Children of the Sun

After an overload of natural wonder in the Galapagos there was a longing to get in amongst the ancient history of South America and for this there can be no greater place than the Andes - home of the ancient and once powerful Incan empire. In this mountain chain lies the capital of the Incan lands, Cuzco, and further beyond this beautiful city lies the true archeological gem of the Americas - Machu Picchu.

Cue the music.

Unfortunately, the Spanish conquistadors did a very thorough job destroying most of the Incan ruins in their thirst for gold, a demand for convenient building supplies and in the name of God (but mainly for the gold), which makes the almost completely intact ruins of Machu Picchu something very special to see.

Getting there for the sunrise and before thousands of rabid tour groups swarm the city is a logistical challenge, but absolutely worth every effort. At the dawn in this otherwordly city, the clouds swirl and twist around you, allowing brief sunbeams to pierce through and bring sections of the city to life one at a time. From the lookout further atop Mount Machu Picchu you can very clearly see the condor-shape of the city with the main temple as the head. Incans were big on designing their cities based on animal shapes and the head of the animal design normally incorporated pretty darned cool astronomical features.

Machu Picchu is one of the seven wonders of the world for good reason; it's amazingly preserved, perched atop a stunning cliff and surrounded by a sublime 360 degree view of jungled Andean mountains. Everyone wants to see Machu Picchu and it is easy to understand why; it's absolutely astounding and truly unique.

Cuzco, the gateway to Machu Picchu is also worthy of praise in its own right. This city is a beautiful collection of Spanish style colonial buildings and cathedrals, intersected by dangerously well-polished cobblestone streets radiating out from a central plaza. In this centre sits a beautiful fountain surrounded by manicured gardens not normally found in this neck of the woods and lush grass protected by dedicated and armed garden police. From this square European style spires and domes dominate the old town skyline, however to see the true original identity of the city you need to lower your gaze. At the foundations of each city block sit the original Incan walls, made from irregularly shaped stones cut so perfectly as to not need any mortar between them. It's the blend of two different antiquities that makes this city so interesting and notably worthy of its World Heritage status.

Beyond Cuzco and Machu Picchu lies the Sacred Valley, in which sits a plethora of other amazing Incan sites. The whole area lends itself very well to setting up camp in a small town and just wandering into the hills to see what you can find. There are numerous goat trails winding up the side of imposing mountains and many of them lead to the remains of partial Incan ruins. Hiking up to these kinds of structures requires traversing some fairly dubious terrain with the odd instant death ledge, but they are most fantastic to explore and help you gain a real sense of the history here.

Point to point travel around most of these parts is by collectivo, which is normally a circa-1980's mini-van that has no real schedule - it only leaves when it is full. The price you pay is more or less dependent on who needs who more. If you are first on board you pay full price but as the driver starts seeking to fill the last few seats the price drops quickly. For a good price you can therefore play the game and wait, aiming to get in last. For an even better price you can negotiate with the driver as the car starts moving and hop in as it moves past like a stunt man.

Collectivo drivers seem to be strangely cheerful and, like most of the population here, seem to be big on only three types of music in their vehicles: western 80's hits (especially those of Dire Straits, Sting and Madonna); Andean pop music, which consists of random people yelling "arriba!" and "vamos!" at each other over an annoying and unpredictable assortment of beeps and whistles; and finally a nigh endless collection of Peruvian pan pipe music, often covering western hits. You've not experienced Abba until you have heard the pan pipe version.

In the Andes, most roads naturally follow the valleys as much as possible but sooner or later the roads must go over the top of a mountain. When they do, such roads are barely carved into the side of ludicrous precipices and are in a perpetual state of roadworks due to daily landslides. Furthermore, these roads are typically only 1.95 car-widths wide, making for endless awkward passing manoeuvres when two vehicles meet. It is not uncommon to see traffic completely grind to a halt so two trucks can slide past one another with only an inch to spare, dislodging a few chunks of the outer road edge in the process. It's quite entertaining to watch for everyone except those in the vehicles in question whose thoughts are undoubtedly turning to the meaning of life and death.

The traditional descendants of the Incans, the so called 'Quechuan' peoples, now live in small remote communities in these mountains and lead a very different way of life from those of suburbia. They live in quite basic mud brick homes with minimal amenities. The women and children are easily identifiable by their very brightly coloured, traditional hand woven clothes. Pockets in clothes are universally shunned so the women will normally always be sporting a traditional hat with a bowl shape in the top used to carry valuables. On occasion you will see the odd bola hat instead of the normal hat. These were apparently made popular by British railway labourers. Sometimes tradition can be forgoed if a hat is quite dapper.

Regardless of the fact that the Andes are covered in snow in winter and generally cold most of the year round, the Quechua women and children seem quite content with walking around in sandals made from old tyres. How the hell they do not get frostbite in their feet is a legitimate mystery. Perhaps the most hilarious thing is that they knit little shoes for their chickens and other livestock that look quite warm. But not for themselves. Nope, Yokohama sandals all the way.

The Quechua men however seem to have more or less abandoned all pretenses of clothing tradition and normally wear a modern jacket, jeans and (unbelievably) business shoes for their farm work. These people speak indigenous languages and normally only the men will speak enough Spanish to be able to trade their goods with those in the city.

In the Sacred Valley towns there are many markets pedalling Incan wares and trinkets. Although most indigenous folk say they are Catholic, pre-Christian beliefs still weigh in pretty heavily here and there are numerous Harry Potter style witchcraft markets where all sorts of items can be purchased for tributes to old gods. Tributes are often comprised of candy, fruit, tea, soap, US dollar notes, small toys, stone idols, beads and the odd dessicated baby Llama.

Making such offerings helps boost luck, success and happiness for longer periods, but on a day to day basis it is normally enough to tip some of your food and drink on the ground to give something back to Pachamama, who symbolises the Earth; the place from which we all come and return to.

At these markets you can also acquire a range of beautifully made clothes at reasonable prices. Baby Alpaca is the thread of choice for the nicer garments as it is incredibly soft and very, very warm. The use of this thread is usually reinforced by weaving numerous Alpaca patterns into the clothes just to make it clear what it is made of. The number of tourists wearing outrageously bad animal patterned clothes is legendary here.

More expensive clothing is weaved from Vicunya hair. Vicunyas are a more rare type of mountain animal that cannot be held captive by law. To get this hair, a small army of people must find a Vicunya, form a circle around it over a large distance and then gradually close the circle around the Vicunya. When the circle is small enough, they will jump on the Vicunya, shear it and then let it run away. The whole process is long, difficult and sounds quite traumatising for the Vicunya.

The temptation to buy so many cool clothes is great, but tempered by the fact that this entire region has a ludicrous shortage of small change for day to day business. If something costs three pesos/soles/dollars for example and you hand over a ten, you are often greeted with looks of glum confusion from the shop assistant. There will be some desperate pleas for the correct money at which point you imply that if they don't have change then you can't buy it. They will usually raid the coffers of any friends or family close by. If no one else is available they will then join the crowd of other shopkeepers going from shop to shop around them until they can get some change.

Food-wise, potatoes weigh in heavily in local cuisine here. There is probably more varieties of potato in these parts than all other types of food combined and pretty much every meal will come with come with some spuds for good measure. Many meals will also come with rice and bread too, completing the triumverate of carbohydrate overload. If it wasn't for the fact you are generally climbing mountains and walking everyday it would be very easy to stack the kilograms on.

Wait, what? "Rice" you say? What about the Andean superfood Quinoa? Ahh, this once was a staple but now it is an oddly inaccessible and controversial one for local people here now. People in foreign countries are prepared to pay rather silly prices for Quinoa and consequently local people would rather sell it than eat it. Unfortunately, Quinoa was a significant and important part of their diet and, for the majority of the indigenous people, their only source of protein. Instead it has been substituted with the aforementioned white rice which is truly a terrible swap out. As a result of this, the majority of low to middle class children are now malnourished and not developing properly here. It's an innocuous but devastating change to their way of life and certainly worth thinking about the next time you pay big money for this new and fantastic superfood. It's only super for some.

Carbs aside, the true delicacy of this region is Guinea Pig. For thousands of years these little critters have been a firm and furry favourite of the Incan lands and still are to this day. Guinea Pigs, or Cuy as they are known here, are normally kept in kitchens as little vacuum cleaners. They hop around, munching on whatever little morsels drop down as well as some bits of grass. At some point in the year, the fattest looking one (who for this exercise we shall name 'Fluffy'), will be picked up and thrown in the pot as newer model vacuum cleaners arrive. Cuy is normally only eaten for special events by the locals but is served up regularly to intrepid tourists in restaurants called Cuyerias. These often have pictures of Guinea Pigs on their sign, normally wearing little chef hats or other cute but disturbing ceremonial death costumes. As guilt-ridden as it is to try one, I have to say Cuy is quite delicious actually, similar to duck and rabbit, and not a particularly challenging meal compared to most of the things you can eat in China. The presentation of the Cuy fresh from the oven, with a habanero in it's mouth and half a tomato for a hat might put a few folk off but I like to think it's how Fluffy would have wanted it.

Perhaps the most pervasive and ubiquitous snack food here is corn. It's grown everywhere and it's used in a massive variety of ways. It is ground up for the bread, mashed up for cakes, fried whole on the side of the street, boiled then chilled and served with chocolate, plucked and fried with salt, turned into pop-corn, blended and turned into sauce and even brewed into the local alcoholic drop of choice - Chicha. They have beer here too, but Chicha seems to be far more popular and traditional. The traditional Incan bottles for pouring it are pretty darned cool too, they are normally in the shape of animals like birds and monkeys and make appropriate chirping or hooting squeaks as you pour liquid out of them. It's corny, but that's the point.

For non-alcoholic drinks, lemonade is pretty big here and it is the norm for it to be proper, homemade lemonade instead of the ultra-sweet soft drink the rest of the world knows. It's super refreshing and usually super cheap which is a nice thing. They also prefer the local Inca Cola instead of Coca Cola here too, even though Inca Cola tastes nothing like a cola should, it is more like creaming soda.

As you might know if you are a fan of coffee, this area of the world produces a lot of it and if you are an aficionado it seems like it would be a wonderful place to visit for that express purpose. But seemingly, despite this abundance of raw product, finding a cafe with a decent barrista is extremely difficult and frustrating. It seems almost criminal that somewhere so blessed with fresh coffee beans should have such sub-standard coffee so proliferate.

Another odd thing about food service, or any service in general here, is that just because something is free or included, it doesn't mean you will automatically get it. You will probably have to ask. Even then, just because you have asked for something, that doesn't mean they will go through with it. Sure you will receive plenty of "Si's" and understanding nods, but afterwards follows a weird silence and absence of any action that would result in the desired item or service being delivered. Asking if an establishment "has" napkins is treated as an inventory check on your behalf, they will confirm the presence of napkins but won't assume the reason you are asking is that you are interested in using one. It's a bizarre and common aspect of travelling here, perhaps a result of gaining tourism without even trying. It's the Paris school of tourism appreciation.

The north west of South America is certainly not well to do. There is some harsh poverty here and many legitimate doubts that the quite substantial fees for visiting the big ticket items isn't really being channelled to the people, but more to the kleptocracies that be. Those on organised tours will never see the plight of the indigenous nor the general crappiness of the shanty towns off the tourist path so I can only suggest that should you come to visit the remains of the Incas, take the time to visit the unvisited, buy some street food off a struggling vendor, eat at a small hole in the wall a few times, hire a local guide if you need one and spend your money on people that really need and appreciate it. There are fantastic things to see here and it would be nice to see tourism become a very positive thing for the people in this much visited part of the continent, rather than some mysterious process they see no real benefits from.

Actually, that logic can be applied to any part of the developing world that houses a wonder of the world; Mexico, Jordan, Egypt etc. It's a shame for the people that live there to see such wealth pass them by and detest their homes being on that haughty list.