2nd day / Transfer day in Cusco

Leaving Lima early in the morning, after a 1 hour flight we ve arrived in Cusco relatively early. Cusco is visited by 2 million tourists a year, mainly because it used as a gateway to famous ancient inka city Machu Picchu. By the time with its 450000 inhabitants these days, grew into the most important city in the region.

Cusco has long been an important center of indigenous peoples. It was the capital of the Inca Empire (13th century-1532)

The name of the city is derived from the phrase qusqu wanka ('Rock of the owl'), related to the city's foundational myth of the Ayar Siblings. According to this legend, Ayar Awqa (Ayar Auca) acquired wings and flew to the site of the future city; there he was transformed into a rock to mark the possession of the land.

 

Cusco has a subtropical highland climate and laying at an elevation of about 3400meters. The main attraction of the city is again of course the Plaza de Armas known as the "Square of the warrior" in the Inca era.This plaza has been the scene of several important events in the history of this city, such as the proclamation by Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Cuzco.

Most of the the inhabitants of the city belong to the Quechua ethnic group, which is anyway the largest in Peru. Quechua became Peru’s second official language in 1969.

We spent the day, walking around the streets looking at local shops and visiting of course the my favourite place the market.

As for a contrast compared to the luxury restaurant in Lima, we tried some street food like boiled quaile eggs and sweet potato as well as corn.

In the afternoon to we continued direction Machu Picchu, which is only accessible in this season via a combination of bus and train. The Inka trail is closed in at the moment, because of mainatance work and the high risk of land slides, which are common during this months of the year.

There are several options to get to the train station in Ollantaytambo. Taxi, tourist bus or the so called "collectivos", which are mostly used by the locals. Collectivos are minibuses, going in a ceratin direction and leaving irregularly, whenever a bus is full.

It is a nice experience and usually in the afternoon buses fill up quickly, i.e. you do not have to wait too long.
After a 2 hours ride we reached Ollantaytambo train station and took the train (an other 2 hours) to Aqua Calientes, which is a village just below the lost city Machu Picchu.

Tomorrow we going to go up on a peak over Machu Picchu and visit the Inka city.

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