Before leaving Cusco, I had to tick off a few more of the sights that the city and its surroundings have to offer. The Sacred Valley of the Incas is a valley near Cusco that was an important area for agriculture during the Inca Empire. I did the trip with my old cycling partner Julia and we met three other Canadians on the minibus, so we spent most of the time talking about Canada. On the way to the valley, we made a short stop at a textile shop with classic, colourful Andean patterns. A lady in traditional clothes, with a great deal of dry humour, showed us the process of traditional weaving of textiles from alpaca wool. We sat in a circle and listened to an interesting explanation, while alpacas and llamas were chewing long green grass in the background. The most impressive thing was to see how they extract natural dyes, especially the different shades of red, which they obtain from parasites living on cactus leaves. The lady carefully picked some white lice between the long cactus spines and showed them to us in the palm. Then she rubbed her palms together and to our surprise they turned blood red. The dyed wool is woven using alpaca bone on looms similar to those used by the Incas five hundred years ago. After a short walk around the shop, we got back in the minibus and drove to the Moray archaeological site. The guide took us inside the area and I looked at the circular terraces, which resembled an amphitheatre, and wondered what exactly we were looking at. First we took a few pictures, and then the guide explained that here the Incas had carried out agricultural experiments. They were supposedly using terraces to achieve different microclimates and were investigating their effect on various crops. Modern scientists have found soils from different areas of Peru on the terraces, so the Incas were probably observing and monitoring the growth of crops in different soils as well. Like Machu Picchu and all other Inca buildings, there is a drainage system beneath the circular terraces so that water does not stay in the fields during the rainy season. The highest terraces are about 70 m deep and the temperature difference between the highest and the lowest can reach up to 5 °C. The terraces at Moray do not look like anything special compared to other architectural masterpieces from pre-Columbian South America, but it must be said that the Incas were incredibly advanced for their time in carrying out experiments and optimising the cultivation of crops.
We continued driving through a beautiful, rolling landscape that reminded Julia of Tuscany – a remark I could only roll my eyes at – and started descending towards the next landmark. We were all stunned when we suddenly saw more than three thousand white salt pools below us. Sunglasses were necessary in the strong sun, as the white salt pools stood out from the rocky brown landscape. We got out and approached them along a winding footpath. Our guide led us to the narrow salt water spring. Salt had been produced in the area before the time of the Incas, who took control of salt production when they defeated their predecessors. The water in the pools varies in shades from dirty brown to crystal white, depending on the degree of evaporation. Salt is extracted from each pool once a month. We saw workers using wooden tools to gather the salt into piles and put it into sacks. The tools reminded me of pictures from Slovenian salt pans. We took lots of pictures from different angles and headed past the salt shops back to the parking lot and returned to Cusco.
The next must-see thing in Cusco has only recently become popular. Rainbow Mountain, or Vinicunca as it is known in the local language, is a fairly recent tourist attraction, revealed by the melting of the glacier that covered the top of the mountain, exposing its natural beauty. First spotted in 2015 and after the construction of an improved road in 2018 to reach the starting point at 4600m, the Rainbow Mountain has become the second most visited location from Cusco. Due to the large number of tourists, some agencies started doing the trips very early, and although getting up early has become a habit for me because of cycling, waking up at half past two in the morning didn't tempt me too much. Nevertheless, I decided to get up in the middle of the night and the guide knocked on doors of the hostels in Cusco to collect the group of sleepy tourists who were going to make the trip to the Rainbow Mountain that day. A good hour's drive on the tarmac lulled everyone back to sleep, which was then interrupted by a rumble as the minibus pulled out onto the dirt road. We had breakfast and then it was an hour's drive along a dirt road in a wide valley, where locals were herding horses and alpacas. We drove higher and I began to notice the red shades on the slopes of the surrounding mountains. The sun was beginning to show above the mountains and it was a beautiful day. The bright rays were another hit to the mix of sleep and oxygen deprivation in our slightly dizzy heads. Many had equipped themselves with coca leaves sold everywhere in Cusco, but the guide had brought something else. First, he explained the plan, the short hike to Rainbow Mountain and the additional section leading to the viewpoint over the Red Valley. Then he took out a small bottle of agua colorida, which is a kind of perfumed alcoholic water, and he dropped a few drops into each of our hands, which we then inhaled and refreshed our faces with.
We got off the bus and in the queue for the toilet I found out that I was not the only Slovenian in the group. I introduced myself to Tina and I didn't think it would be so nice to hear the correct pronunciation of my name. It was wonderful to speak in my language in person after a long time and the relatively short climb to the most photogenic point of the day passed quickly. We were not alone at the pass, as there were locals already waiting for us, selling everything possible. The loudest was a gentleman offering a Rainbow Mountain stamp for a passport, followed by ladies seeking foods and warm beverages. At least the two llamas with sunglasses, with which the tourists were taking pictures, were not ready yet. The guide told us to first climb even higher to the viewing point. We took pictures for social media and enjoyed the view, as we could also see the huge snow-capped mountain of Ausangate in the distance. We returned to the lady who was heating water in iron pots over the fire for the thermoses which she filled with coca tea and coffee. Our guide explained the story of the Rainbow Mountain and told us that the colours were the result of tectonic shifts and volcanic activity that caused the erosion of certain minerals. This tourist attraction is visited by an average of about a thousand tourists a day and more people have started appearing at the pass. Our group continued our hike towards the Red Valley. We walked along the interesting red sand on a narrow path and watched the huge number of tourists who had come to see the Rainbow Mountain on a beautiful day. It was at that moment that I realised that it was actually worth getting up early, because there was a line of people queuing up for a photo opportunity at a place where we had been practically alone a good hour earlier. Twenty-five minutes' walk and we were back above 5000m above sea level. This time we enjoyed the view of the Red Valley, which is a stunning, wide valley where shades of red and green color the steep slopes. Peru has offered another wonderful natural sight and we took pictures of each other in front of the stunning valley. We turned around and walked back towards the minibus, passing tourists on horseback who were just beginning the climb up to the Rainbow mountain.
Jezero Titikaka
The extremely long break in Cusco was over and I sat back on my bike and continued my journey at high altitude on a mostly flat plateau towards the south of the country, towards Lake Titicaca. On the Peruvian side, the largest town on the lake is Puno, which offers numerous trips to nearby islands. Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South America, 55% of which belongs to Peru and 45% to neighbouring Bolivia. At an altitude of 3800m, it is the highest navigable lake in the world. I cycled from Cusco to Puno on the altiplano and booked a tour, which started the next morning at much more normal hours than the tours in Cusco. Our age-diverse group of tourists chased our quick guide on the long pier through the crowds of people. We made our way to one of the long boats, which had two padded seats on each side. We waited for the seats to fill and I sat next to an elderly man, Frank, from Canada, who had come to Peru to fulfill his lifelong dream to visit Machu Picchu. We drove through a vast area of water reeds, which the guide explained to us is three hundred square kilometres big and is a part of a nature reserve. On its outskirts are the Uros floating islands. The water in this part of the lake is no more than nine metres deep and around a hundred families live on the floating islands, which are made from water reeds. We got closer to one of the islands and the locals shook hands and greeted us in their local language. We walked on the shaky ground made of dried water reeds and observed the cute houses. The island seemed very small to me and the guide explained that from the perspective of the locals, it was very big, as they had to maintain it regularly. Every month the whole island has to be covered with a fresh layer of reeds. They have only lived on it for a year and it took them a good year and a half to build it. It will last between thirty and forty years. They explained to us how it is built. In some places the roots of the reeds are intertwined to form floating blocks. Local people in the area find many of these blocks of earth and tie them together with ropes. The man in charge of the island told us that there are twenty blocks on this island that are connected to each other. It is anchored by six long bamboo poles, which we saw sticking out of water not far from the island. The layers of reeds sink into the water over the years and reach the bottom of the lake. The island becomes no longer floating and during the rainy season the lake level rises and the island is completely flooded. It is easy to prove if the island is still floating simply by bouncing around. The island is inhabited by people living in simple houses made of water reeds. They also eat the reeds, as they are high in calcium, which is good for their teeth. Their means of transport are motor boats, but for tourists they weave gondolas in which we circled the island at a snail's pace for an extra fifteen soles. The people on the islands are making a living in fishing and tourism. Although they are in a nature reserve, the government allows them to hunt birds and a few visitors gasped when a man proudly held up a duck he had caught that morning. I was more surprised by the weapon, as he showed a rifle that resembled a musket from two hundred years ago. At the end of the 1990s, the Peruvian President visited the floating islands for the first time and promised to help them, so the government financed solar panels and built a primary and secondary school nearby. Our trip took place on a Sunday and the children were also on the island. I felt sorry for them when I saw their sunburnt faces, even though they were walking around in big straw hats. The whole idea that people really live on this island, which I could walk across in twenty steps and which smells of grass decaying in the water, did not seem realistic to me, and I bumped Frank and asked him if he believed that these people spend the whole year here. He shrugged his shoulders in reply and followed the man into one of the huts. The ladies on the island are making handicraft products and they had to hurry up and sell their things, because a new tourist boat had already docked off the island.
Our group got back on the boat and it was a long ride to the next interesting island on the lake. A good hour and a half away is Taquile Island, home to around two thousand inhabitants who speak the same language as the inhabitants of the floating islands. This time we anchored off the pier and walked around the island, which is not too high, so we could quickly enjoy the beautiful views. In the distance, we could also see the Bolivian coast with Copacabana and the snow-capped mountain range in the background. As we walked around the island, our guide also pointed out terraces originating from Inca times, where people grow crops. Lake Titicaca has its own microclimate due to its size, caused by the evaporation of water in sunny weather, so that crops can be grown even at such high altitudes. For me, the color of the lake, the gentle waves and the rocky shoreline reminded me of the Croatian coast. The guide pointed to the sandy beach and said that it was the highest beach in the world. We walked past houses and saw the first people on the island dressed in special, colorful clothes. The locals are famous for their textile production. Their weaving skills have been recognised by UNESCO, which inscribed the island as a World Heritage Site in 2008. The knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation and it is amazing how they can create such detailed patterns on such simple machines and with tools such as an alpaca bone. Our guide explained that the most complex products take several months to make. The men wear wide, colourful belts and knit while they are walking, with wool in different colors stuck behind their belts and knitting needles around their necks. They make their own long caps, and the way they wear it indicates if they are single or married. A typical greeting is the exchange of coca leaves, which they do not accept in the palm of their hand, but in a knitted pouch worn at the waist. The men also wear belts woven from sheep's wool and human hair. We saw their traditional dance and touched some of the products. It was quite hot in the sun and we slowly made our way to the restaurant where we ate delicious fish from the lake. After the meal we went back to the boat that met us on the other side of the island and took us back to Puno.
My trip to Peru was coming to an end and after two great months I arrived in a new country. I cycled along the lake to the Bolivian coast, more specifically to Copacabana. As soon as I arrived, I noticed a number of boats in a small bay, which looked much simpler than the ones in Peru. I went to a random travel agency and booked a trip to Isla del sol for the next morning. On a beautiful sunny morning, I joined a group in the bay and the captain put us on a simple boat that sailed incredibly slowly towards the island. The ride took almost two hours, and I tried to sleep and regain the energy that had been taken from me by – apparently unavoidable in Bolivia – stomach problems. We got off on a sandy beach and I saw children flying kites in the strong wind. Next to them were pigs walking along the water. The guide was urging the slow group to walk faster, telling us similar things that I had heard on the island of Taquile. The local people are working in fishing, tourism and agriculture. We also saw the Inca terraces, except that on this island they sacrifice a llama every year for a better harvest. We continued our hike to the top of the island, where there is a ritual table where the Incas used to sacrifice people for a better harvest. Opposite the table is a rock that, with a lot of imagination, resembles a puma and which is said to give away positive energy. We continued to the Inca ruins with beautiful views of the beach below. There was a spring of healing water between the walls and everyone washed their faces with it, while the guide poured it into a bottle and took it home to his father. I thought to myself that all the positive and healing energy had come at the right time to improve the feeling in my stomach. We returned to the boat and I slept the whole way back. In the afternoon I slept some more and have gained enough energy to go to the pier where I enjoyed the beautiful sunset. The sun's rays glistened on the calm waves and I felt as if I were somewhere at sea, and not at almost 4000 metres in the South American Andes.
