From Lima to Cuzco.. Thousand colors, thousand emotions
Autumn of 2003 ... before that time and even after I have traveled a lot .. but if someone ask me which place in absolute and 'tops the list of my preferences, which place has left indelible traces in me .. I would not have doubts: Macchu Picchu
My trip to peru and 'the first alone, are excited and also a little worried: and' my first experience in Latin America. But I'm studying the history of the Incas and Peru, and 'my dream.
The trip departs from Milan via Zurich to Miami and then arrive in the Peruvian capital, Lima Delta.
Lima and 'impressive, giant: the metropolitan area and' infinite. From peru I learned one thing: NEVER NEVER trust that they too of rumors and prejudice of those who in one place and there 'never was.
Painted like a hell of hot, disorganization and imminent danger, Lima, however, and 'open to me as well', with its many problems but also its beauty.
La Plaza de Armas, the Palace of Government, the monastery of San Antonio with the catacombs of the first indigenous peoples, the districts of Miraflores with its villas and its beautiful tree-lined avenues, San Isidro with bars on the Pacific Ocean, the museums of 'Oro (with all the wealth .. the few Spaniards who have not melted and brought to Europe) and the Anthropological Museum (with the fascinating history of this people, the Inca empire, the largest of all Latin America).
I leave I go to Lima and Arequipa, the white city, the three giant volcanoes accrrchiano the overhang. The earthquake a few years ago has left obvious signs that but beautiful. I know Veronika, a Peruvian girl and other children in Australia spend beautiful days around the city and then with the Pilar Judah we are in the Colca Canyon to the spa town of Chivay.
The lunar landscape and 'fabulous, the warm bath in the mountains and the highest point, the Cruz del Condor, where the condors are to nest.
From here in Cuzco: passing through the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Here master Arturo, Peruvian who lives in Barcelona, Spain, and that makes me know people with specific market of Pisac and the fantastic leadership of Juan ... Ollantaytambo lunch in a fantastic restaurant ..
After the fantastic tour in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, including the unsolved mysteries and answers left open (the guide Juan has put his create a certain atmosphere of mystery ...)... I decide to visit Cuzco, in the Quechua language means navel.
In fact, for the Incas Cuzco was the navel of the world, the fulcrum, the center of the universe: a Rome of the Incas.
Cuzco and 'beautiful: its streets that climb the mountains, the Andes, with their rugged beauty and majesty' surround Cuzco and 'a more than 3000 meters high ... but after ten days of offshore .. . I had no more trouble to move.
.. Of course not run if his talk, two more steps and you're lying ... gasping in abstinence oxygen!
On the extraordinary de Armas square of Cuzco overlooking beautiful colonial buildings, two splendid churches, a Jesuit (beautiful frescoes on the facade) and a Dominican. It lies a little more north of the house Garcialso de la Vega el Inca, the largest and prestigious mestizo chronicler of the historiography of the Spanish New World.
Further south the Temple of the Sun: Coricancha, where the fierce hand of the Catholic religion has placed large stones ... the goal was to build on the existing most important temple of the Incas, a religious building, a church on the rise here .. rubble of a millennial cult, the Church of San Antonio: the impression of conflict and 'incredible.
From Cuzco you part per thousand trips there the Inca Trail for those who want to do trekking in the "selva alta", or the Inca ruins of Sachsuasam, a place of festivity and celebration, or the neighboring villages of Cincero, with its characteristic market. Never forget 'the eyes of the children of Chinchero, who do not speak Spanish to my questions, replied in Quechua, and the Sunday after the forced boys soccer .... nothing ..
Chinchero of kids go with their families behind the main church of the town to ask forgiveness to god Inti (Sun) if they are "forced" to worship another god .... UNBELIEVABLE ....
the characters I met in Cuzco will not ever forget: wise elderly people who have amazed me for their clairvoyance to me (sometimes I remained a little surprised ...) and the strong attachment to ancient customs, customs that belonged an empire now disappeared.
From Cuzco, I head to Macchu Picchu: here know Cristina and Ana, two girls from Costa Rica, Cuba Pablo, and another lady simpaticissimo Chilean.
visit Machu Picchu, the words can not describe the beauty of these mountains green, you feel immersed in a strong concentration of energy.
Macchu Picchu releases something incotrollabile, an energy that makes everything magical and perhaps unforgettable. the temple of the sun, the house of the Virgin, the wall of wishes, the astronomical table the thousand paths between all the green of the gigantic mountains that overlook the cliffs for the vertigo and the green lawn of the mosquitos .... pinched and hurt ma chi se ne importa ... resist!
I leave my traveling companions, they come back to Cuzco, I stopped in fabulous hostel Rupawasi of Aguas Calientes. Here I know the guy who runs it, Oscar, we become great friends. Today is in Italy to Milan with his wife and 'just became pope.
Council to all this hostel in the peaceful and multicolored tropical Aquas Calientes: The name derives from the sources of hot water that flows north of the village. To bathe them and 'one of the most exciting experiences I have ever tried.
nell 'hostel together prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner, I know a scholar of populations of the forest of English origin (not e0' never went home), a mysterious magician and funny named Antonio and many other characters.
Aquas Calientes leave with heavy heart and a lot of nostalgia .. I feel even now while I write.
for all those who want info on Peru ..
go there and enjoy
Greetings from
Andrea