Cusco Peru 秘鲁库斯科 – 3/2017 (10)

27-30/3/2017. A luxurious bus carried me from Arequipa to Cusco. The journey took 10 hours, arriving in Cusco early in the morning. I alighted the bus totally rested and fresh. This was the best and most comfortable long-distance bus ride I had ever had.

Cusco sits at 3,400 meters, high enough to cause altitude sickness. The town is sometimes used as a gateway to Machu Picchu. Old colonial buildings dominate the city center, shrouded in the gloomy sky for much of the time I was there. I could feel the old Inca spirit still lingering here.

On my last night in Cusco, I wandered around, trying to take in a little bit more of this mystical place. The night was dark, wet, and cold. Suddenly I heard drumbeats from a corner of the square, something like the Indian drumbeats in a John Wayne movie, slow and gentle but clear, then a familiar Western tune: “I’d rather be a sparrow than a snail…” A little girl, barely 10, and a young boy, in his early teens, wearing beautiful and colorful traditional Peruvian costumes, each played two musical instruments. The drum started to beat, the flute’s sorrow tone then took the lead, the sounds combining to unleashed an innermost emotion that had been bottled up in me. This was really an evening that was both soulful and sorrowful. Something tugged at my heartstrings. Just the right kind of mood music. Before they barely finished the first song, the administration personnel chased them away. So went my mood.

27-30/3/2017 – 乘豪华大巴离开阿雷奇帕, 十小时路程，凌晨到库斯科。这坐位比飞机商务舱还舒适，虽没完全横躺着，却能让全身伸展，不累及腰背，抵达后精神饱满，马上开始游览。

库斯科海拔三千四米，足够感觉到高原症。游客经常从这里准备上攻马丘比丘。市中心都是殖民时代的建筑，天气湿冷，阴沉的天气笼罩全镇，我不禁感觉有如先魂不散，好像古印加的魂灵犹在。

在库斯科最后一晚, 我希望尽兴才走，所以无孔不入的到处溜达。这是个夜黑风高，又湿又冷又缺氧的夜晚，我在中央广场一角落，上下徘徊，忽然听到一阵鼓声，柔弱的，不快不急，跟着伤感的笛声打破沉寂，空气中飘来耳熟能详名歌；小个小女孩和年轻同伴，穿了很美的民族服装，眼看就是印加也是秘鲁的化身，各弹奏两乐器，有如听到二胡弹出梁祝，弹出人生凄凉和苦难的故事。歌快弹完之际，城管一声哨声就中断了优美的乐声。这样的时刻真没必要管。这故事很忧伤， 但很感人，我遗憾没听完那故事。