The ‘Naval’ of the World

At times we are all the centre of our own universe.

The Incas were no different.

With no knowledge of any other world beyond their own they named their most prized and beautiful city the Inca word for ‘naval’ or centre, Qusqo. This eventually become known as Cuzco, a beautifully ancient city that is still known to be the centre of all things Inca and is the main city of the Peruvian Andes.

Wandering through the ancient streets today I gazed at still-standing Inca walls, built against the all too common earthquakes here by the clever method of building on an angle - which must make them stronger as they have survived every masssive earthquake since the 1400s. Amazingly, after one initial earthquake levelled the town in the 1300s the Incas rebuilt the city in the shape of a puma - one of its main gods - with the (still existing) main square as its heart. The borders of the shape can still be seen today.

The most notable buildings in the main square and its outskirts are the churches (all 18 of them in a matter of blocks) - all built in the 16th century when the Spanish invaded and imposed their catholic religion on the bewildered Incas, tearing down temples and palaces and building imposing cathedrals in their place.

While the Incas had no choice but to adopt Catholicism, they refused to completely denounce their own ancient religion of worship to the sun, Mother Earth, and it’s deities - the snake (the underground), the puma (the earth) and the condor (the sky). While obediently building statues of Jesus and the saints, the Incan sculptures secretly placed images of the sun, moon and stars on robes, placed suns behind the saint’s heads and managed to combine the two religions with a minimum of fuss - continuing to worship their own gods while adopting the God of the Spanish Catholics. Even today the Andean people have a sort of mixed religion, making offerings to the mountains and mother earth as well as participating in Christian festivals and masses with religious fervour and devotion.

We wandered through the local markets, wincing at the meat section with its cattle hooves and bullock’s noses, and admiring the fresh fruit and veg straight from the rich soil of the high plateaus in the mountains. As well as visiting a museum dedicated to the history of the Incas, complete with (more) mummies, pottery relics and a lot of information about how this fascinating culture lived their lives.

Cusco is tourist central, one of Peru’s most famous cities, and the starting point for trips to Macchu Picchu. There are modern restaurants of every cuisine possible, sweet little coffee shops, and, of course a thriving Irish pub opposite an English one where an English friend and I stopped for a beer to watch the Irish thrash the English in the rugby.

Tomorrow my search for Inca ruins really kicks off as we head to the Sacred Valley for one night before heading off on our four day trek to Macchu Picchu. After a long briefing tonight about the trek I’m feeling a little nervous. The second day (Tuesday) is supposed to be the hardest with long uphill hikes…but, as we were told tonight, 80% of the trek is about having a positive attitude (tell that to my aching legs...!)

Till after Macchu Picchu...