Up until now there has been sporadic talk of the Incas throughout our trip. Armando will mention in passing that a building is from the Inca times, or you can see the partial rock face as being an original Inca component of a structure, or noticing the shape of the puma on cliff edges, and of course the theories of how the Incas created the Nazca lines. It’s not till now reaching Cusco, the Inca Capital, that we are getting into the depths of their history. The Inca people were mysteriously forward thinking – they designed buildings in a trapezoidal shape to minimise the impact of seismic activity, and they were able to slice oversized rocks to fit pieces so that mortar or the like was not required (the slicing done with something equivalent to a diamond cutter that clearly didn’t exist, or did it?).
Wandering through Cusco town we learnt about the Inca Kings, who were considered the sons of the sun. When a King would die, children were often sacrificed and buried with them with pottery, always in the foetal position facing east in the direction of the rising sun. ‘Pacha Mama’ or Mother Earth was also held in high regard by the locals who would pray to her for good weather for crops. The Inca Empire was short-lived, lasting about 100 years in their peak spread, and quickly dissolving with the invasion of the Spaniards in 1533. It was not clear how they dissolved – some say drought moved them out of their ‘conquered’ regions.
Linked strongly to Peru’s heritage is also the coca leaf, which we’ve already been drinking in tea form to assist with acclimatising, but was also used as part of ancient remedies to treat illness. The reputation of the coca leaf was severely impacted when the UN declared it a drug, due to it being a component of the drug cocaine. However, we learnt at the coca museum in Cusco that you would need 150 leaves in your mouth at once to feel any drug side effect, hence why Peru and Bolivia still use coca leaves and deem it legal.
To top off the day we wandered through the crazy San Pedro Markets, where local foods are on display such as the yuca from the potato family, the sweet lucuma fruit half way between a pear and a mango which is exclusive to the Andean region, the sweet cucumber known as pepino, and cherimoya fruit… not to mention the ever popular and spoken about ‘chica’ corn. I will mention though that we tried the Cusco delicacy of guinea pig tonight which was slightly disappointing… But nonetheless, I love that food is as much a part of the Peruvian culture and history as anything else!