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| Plaza de Armas - Cusco |
Returning
to Cusco after 7 weeks of travelling in the harshest country I have seen, both
environmentally and socially, was how I imagine coming home will feel. As the
bus rolled into the city we pointed out the familiar places, ‘Ohhh that’s where
the kids library is… Maybe they could drop us off here and we could walk to
WaaW… Remember when we ate there, that pollo milenasa was huge…’ Coming into
the bus terminal and hearing the nasally calls of the ticket sellers and food
vendors brought back more flooding
memories of our arrival in Cusco as well as heading out on short adventures and
meeting friends returning from trips, sounds smells and feelings that we will
never forget. It all sounds a little romantic and dramatic, but that’s exactly
how it felt, even though it would only be for a little more than a week. Our
bus trip took us 2 hours longer than expected, due to the dropping off and
picking up passengers at some official, though mostly unofficial bus stops. So
we arrived at 6:30pm, and had a date with our old friends at seven…. So we
rushed to a little dingy hostel, had a quick freshen up and straight out the
door to The Real McCoys, a British pub where we had spent many good times with
friends. A place with comfort food, we ate there in our first week in Cusco
when I was sick as a dog, I had the cheese toasties, a place where I won my
first ever game of monopoly, a place where we knew the wait staff and they knew
us, and nothing had changed. I guess we really hadn’t been away for that long,
and I guess comparatively our time that we did live in Cusco was short, but the
nostalgia that came with everything we did there on our return was
overwhelming. Perhaps because we don’t know when we will return again to this
city that had such a fierce impact on the way we see the world we wanted to
take everything in and reinforce our memories. I’m not going to give a day by
day account of what we did, because in all honesty I don’t remember exactly… it
was a blur of eating and drinking, spending time with our beautiful friends
Kelly and Ruben, as well as other old friends from Cusco, we visited a couple
of museums, spent lots of time avoiding the sunglasses vendors in the plaza,
and went back to FairServices for a Tuesday night cooking class. I celebrated my birthday with clothes shopping and plenty of cake! We were told
in no uncertain terms by all our Spanish teachers that we will have to come
back and visit when we have a Little Brenna and a Little James with us, but
definitely no more than 2 niños or they will ruin our lives!
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| Our train to Machu Picchu.... it wasn't that small, they added more carriages! |
One of the main reasons for our return to Cusco was to visit
one of the wonders of the world, Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was everything it
was supposed to be, and more. It was an amazing place to see through your own
eyes, to imagine the hustle and bustle of a city and a culture that came to an
abrupt end. I don’t think I have ever seen a more beautiful or stunning view
than the view from above the city, that classic photo you see, it was surreal
to see it for ourselves. To wake up in the morning to that would be
spectacular! The morning brought with it some light rain, and around two thirds
of the 2,500 daily visitors, including myself, were wearing brightly coloured
plastic ponchos, which gave the city very a strange technicolour vibe. The
sheer amount of visitors didn’t take away from the experience as much as it
could have, though the entrance and first hour or so, as everyone was grouped
together, was hectic. I do think the way tourism is run there is unsustainable,
an ancient city that was built to house no more than 1000 people will not
survive forever with the feet of 2,500 people trampling the walkways each day.
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| Our first view of Machu Picchu as the fog was clearing... |
The trip to Machu Picchu was not without its hiccups, though
I won’t go into them now. For anyone going there by train I do advise you to do
it all independently, we weren’t quite sure what to expect so went through an
agency to book our train tickets, hostel and entry into the site and 2 hour
tour, though it would have been much less frustrating to do it ourselves. But,
such is life, and in the end we got what we came for, to see this amazing Incan
city with our own eyes. (Scroll down for many more photos!
Leaving Cusco was tough… not as tough as last time, having
to say goodbye to the kids, but saying ‘hasta luego’ to Kelly and Ruben was a
sad occasion, though I’ve no doubt we will see them again in the not too
distant future, somewhere in this great world. Kelly gave me a beautiful silver
necklace with 4 little lucky beans, one for each of us, which will always make
me smile and think of us, “The Inca and his Gringos.” I admire Kelly and Ruben
so much for their strength and determination and how hard they are working to
make it possible for them to spend the rest of their lives together, and I have
a new respect for relationships that cross international boarders, as despite
the romance of falling in love in a foreign land the reality of it is really
tough. Our last 24 hours in Cusco brought with it the usual adventures… and
misadventures… of our little lives there. We had a nice morning with Kelly and
Ruben, then took a bus tour of the city for one last look around. We were delighted
and surprised to see two of our little men from WaaW, two boys who touched our
hearts more than most, in the main plaza on their way home from school. We
didn’t go and chat to them, we couldn’t bring ourselves say goodbye again, we
just watched with a smile in our hearts and tears in our eyes as they had a
brotherly wrestle and then went their separate ways… and we went ours.
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