Inca Trail Preparations

Today was further preparation for the next several days, during which we will leave our bungalow on the hill of Cusco and embark on the Inca trail to Machu Picchu.

We spend the first night of the tour in a hotel in Cusco with the rest of our group. We took our bags and checked in to the starting venue, El Puma. I find now that hotels feel so impersonal in comparison to Airbnb, where our hosts have often become our friends by the end of the stay, and even hostels, which have a much friendlier atmosphere and staff.

To prepare ourselves mentally for the hike to the lost-then-found Inca city, we visited what used to be the most important site in the Inca capital, Qorikancha.

Courtyard of Santo Domingo church on Qorikancha

Qorikancha means 'golden palace', although it may also have been referred to as Intihuasi (sun house), or Intikancha (sun palace). Whatever its name, there was no doubt that it was a building of solid construction, whose interior and exterior were opulently decorated. Containing temples to the sun and moon - themselves containing mummies of kings (Inca) and queens (Qoa) respectively, as the moon was considered to be the sun's wife - as well as to thunder and to rainbows, Qorikancha was the centre of the Inca cosmovision. Water - being another divinity revered by the Incas - featured in the temple too.

Sadly, Qorikancha's magnificence was sacked, looted and destroyed by the conquering Spanish. The walls and ceilings were covered in thick sheets of gold and silver, while the garden saw golden statues of people, animals and plants - the precious metals having only religious value to the Incas. All was melted down, cast into ingots, and sent back to Spain by the conquering forces.

The final indignity was to have the structure built upon by a Spanish church. Francisco Pizarros, the leader of the invading forces, in dividing up the buildings of Cusco, gave Qorikancha to his brother Juan. He died shortly afterwards in the battle at Sacsayhuamán, and left the building to the Dominican church. The church of Santo Domingo was erected on - and partially using the stones of - the Inca temple.

It was this church that we had the opportunity to visit, which included some interesting artwork of saints, but lacked the breathtaking grandeur that the conquistadors must have discovered. The church had a couple of opportunities to relocate - when devastating earthquakes hit in 1650 and 1950, levelling much of the Spanish construction while the anti-seismic, Incan trapezoidal foundations stood firm. However, the Dominicans refused and rebuilt on the original site.

Indestructible curved Inca masonry

Being in the vicinity, we took lunch at a rather more local vegetarian restaurant, El Olivo. This was the kind of place in which one pays in advance, gaining a seat at a shared table is a mission, and it is every man for himself at the salad buffet. We marvelled at the crowds of people, packed in for lunchtime, not a tourist among them. There is no shortage of other similar establishments offering fried trout or pollo broaster, but these cusqueños had chosen a meat-free meal.

We slid in to a couple of seats that had become available and handed our coupon to the waitress, who efficiently brought us soup, a main, dessert and a drink. We helped ourselves to the varied salad, chose from four main courses - the picante de caygua turned out to be not at all picante, but a tasty vegetable stew - and tucked into the traditional mazamorra morada, made from purple corn. For 6 soles each for such healthy, filling food, I can see why it is as popular as it is.

Picante de caygua & mazamorra morada

I immediately regretted eating quite such a heavy lunch, when I had to race back up the hill to fetch the immigration documents that I had left at home, which are apparently required for a hotel stay.

With the check-in staff satisfied that we were legally in the country, we visited the central craft market. This turned out to be much the same as many other ferias in town, but ostensibly offers lower prices. Despite having visited many countries in which haggling is de rigueur, our negotiation skills remain poor, so we saw little difference in cost.

Returning to the hotel via the back streets, armies of schoolchildren were leaving for the day, each of which was eating ice cream, a slice of pizza, or a fat slab of cake. It transpired that enterprising people had set up tables of the goodies just outside the school gates. I reserved my judgement about how well this would go down in Jamie Oliver's Britain - I saw one solitary girl munching on an apple - and instead bought a couple of slices of delicious cake.

We didn't have time to enjoy the cake, however, as our Inca Trail guide from G Adventures met us looking slightly panicked at the reception desk. Apparently the welcome briefing time had been brought forward by an hour and a half without informing the hikers. He was busily corralling people before taking us to the G Adventures newly opened offices across town.

Here we had the briefing, including the trail and a long list of what to bring, and had the opportunity to hire sleeping bags - a wise decision, given the cold temperatures at the highest camp - before being issued with duffle bags that the porters will carry for us. Regulations state that porters carry no more than 20 kilograms(!), six of which is the hiker's own gear. With a sleeping bag weighing 2.5kg, this left us not a lot of space for clothes and other essential items. If we had packed according to the recommended list, we would be shouldering a good deal of the weight in our day packs.

The cake we finally got to enjoy after the briefing. It probably wasn't the best preparation for one of the world's most famous multi-day hikes, but it tasted so good.