Cusco
Cusco has been our base before, in between and after our two treks for a total of seven nights. Tonight we head off again on an overnight bus to Arequipa, the second biggest city in Peru. Cuscos´centre around the main plazas is a tourist hub with a dizzying selection of adventure/trekking companies, restaurants and market stalls. A single small doorway to the cobbled street often leads to a maze of stalls and shops selling traditional craft. The original Cusco city layout at the time of the Inca empire was shaped in the form of a puma. Even today some of the buildings around the city centre incoporate some of the original inca stone walls into their structures. A few blocks away from the clean city centre, the suburbs revert to a massive sprawl that clearly displays the poverty of the country. The railway line, roads and rivers are strewn with litter which is a depressing sight. We hear the argument that for people barely making a living from day to day, litter is not high on the priority list. I am convinced otherwise as the bulk of the rural population is completely dependent on the ground and water supply, and the litter contaminates these and is a risk to the domestic livestock, and can not be assisting with the massive tourist potential. It is a dilemma how to solve the issue, and I guess easy for us to judge coming from a first world country.
Cusco has been our base before, in between and after our two treks for a total of seven nights. Tonight we head off again on an overnight bus to Arequipa, the second biggest city in Peru. Cuscos´centre around the main plazas is a tourist hub with a dizzying selection of adventure/trekking companies, restaurants and market stalls. A single small doorway to the cobbled street often leads to a maze of stalls and shops selling traditional craft. The original Cusco city layout at the time of the Inca empire was shaped in the form of a puma. Even today some of the buildings around the city centre incoporate some of the original inca stone walls into their structures. A few blocks away from the clean city centre, the suburbs revert to a massive sprawl that clearly displays the poverty of the country. The railway line, roads and rivers are strewn with litter which is a depressing sight. We hear the argument that for people barely making a living from day to day, litter is not high on the priority list. I am convinced otherwise as the bulk of the rural population is completely dependent on the ground and water supply, and the litter contaminates these and is a risk to the domestic livestock, and can not be assisting with the massive tourist potential. It is a dilemma how to solve the issue, and I guess easy for us to judge coming from a first world country.