Day 66: What Cusco can teach Mumbai, Delhi
Samar Halarnkar -
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 8:41 PM
"Good god, it´s like Simla!" That is our first reaction when we first saw Cusco -- ancient capital of the Inca empire -- from a neighbouring mountaintop on the other side of the world from India. Peru´s third-largest city spreads chaotically in all directions, a result of an influx of rural Quechua Indians. Its population has grown three times over the last 20 years. Sounds familiar?
But after two days of wandering its cobblestone alleyways, dodging its relentless flow of little Daewoo taxis and observing its town planning closely, we´ve realised the method to Cusco´s chaos. It is a lesson for Delhi´s old city, or Mumbai´s Kotachiwadi or Fountain heritage precincts -- how to use tradition to create a first-world attraction in the midst of third-world conditions.
I´m not going to write a thesis on this, however, just run you through a few photographs.
Photo, above: Cusco´s central plaza is a marvel. Colonial Spanish architecture rests atop Inca walls that survived the sacking by the conquerors. The alleyways leading out from the plaza are packed with restaurants, shops, travel agencies, even laundries. There is no trash in sight, and there is always a reassuring police presence. The Inca walls are remarkable: many are stones stunningly fitted into one another -- no mortar, no cement. The Spanish buildings have been damaged during earthquakes, never the Inca walls.
Photo, above: A guide shows us the original Inca layout of Cusco, the entire town created in the shape of a puma, hewn out of rock and sweat. This is town planning like we´ve never seen. Many of the original Inca water systems, now more than 500 years old, still work.
Photo, above: We found this local fest underway on a bright Sunday morning. Organised by the local municipality, it had hundreds of enthusiastic viewers, locals and tourists. It was remarkable how all the locals cheered vociferously when the traditional dancers came on.
Photo, above: At one point, some dancers started throwing boxes of matches. To great excitement, the local section of the crowd tried to catch what they could.
Photo, above: The local police take some time out for socialising. There seemed to be some distinct flirting going on between one of the male and female officers.
Photo, above: Cusco at night, shot from a nearby hill. With an altitude of 3,800 m (about 12,000 feet), the city forces us stop for breath even now, though it´s getting easier.
By the way, in case you´re wondering about why posts worth three or four days appear all at once, that´s because we´re on the move through the day, and when we do want to file, it´s often hard to find internet access in these parts. When we do find an overpriced outlet, connections are slow. It is trying to watch a photo occupy five to 10 minutes and then refuse to load, and it´s common for connections to break -- we´ve often had to retype entire posts. So, kindly adjust.
Of course, I have to say, it´s remarkable there even is net access in many remote towns. We are sitting now at an internet cafe in a village at the base of Machu Picchu. The connection is stable if not fast, but the view is spectacular: The wall is all glass, and there is a little town square with restaurants, the village school and a statue of the great Inca emperor Pachautec. Towering above it all, a granite mountain. Here´s the mountain, shot this morning.
But I can´t show you more because my battery is dead, and my camera lens cap jammed after I fell on the rocky and frightening Inca trail yesterday. I think I might be able to get around the jammed cap by unscrewing the filter that it screws into. No way to recharge my battery though -- I have an adaptor its three pins won´t fit into the two-pin connections common in rural Peru.
Ah, the trials and joys of travelling.