Pisac is such a cute little place. It is a lot quieter than Cusco and has more of a laid back presence where Cusco seemed busier with more people and more events happening. In Pisac the restaurants close at 8:30 or earlier and everything quiets down. In Cusco most places are open to 11 or 12 and there are bars and clubs full of people until the early hours. While Cusco was very touristy in parts the tourists themselves were different than the ones I see walking around Pisac. Here I see so many new age hippy tourists who have a range of strange aesthetics. And you can see the influence these people have on their surroundings. There are coffee shops, classes, workshops and more that are geared toward these people. I wonder what drew these people here and why? Some of the stuff being advertised in the flyers is just wacky. I mean what is this stuff about talking rocks and reconnecting with your womb? No thank you I would rather spend my money on the awesome stalls in the markets. I think my spirit will survive without any cleansing.
The ruins we went to on our first day were great. I can’t remember the name of the site but I loved it. It was much bigger than I thought it was at first glance. I kept finding more as I walked around. Sometimes looking at the ruins and where they are it seems crazy that the Inca were able to build what they did. Just walking on the paths it was steep so how did the Inca manage to carve out cities from the mountain sides without just falling down? Today with heavy machinery this would be difficult but the Incas managed to do it. If these ruins are impressive today then I wonder what they must have been like back when they were whole and full of life. The Spanish must have been impressed when they saw these cities cut into the sides of mountains. It’s a bit mind blowing that anyone could have thought that this civilization was primitive or unsophisticated or not developed. The Spanish thought way too highly of themselves. Talk about having a stick up your ass. Only thing was that Ben almost fell off the ruins. He kept slipping and tripping so I don’t know if we should take near any more cliffs. Might lose him otherwise.
“I think my spirit will survive without any cleansing.” In any case, personally I prefer to contaminate myself more and more with strange elements… maybe it’s my baroque side. I think we have both felt that discomfort with new age hippie tourists, and I still don’t know how to position myself in front of them. I asked a local driver how these types of tourists had affected him. He told me that several were simply very entitled (under that façade of purity, I would add) and that they did not respect the place where they were.