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Published: August 27th 2012
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We arrived at the bus station in Cuzco at 5:45 am, 15 minutes before our scheduled arrival time. The person who was to transfer us to our hotel was nowhere in sight. So we waited ... and waited ... and waited until I was more than a little grumpy.
I called our travel agent in Lima at 6:30 am who, much to my surprise, answered his phone. Thank goodness we had bought a Peruvian cellphone sim card for our phone! Shortly after 7 am we were greeted by a very animated woman full of apologies and she escorted us to our Hotel. We decided a five minute sleep would ease our post travel sluggishness ... (quiet snoring sounds) ... and at 11.00 am we roused ourselves, had a shower and headed out for some brunch feeling refreshed.
Our city tour started at the Cathedral. The Cathedral was built on the site of an Inca temple and the stones from this temple and other Inca sites were reused to build the Cathedral. This was common practice by the Spaniards at that time for two reasons; to reuse the existing sites and materials, and to replace the Inca places of worship
with Catholic churches.
The local guide highlighted some of the paintings by local artisans which incorporated aspects of the Inca belief system and local imagery. Some of the subtleties included painting the Virgin Mary in the shape of a mountain, a pregnant Mary, and many paintings with pumas, condors, snakes and llamas.
Near to the Cathedral is Qorikancha (Intiwasa or Sun Temple), the partial remains of an Inca temple that was converted by the Spaniards into a monastery. The guide highlighted the fine stonework with huge perfectly fitting, multi-angled stones put together with no mortar. Incan structures constructed using this method, which is still not able to be replicated by modern man, have withstood many earthquakes. Also he explained that wherever there is mortar, it is stonework constructed in the time of the Spaniards or later.
Sacsayhuaman (the guides pronounce it “sexy woman”!!) is the remains of a huge Inca temple. It was decimated by the Spaniards with much of the stone being carried away for other purposes. It is said to represent the puma. The two things that really impressed me at Sacsayhuaman were the sheer scale and the precision of the stone work. How did
they do it??
We visited a couple of minor sites; Tambomachay aqueduct and fountain where the water travels from 7 kilometres away and Qenko which is a rocky outcrop which was used for religious and sacrificial purposes by the Inca’s. Eileen said Qenko had “a very uncomfortable feel” and she was happy to leave.
Eileen is very keen to try local dishes wherever we travel so at the end of the tour she asked our guide to recommend a place to try “cuy”. He recommended and escorted us to a restaurant where he is a regular and just before he went home he organised a free pisco sour for us. Our baked “cuy” (guinea pig) was bony but very tasty (yum!) I would recommend if you visit Peru that you give it a try.
During our stay we visited the very forgettable modern art gallery and Museo Inka which, to my disappointment, did not have any examples of Incan gold or silver work.
On one of our evenings we enjoyed a meal at the ‘highest Irish pub in the world’. Eileen had ‘Shepherd’s Pie’ and I had the ‘all day breakfast’, both were very good. It
was a nice change to eat good ‘western style food’ at a very reasonable price; two tequila sunrises and the meals for NZ$25.
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