The major downside of our AirBNB’s location at the northwest corner of Cusco was the challenge of getting there with our bikes and luggage. But now settled in, we could take advantage of the upside: every walk to anywhere would “force” us to explore the historic area’s now-charming narrow lanes and hidden stairways that had been our enemies on the way in. Most times we would head southeast and down, but we made one trip in the opposite direction, up to the Inca fortress of Saksaywaman, which our place literally lied in the shadow of.
The view from the street-door of our AirBNB, looking down and back up the Instagram-destination of “Calle 7 Borreguitos”. It’s about 25 steps down from our AirBNB (half inside the property), and then 82 back up.Many of the narrow lanes in this part of Cusco are lined with potted plants, but Calle 7 Borreguitos takes it to another level. They give something to look at when stopping to catch your breath, which even we need to do despite being fully-acclimated to the 11,400 ft. elevation. Pity all the newly-arrived tourists!Oops, turn the corner, and there are a lot more stairs to climb! All of these are what we would have had to bring our bikes (and bags) down if we’d taken the 0.1-mile shortcut to our AirBNB rather than the 1.5-mile roundabout. It might have been faster, but probably not easier!Looking back down on the Spanish-tiled roofs of Cusco’s historic center.
Even though we had glimpsed the absolutely massive stones of Saksaywaman’s walls on our ride down into Cusco, I was expecting that a closer visit would reveal to us that we had reached our fill of Inca ruins. But with it being so close, and included in our already-purchased Boleto Turistico (Cusco Tourist Ticket), we were obligated to go. Which gave it the opportunity to surprise us, and find a rank in our top-tier with Machu Picchu and Pisac.
Only Ollantaytambo had some stones that came close to the size of the massive bulging marshmallows that make up the main walls of the fortress, but the walls here cover a far-greater distance. And beyond those walls, the variety of other “scenes” at the site rivaled Pisac, but compressed into a much-smaller area.
The massive walls of Saksaywaman, and the Peruvian Coat of Arms inscribed on the hillside on the opposite side of Cusco.The stones at Saksaywaman are so huge, with the joint-lines so visible, that they actually start to take on a cartoon-like quality, like something you might see at “Inca Quest: The Ride”, opening May 2026 exclusively at Universal Studios: Orlando!Even the “gates” at Saksaywaman are super-sized; previous gateways we’ve passed through have been about the size of modern doorways, and this one is nearly twice that size!A good view back down to the historic center of Cusco, and the churches on the Plaza de Armas.From atop the main fortress at Saksaywaman, another giant rock rises across the flat lawn. There, we could see the classic Inca stonework was just a relatively-thin facade that had been layered in front of rougher stone walls, perhaps suggesting a previous culture did most of the construction work? A view back to the main fortress of Saksaywaman, where the dual-sawtooth pattern of the walls becomes visible.And then, there are these “rock slides”, just for something totally different!At one of the farthest reaches of the site (so far that when we returned, a guard asked for our tickets to make sure we hadn’t just snuck in from the unfenced highway), yet another huge rock, this one carved with Escher-like stairs.Rett sits on an Inca throne. Or, was this giant boulder just used as an on-site quarry, and what we see as a throne is just the negative space created from chiseling out square blocks to be used elsewhere?Oh, and is there a whole network of caves/tunnels you can walk through too? You bet there is! (this was Rett’s favorite section).Just this year, archeologists announced that they had discovered an underground tunnel (much more extensive than the ones above) that seems to connect Saksaywaman to Qorikancha, all the way in the center of Cusco. We saw a couple of tents pitched near the newly-discovered tunnel entrance. Nearby, archeologists were setting up a line of these electrified spikes, at least 50m long, presumably to search for hints of other underground passages. So it was cool to see active research being conducted.Rett returns to the ramparts of Saksaywaman.It seems when they were constructing the walls of Saksaywaman, the Incas decided “hey, instead of having 21st-century humans marvel at the precision of our joints, how about we get them to marvel at how the hell we dragged these massive stones here?”Seen from Saksaywaman, our AirBNB is centered at the bottom of the frame.As we were wandering in a part of Saksaywaman where no one else goes, we accidentally flushed out this “rabbit”, who then went on an insane high-speed 100-meter sprint around the lawn (here in front of a repository of misplaced Inca stones), unlike any rabbit I’ve ever seen. Turns out that’s because it’s a “European hare” (yes, imported/invasive), and long fast runs are apparently their thing. A sexy woman at Saksaywaman.
Once we got our fill at Saksaywaman, we took a trail up past nearby Cristo Blanco (a giant concrete Jesus that looks down on Cusco), and then continued up the highway to the Q’enco Archeological Complex (also included in our ticket). This was the one that showed that we’d reached our fill of Inca ruins, but even here, the centerpiece was something unique and worthwhile that we hadn’t seen elsewhere: an underground space large enough to contain a carved stone “altar”.
Viewing the underground “altar” at Q’enco, feeling very much like Indiana Jones.
For Cusqueñas, the neighboring eucalyptus forest was perhaps the bigger attraction; several photo sessions with fancy-dressed people were going on under the shade of the widely-spaced mature trees. This makes a lot of sense, because neither eucalyptus trees, or even “forests”, are native to the Andes, so it’s actually a rarer environment than old stone buildings built by a lost civilization!
Descending one of the many steep stairways that are the only way to re-enter Cusco from the north. On our way down we encountered an exhausted/exasperated couple hauling their heavy luggage up to their accommodation. It showed that our challenging initial entry into town really wasn’t too bad!After our long walking tour above Cusco, we dropped into Solara Coffee & Sandwich Bar, where sandwich-averse Rett had trouble getting something to eat, but patience and humor from the host, as well as his cocktail creations, made it all better.Inside Solara’s courtyard. It’s a relatively new business started by an Israeli guy and his Peruvian wife. As the four of us shared shots and conversation before leaving, they reported that they had noticed a dropoff in business related to the disruptions at Machu Picchu, directly proving the “value” of such protests!
Another disadvantage of our otherwise-excellent AirBNB is that it doesn’t include a washing machine. But Cusco has the highest density of “lavanderias” we’ve seen in any Peruvian city, so we didn’t need to walk far with our bags of dirty clothes. It seems that small shop owners have discovered that many tourists stay based in the city long enough to need to do a load, and so the entrepreneurs just buy a washer (and maybe even a dryer!) and squeeze them into their shop somewhere. That was the setup of the place nearest to us, where they weighed our laundry (S/5 per kilo) on the same scale used to weigh purchased fruit.
A visual explanation of why it was so difficult to navigate the “streets” of historic Cusco with our wide and heavy bikes.
A couple nights later, we punched the last hole that we would punch on our Boleto Turisticos (leaving just some supposedly-crappy museums unvisited), with something completely different: a walk down to a theater to see a music-and-dance performance showcasing a variety of traditional dances from the Cusco region. It wasn’t nearly as cool as stumbling onto a traditional dance in a small village and being invited to join in, but it was surprisingly entertaining.
On the steep and narrow streets of Cusco’s historic center, there are generally few enough cars willing to take on the challenges, so pedestrians usually are free to make a choice between walking up/down stairs, or ramps (each has their own pros and cons).The dancers were fun, but the guitar-orchestra backing them was a big part of the entertainment too. An emcee over the PA would give some explanation for the various dances, which is one thing I wish we had when we stumbled on the dance happening in Izcuchaca!The full moon rises over Qorikancha, an Inca/Christian amalgamation, where supposedly a tunnel runs from Saksaywaman.Several dozen more of Cusco’s ubiquitous stairs. They’re exhausting, but contribute deeply to the untouchable atmosphere of the city.
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