Andes and was the capital of the Inca Emprire from the 13th century to the 16th century until the invasion of the Spanish colonial army. It has several ruins of the Inca architecture inside the city and within a few miles around it. Qoricancha, the Incan Temple of the Sun still stands within the Santo Domingo Convent that was built on top of it. Every city wall built with the giant stones in the Inca style still stands and borders the narrow cobblestone pathways of the historical past.
We ended up in Cusco twice, once – coming in from Lima and going straight to Sacred Valley and the second time coming back from Machu Picchu. You definitely feel the high altitude coming to this town. We were advised to walk slowly when getting off the airplane in Cusco and not rush around or try anything too physically strenuous. Our trip was planned for a visit Sacred Valley first which is at a lower elevation and helped reduce the effects of altitude sickness as well.
Luckily, our kids’ pediatrician had visited Peru the previous year and prescribed altitude sickness pills which we started taking the day we landed in Peru and other than my daughter, none of us felt any symptoms other than minor headaches. Rianna felt a little dizzy on the first day but our tour guide gave her some oil to smell and she felt better after that.
Visit to San Blas
On our first day, we had a shared guided Cusco city tour planned for the afternoon so we decided to visit the artisan town of San Blas in the morning. It is about 20 minutes of walk through narrow lanes from our hotel, Casa Elena, going the other direction of Plaza De Armas.
San Blas is a small town north east of Plaza De Armas and known as the artist quarter. It has signature blue windows on the homes and stores around the Plaza San Blas.
It has nice cafes and a book exchange plus meeting place for young hipsters to hang out as well as tourists to mill around and shop directly from artists.
The main building in the San Blas square is Iglesia San Blas, an old church built on top of a demolished Incan temple, as is the case with a lot of other temples and churches in Cusco. There are lots of vendors around the square, and always, always, a baby alpaca with women or children dressed in Andean clothes for a photo op for a couple of soles.
Cusco City Tour
Wrapping up our visit to San Blas, we start walking towards Qoricancha, the Inca Temple of the Sun, which was the start of our Cusco guided city tour.
We could feel the temperature heating up, it was normal to start out the day bundled up in scarves and hats and be down to T-shirts by mid-day. We normally layered up in a long sleeved T-shirt, a light weight fleece jacket and a thicker outer jacket. Layering up meant it was easy to shed layers as we went through the day and start putting them back on as the evening came along. Keeping a day pack not only meant we could carry some snacks and water for the day but it also was a place to carry jackets that were taken off during the day.
Visiting Cusco during the winter solstice meant that most roads in the main town were closed to vehicles because of upcoming Inti Raymi. For a few days up to June 24th, there are people dressed up as Incas, walking around on streets and there are parades and dances everywhere on streets in the evenings, specially near the Plaza.
Our tour guide for the city tour was a well spoken man with a good grasp of history and a great sense of humor. Once the whole group of about 30 people were outfitted with headsets to hear him speak, we started the tour. We started off with a minor mishap where an old couple from Australia who had just landed that morning had dizzy spells due to altitude sickness. His wife decided to take a break and catch up with us later.
After a walk around the Qoricancha , the Temple of the Sun, we set off on cobblestone roads through local markets, Plaza De Armas, and then a bus took us to the ruins of Sacsayhuaman, Quenco, Tambomachay which are about 3 kms from the Cusco town center.
At Quenco, while walking through the ruins, we came across the sacrifice chamber. The guide mentioned human children sacrifices and Yuri assured his little sister that it is illegal now and the guide would go to jail if he sacrificed her. She was not really reassured and cared little for his fate after her demise!
The top of the ruins had a panoramic view of the Cusco city. We could see the sprawling, rapidly developing city with over 350,000 residents living year round.
The day ended with a visit to the unforgettable Sacsayhuaman, pronounced “saxay waman”.
We got to see it glowing in the sunset from the hill top facing it. The climb to the top of the hill was a little challenging with the bum ankle but totally worth it. If you have any kind of minor mobility problem, a sturdy hiking stick will be the big difference in your trip to a place like Peru.
It boggles the mind to think of humans managing to move and perfectly cut and place giant stones weighing tonnes and making structures that are standing in good shape 500 years later. After watching many documentaries and reading many many books about this, it was surreal standing in front of these structures..truly a dream come true for us history buffs!
Living museum of Awanakancha
The second day was set aside for a guided tour of salt mines and agricultural sites of Maras and Moray and Awanakancha, a living museum of Andean women dyeing and weaving cloth the old Andean way.
The day started by sending out a giant load of laundry. Laundry is very cheap and quick in Peru. It cost 3 soles per kilo and came back the same day cleaned and ironed. Cusco is very dry and dusty thanks to the ruins nearby. Everything we wore would be covered in red dust by the time we would get back at the end of the day. We ended up doing laundry every day so we left Cusco with very few dusty clothes in our bags.
At our first stop at Awanakancha, Andean women showed the visitors the old Andean way of cleaning and dyeing thread naturally as another woman served us warm coca tea.
We got to see the various natural materials like purple corn, green grass, insects that turn a fabric red when squashed against it, berries, etc that give threads the bright colors that make beautiful, colorful Andean clothes. The insect trick definitely caught everyone’s interest!
The women then showed us various weaving techniques that they use to create colorful designs on fabrics.
This museum still provides livelihood for families of these women and beautiful articles of clothing are available for sale. We couldn’t resist getting some warm and soft alpaca wool gloves and socks for the harsh Florida winters!
Most Peruvian families raise guinea pigs for making cuy, an expensive delicacy in the region. The kids were definitely less squeamish than me, seeing no problem playing with these animals, having eaten a roasted one just a few days back.
Maras And Moray fields
Our next stop of the day was the Maras salt mines. These were created at the time of the Incas but are used to this day to harvest salt and create a seasonal livelihood for many families.
The government rents out squares of these mines to people like farmers or other workers who only work during part of the year.
The salt is harvested from a very salty spring water that is then fed to a series of fenced areas through pipes. Once the area is filled, the pipe is blocked so the water continues going to the other areas downstream. The sun is very strong at this altitude and it takes about 2 weeks to dry the salt. When the salt is dried and ready to be harvested, the workers use a paddle to collect the salt from the top into a container and take it out to sell. And the process begins again.
The salt mines were a 10 minutes long walk down a wooden staircase. The sun was very strong here so we had to wear lots of sunscreen and wide hats.
Our final visit on our second day was to the agricultural fields of Moray. The fields stand as they were created, hundreds of years ago, cut perfectly in a concentric circles. Each level was perfectly equidistant from each other and used to grow a different type of crop.
It was fascinating to see what the Incas achieved with no machines or any known large tools or even a wheel!
Inti Raymi – The Festival of the Sun
Our last day in Cusco was devoted to Inti Raymi and shopping for souvenirs.
Inti Raymi is the Festival of the Sun, celebrated by Incas over 500 years ago. It celebrates the Sun God and Mother Earth(Patchamama), who are the Gods of the Inca civilization ruling over earth and universe.
It was revived about 50 years ago and is reenacted every year by hundreds of actors and local residents taking part in the parade and activities.
Over 500 actors dressed in colorful outfits as the Sun God Inca, Sapa, nobles, priests and headmen, a golden dear, many other characters parade around the city with drum beats and music played by the people in the parade.
The parade started at 9 AM at Qoricancha where representatives from the four regions of the Inca Empire (Qollasuyu, Kuntisuyu, Antisuyu y Chinchaysuyu) come together. The festivities started by praising the the sun god – Inti.
From Qoricancha, the parade continued to the Plaza de Armas by 11 AM.
The parade made a round of the square and moved towards Sacsayhuaman where the main show of the festival was held.
Thousands of people, residents and tourists, come together to watch from the surrounding hills as well as specially set up grandstands that come with a steep premium of about 250 dollars per seat.
The day ended with some final words from the Inca and a sacrifice of one llama to the sound of drum beats and music.
There are a few different ways to watch the celebration depending on the available time and physical fitness of the participants.
The most exhaustive attendance is covered by a package ranging upwards of 250 dollars per person where people are taken to Qoricancha in the morning, then transferred to Plaza De Armas in time to watch the parade arriving there at 11. They are then bused to Sacsayhuaman to attend the final part starting 1 PM ending around 4 PM. They are provided a seat at the grand stand and a boxed lunch and water.
Another option is to arrive at one of these sites about 2-3 hours in advance and find a good spot to sit. There are vendors selling stools and chairs and umbrellas to get comfortable while people wait. At Sacsayhuaman, people climb the surrounding hills to find good vantage points to sit and wait for the show to begin. Inti Raymi is a very popular festival with locals and tourists alike so we expected to see the place super crowded.
The easiest option is to find a second story bar or restaurant near Plaza De Armas and reserve some seats on their balcony to watch in comfort and get the best views.
We found the last option to be the best fit as we didn’t want to commit our entire day to it or try my foot and/or the kids beyond what they could handle. We booked a brunch at LIMO Cocina Peruana & Pisco Bar. They offered a 3 course brunch for these celebrations for 35 USD per person and fantastic seats on the balcony with the best and closest view of the main activities at Plaza De Armas. It was probably the most expensive meal we had in Peru, but totally worth it and nowhere near the 250 USD pp we would have spent for the whole day package. Since vehicles were not allowed in the area that day, it was definitely beyond us to walk the 2 miles to Sacsayhuaman on foot, climb the hills and stay there for the afternoon and walk back with the crowds in the evening.
Our afternoon was spent enjoying the quiet of Plaza De Armas after the parade and the crowds moved on to Saqsayhuman.
In June, the garden in the center of Plaza De Armas was blooming with flowers. It was well manicured and well maintained, complete with an old lady who chased every child who stepped on the lawn!
We spent the rest of the afternoon browsing through the souvenir shops on the many narrow cobblestone streets leading to the town square and came back happy with our bounty of alpaca wool sweater, journal, more hats, Machu Picchu collectibles and other memorabilia.
As we started in our way back to hotel after a very exiting and memorable day, we saw KFC. Finding the KFC at Plaza De Armas turned out to be the cherry on top. The kids were so overjoyed to see fried chicken, you would think they saw food after a week!
We were so glad we changed our itinerary to include Inti Raymi, it was definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip.
Also see: Traveling to Peru with kids