Adventures of YB125 in Peru, part 5

We will drive through the outskirts of Cusco, visit Machu Picchu and move through the deepest canyon Kotovasi, hot springs and petroglyphs to Arequipa. Let's move!
In Cuzco we rented an inexpensive accommodation for a month to rest, work and gain strength after the fall and travel. Nastya found a school of jewelers and began her long-standing dream of working with silver.
In our spare time we went out to the city to walk, and also in the neighborhood - around Cuzco there is always something to see!

Ancient stone wall in the center of the city

Geometry of the Old Cuzco

Walking in the city, you can swing in the waves of the crowd, among junk, ceramics, knitted and woven things, musical instruments and alpac skins, among the endless fried pork - all kinds of chicharron, and just whole fried. Here you can see the faces of those who fill the super-expensive tourist boutiques in the center, talk to them and find something special.

The main square

Almost within the city there is a solar Inca fortress - Saksayuaman. Today in the fortress you can see only that the Spaniards didn't destroy the whole construction of the colonial Cuzco. Well, what they did not pull apart - that's just it - huge walls with their megalithic polygonal masonry. Awesome work, the secret of which is still unsolved.

A motorcycle is able to make even of a small trip a great adventure. The bus or car provides security and some inaction. Roughly speaking, you just wait, when you get from point A to point B. On the motorcycle you remain involved even on the passenger seat. You are inside this world, you are not protected from it, you live every kilometer.
To get to Machu Picchu, you need to cross the pass at 4300 meters, it is slightly removed from the ocean and turned out to be incredibly wet. Rain, hail, fog and wild cold, that's what we were waiting for! The icy wind burned his face, it was impossible to ride in closed helmets, as the mighty glaciers of the five thousandth mountain range now opened continually in the mist. It was scary, hard and wonderful :)

t the foot of Machu Picchu mountain there is only one road th the village. Iron. The lack of car accesses still sheds unnecessary, leaving only two categories of people - rich and stubborn. For the second, for us I mean, there is a path along the piece of iron. Until the end of the road, a place called Hydroelectric, we got dark, and parked the Friend in the garage of the only house, went to the cherished goal. We walked along the sleepers and listened to the whisper of the forest around us and the rifts of the river. A huge, tropical, wet forest. A wave of smells, screams of nocturnal birds, rolled over us in waves, and the eyes of some opossums glittered more often. Soon the full moon rose and its silvery light disintegrated in the air. We turned off the flashlights and stepped on this magic night like two local animals.

We did not have much time to sleep. By five a.m. on the checkpoint near the bridge the queue of the stubborn was gathered :)

The ascent was quite simple, we made in an hour and, to my own surprise, came exactly at sunset.
The night before the sunset was clear, so the sunlight slowy filled the city, which name is still unknown.

Halfway from Machu Picchu to Cuzco there are another ruins of the ancient city. Ollantaytambo is famous for its perfectly processed megaliths. But they are not impressed at all. First of all, Ollantaytambo is the grandest repository of edible stocks. Well, terraces arranged in height and width on almost vertical rocks so that the harvest could be collected all year round. It is the secret of power and success of a great empire. These are correctly stored resources, which if necessary came to any point of the empire within 3-10 days.

Another secret of the prosperity of the Inca Empire is Solinas de Maras. Salt Mine brought incredible incomes to the Incas, with small labor costs. They are still working today.

To be continued....