The Clash

Cusco. I know a small handful of people who have been there before, and all came back raving about it. Naturally then, I had to see it all for myself.

It's a beautiful city. It's also full of bars specifically opened for tourists, and its streets are full of people trying to sell you this or that, trying to convince you to go on their tour of the Sacred Valley, trying to get you to eat at their restaurant. Cusco is the stepping-off point for Machu Picchu, so it is used to tourists. Lots and lots of them. At times it almost seems as though it is set up specifically for them. On our days there, we spent a good deal of time wandering here and there, trying to get an understanding of Cusco that went beyond its tourist facade.

We had varying levels of success at different times. At one point we managed to find a great market that was so "authentic" and "local" that it made us both ill, Oliver violently so. (Does it sound like I'm complaining? I'm not! I swear!)

In all our walks, I kept seeing a common theme, and it sort of defined Peru (and later Bolivia) for me: the great clash of civilizations and ideas. Bear with me here. Cusco was the capital of the great Inca Empire, an empire the people of Peru still very much associate with themselves today. When they were Incas, the people of Cusco sat at the very center of (and controlled) an empire that passes through several of today's countries. When the Spanish came in the 1500s, they destroyed that empire and went about converting the people from heathens to Christians. The Spanish even went so far as to tear down the greatest Inca temple of them all and use the stones to build the foundations of a great church. The church still stands today, and the Inca stones at its base can still be seen. Isn't that what the entire world is? Aren't we all a jumble of clashing cultures? Of beliefs and traditions layered over older beliefs and traditions?

(Inca stonework overlooking Franciscan courtyard)

Cusco was beautiful to me because the clash was so obvious - the people have a mix of Indian and Spanish blood in their veins, their streets are a mixture of Inca stonework and Spanish colonial architecture. And the clashing isn't over; it's just taken a new form. Hungry for a Big Mac? You can get one at the McDonald's in Plaza de Armas.