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Published: December 2nd 2006
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Cuzco was the capital of the Inca Empire in the centuries before the Spanish conquest around 500 years ago. The city was said to be created in the shape of a Puma, and rivers where diverted to pass through the city. Once the Spanish captured the ruler Atahualpa, much of Cuzco’s Inca gold was paid in ransom to the Spanish. The city faded from its importance as the Spanish set up their capital in Lima.
14/8/2006 - the landing
We where supposed to have an early flight from Lima to Cuzco but things didn’t go to plan and we didn’t make the flight until the early afternoon. The flight itself was quite spectacular as we flew over steep brown hills making up the Andes, in places there where snow capped mountains in the distance. The view was better from the right hand side of the plane since the sun was behind me on that side, but once landing at Cuzco the left side gets a better view of Cuzco, unfortunately I stayed on the right side. I was told that you could see the Plaza on the left side. The plane makes quite sharp turns particularly for a large
plane once near Cuzco.
Upon getting out I broke my altitude record just by stepping out of the plane. We where at 3326m and my chest felt slightly heavy and it was a little hard to breathe, but not too bad. A local with a fake camera was running around all the tourists and pretending to take photos, I’m not sure what was up with that. A coach took us (the group I would do the Inca trek with) to our hotel driving past the Church of Santo Domingo which was once the Inca sun temple and the main square with all its colonial architecture, it was quite awe inspiring seeing these sites for the first time.
26/8/2006 - an afternoon of churches
Once back from the Inca trek and the jungle trip I had a day and a bit left in Cuzco. My first job was to find a hotel for the night, once that was done I had some time left to explore Cuzco.
Building of the Cathedral was started in 1559 and continued for almost 100 years. Blocks from the Inca fortress of Sacsayhuaman where used in its construction. On the outside the
Cathedral looks a bit like a fortress, but there are a lot of things to see inside. Highlights included : Inca stones used to build the cathedral, painting of the last supper with a guinea big as the main meal, statue of black Jesus (the statue became black because of candle smoke) which was said to have saved the city from the 1650 earthquake, the silver alter, carved choir and a painting of Cuzco after the 1650 earthquake. Unfortunately photographs where not permitted inside the cathedral.
Next I visited La Compania (1571), this church is also on the main square, looks great from the outside but not as interesting inside as the cathedral. There is a great view of the plaza from part way up one of the bell towers.
In the evening I caught up with some of the people from the Manu jungle trip, unfortunately I felt really sick after just one Pisco sour and a beer (probably because I hadn’t eaten since breakfast!). On the way back to the hotel saw a fight in the street between some locals.
27/8/2006 - finally a full day in Cuzco
I got up fairly early as
I still had a lot to see, but had to wait till 7am for breakfast. Once that was eaten I set off up the hill towards Sacsayhuaman. At a hill top church there where people doing yoga! Further along the road I took photos of a couple of boys and their Llama and then an old lady and her Llama. Everyone was bringing their Llamas down to the town centre for the tourists it seemed.
Sacsayhuaman is a fortress like structure. It was the site of an Inca rebellion two years after the initial conquest. Manco Inca recaptured the site and laid siege on the Spanish controlled Cuzco. He almost recaptured Cuzco, but the Spanish cavalry drove the Incas out of the fortress to Ollantaytambo. It was still too early to get tickets, so I had to do my touristing without having a ticket. The ruins consist of three zigzag ramparts, the bottom level made of huge stones, much bigger than me! There are a number of gates leading up the ramparts, so I headed up one of these to the top, there is a great view of Cuzco from here, at the main square there was a parade
beginning. Next I visited the small hill opposite the ramparts, there are some carved Inca steps known as the throne of the Inca on this hill. While I was having one last look I was approached by a guide and decided to have a tour for 10 sols. She showed me a snake carved into one of the rocks and also the remains of huge towers on top of the ramparts, I would have missed these without the guide.
I headed to the giant statue of Jesus on a nearby hill. It was surrounded by kids flying kites. From there it was back down towards the plaza to have a look at the parade. Peruvians seem to really love their parades, I think I got to see some sort of parade in almost every city during my trip to Peru.
San Blas was my next destination. First I went past the 12 angled stone. A lot of the houses in Cuzco still have original Inca stonework on the lower level. The block around this stone is very interesting as it contains examples of pre-Inca, Inca, Colonial and Republican stonework all within meters of each other. Some of the
stones had white lines drawn on them, the guide said this was to allow them to be rebuilt if an earthquake crushed one of the walls. I spent a fair bit of time exploring San Blas with its narrow streets and colonial architecture. The church of San Blas has huge alters carved out of wood by local artists.
Next I headed for the church of Santa Clara on the opposite side of the main square. On the way I passed a student protest, everyone was wearing red and there where heaps of flags with Che Guevara’s face on them. There was an old lady dancing in front of the students, and riot police standing close by. The students then started to march, and I continued to Santa Clara, unfortunately it was closed. It has its walls and ceiling covered with mirrors since this attracted the Quechuans (descendents of the Incas) to church in the past.
The temple of the Sun (along with other temples on this site) known as Coricancha was converted into a monastery, including the Church of Santo Domingo, after the conquest. In its Inca times the temple of the Sun had its walls lined with
over a ton of gold, this was all removed and melted by the Spanish. Now the centre of the site has a large colonial courtyard with quite spectacular paintings around its outside walls. Around the courtyard are a number of Inca rooms some reconstructed in recent times. There is only one curved double thickness wall left from the original temple of the Sun. This wall has withstood earthquakes a lot better than the colonial buildings which have had to be rebuilt after the quakes of 1650 and 1950.
I spent the afternoon shopping for souvenirs at the markets. These consist of many small stalls most staffed by older ladies. It was hard not to buy from them all. In some of the stalls the owners where actually working on their crafts such as painting pottery items. I ended up buying more items than planned.
In the evening I was picked up at the hotel and taken to the bus stop for the trip to Puno. On the bus a security guard filmed everyone on board.
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