#cristoblanco

March 21st, 2017

Day 2: A Ruined Day

This morning was a slow start, something I’ve made a habit of since my earlier European travels. Not only do I get to rest up a little, I also get to take things in at a more normal, chill pace that wouldn’t wear me out. I think this age thing has definitely caught up to me.

Anyhow, the morning included some breakfast with some new friends (Jordan from Canada, Omer (female) from Israel, Freddie from Argentina, and a couple of other folks). I had some fruit and bread with jam and avocado on bread to start off my morning. During my breakfast, I was able to plan my day out based on the experiences that the others had, which included buying a Baleto Turistico pass for 130 soles that would allow me to see up to 14 sites and museums over a 10 day period. I felt that this was the best bang for my buck and would allow me to see a good variety in Cusco, so I went with that plan.

So, the first leg of the journey today was a 20-25 minute 20 soles drive up the mountainside behind Cusco all the way to the top where the Incan ruins of Tambomachay sat. I planned my trip so that I could get dropped off at the highest of the local ruins and slowly walk back down the mountainside while stopping at each and every ruin along the way. And so Tambomachay was first. When I got there, I tried to bargain with the guy selling the ticket and selling the fact that I was a student even though I was over the 25 year old limit for student discounted tickets. After a few minutes of arguing that fact, I just gave up and paid the full amount and walked in. The ruins were a little bit of a walk up a hill and once I got there, they were pretty small.

After some photos here, I walked out and down the road and shortly hit the next set of ruins, Puka Pukara. These ruins were a lot cooler because of their location. They were situated on top and edge of a hill, which made the photo I took a lot cooler. And the ruins themselves had a great view into the valley below. A stunning glimpse of the crazy cool landscapes in this area. I walked around the ruins for a bit while enjoying the distant view before I left and started my way down toward the next bit of ruins.

The walk down to the next ruins was long and warm. The sun had started to come out and things definitely started to heat up. As I walked, I just took everything in and looked around me at the farmland, the houses and shops, the gift-sellers, the animals, and whatever else was in the area. After a while, I hit a branching point. One way would lead me to Q’Enqo, one of the ruins, and Cristo Blanco, while the other way would lead me to the main attraction of Saksaywaman. I decided to walk downhill toward Q’Enqo first and it ended up being a good idea. The walk was pretty long but I eventually got to the ruins and took a look around. Again, another pretty small set of ruins. I was going to try and see the neighborhood of San Blas because I was already in the area, but decided that I’d try to fit it in after Saksaywaman.

After Q’Enqo was Cristo Blanco, or the White Christ. It was a white statue of Christ perched on top of the mountain that gave a great panoramic view of the city of Cusco below. So I spent some time there just enjoying the view before wandering my way over to Saksaywaman. And the walk wasn’t nearly as far as I thought it would be. Once I got to Saksaywaman, I knew that it was the popular place amongst the ruins near Cusco because there were TONS of people there already looking around. I walked in and started to look around. And this place was pretty phenomenal because of how big and well built it was. The stones that were placed on top of each other to form the walls were huge and as you walked higher and higher within the ruins, the stones comprising the wall became a little smaller.

With touring Saksaywaman done, I walked to the neighboring ruins called Suchuna Chincana right across from Saksaywaman. I looked around for a bit before becoming bored of the ruins and eventually made my way back toward town. Along the way, I found St. Cristobal Church perched on the mountainside along the road going down to Cusco. The view was gorgeous here so I ended up just having a nice relaxing sit down there before eventually meandering my way back towards Cusco.

Once I was back in Cusco, I found myself in the Cusco’s Main Square. There, I also took a seat to just take in the environment around me. It was fun to just people watch under beautiful skies. I saw police just strolling through. I saw kids running around, chasing each other, and throwing pokeballs at one another. And I saw girls just keeping busy with selfies and pictures.

Before long, I headed back to the hostel where I found my dormmate Gina who had just arrived back after her Rainbow Mountain adventures. We decided to catch up over dinner and so walked over to Nuna Raymi, a nice Peruvian restaurant right outside of the main square. There, we ordered Lomo Saltado Lopez Style and Cuy (aka Guinea Pig). We both had a couple of juices as well, with me buying Jugo de Chirimoya. The juice was good. Had a milky texture and was pretty sour, but juicy. Not much sugar added it seems, but probably healthier. The cuy was pretty good! And rest of the guinea pig was served with quinoa, veggies, and some type of sauce! It was good! And the lomo saltado was delicious too! A great meal and I got to try a unique, traditionally Peruvian dish!

After dinner, we went back to the hostel and I ended the night hanging out with the new friends I had met earlier in the morning. We spent some time learning and playing a new card game called Cambio. Here’s how it works:

- Everyone is dealt four cards.

- Once everyone is dealt four cards, they can order them in a row and take a look and memorize the cards at the two ends. After that, without special cards, they can’t look back at those cards and just have to remember them.

- The rest of the cards are in the middle to be picked from. For each turn, someone picks up a card and doesn’t let anyone else see the card. They can either keep the card and switch it out with another card or use the card if the card has certain “actions.” Or they can discard the card. And when they switch the card with another one, they can’t look at the cards and can only pick from what they remember when they first flipped the end cards.

- The special ability cards are as follows:

   - 7 and 8 cards have the action that allows you to look at any one of your cards that you have in your set of four.

   - 9 and 10 cards have the action that allows you to look at any one card from someone else’s hand. Of course, you should be the only one looking and knowing.

   - Jack and Queen allow you to blindly switch one of your cards with someone else’s cards. (I also think that you can use it to blindly switch other people’s cards too, though I’m not sure).

   - Red King has a value of zero so is not an action card, but a keeper card. - Black King allows for you to look at someone’s card and switch it with one of your own that you looked at with the Black King or allows you to switch it between two others.

   - Ace cards are all worth 1.

   - Ace through 6 cards are valuable and you want to keep them.

- The end goal is to collect four cards with the lowest summed value. When you go through the game and think you have the best combo, when it’s your turn again, you can call “Cambio!” which allows everyone but you one more chance to optimize their decks and screw you over. Once the turn gets back to you, everyone flips their cards and sums are calculated and a winner is determined!

Fun huh? I had a fun time playing even though I was pretty tired. With beginner’s luck, I ended up winning the first two rounds before coming in close with a few others. And after a fun night of cards, it was time to sleep and reenergize.

5 Things I Learned Today:

1. Walking at altitude… is difficult and tiring.

2. Puka Pukara has the coolest location and has best views of the four Inca ruins that are relatively close to Cusco. And Puka Pukara means “Red Fortress” for its appearance in the twilight light.

3. Saksaywaman is a gargantuan of an Incan fortress compared to those I saw earlier in the day. And the rocks there are so perfectly sculpted and placed to form the walls of the ruins that you just appreciate how skilled, talented, and advanced the Incan civilization was for their time.

4. From a tour guide I overheard, there are about 16 Catholic churches all throughout Cusco.