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Published: April 8th 2014
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Days 48 The Cuzco region truly is the heart and soul of Peru. The city itself is the continent's oldest continuously inhabited city and was the home of the Incas for two centuries before the Spanish built their first capital here. Today Cuzco is a fascinating combination of both cultures. Inca-built walls line the central streets and many of the elegant colonial buildings are built on or around Inca foundations.
Cuzco is high into the Andes at 3,450 m so we hope our time at Colca has given us enough time to acclimatise.
This morning we had an orientation tour of the city where the Plaza de Armas dominates Cuzco's picturesque heart with the cathedral built on top of an Inca palace. We came across an army march past a host of dignitaries in the plaza, we were not sure what for but it was an impressive piece of theatre. Walked around the narrow cobbled streets for several hour an got a very nice feel for the place. The nicest Peruvian city we have been to so far.
In the afternoon we had a guided tour of 4 key Inca ruins in the high hills overlooking Cuzco, the
Saqsayhuaman ceremonial palace, Q'enqu an underground laberanth for ritual & burial ceremonies, Pukapukara ( or Red Fort) an administrative stronghold & Tambomachay, the waterfalls being a sacred site that sustained life. Saqsayhuaman & Tambomachay were the most interesting.
Saqsayhuaman was intended to be a massive ceremonial palace for the Inca kings & nobility & was under construction for many years but never finished once the Spanish arrived. The Inca's hugely outnumbered the Spanish in defending Saqsayhuaman but the Spanish played a waiting game so that when the the summer rains arrived 90% of the defence force were Inca farmers & had to return to their farms to plant new crops to sustain life.
The king & nobility were able to flee with some of their treasures to Matcha picchu but were constantly chased by the Spanish until finally driven into the Amazon jungle.
Saqsayhuaman is colloquially known as sexy woman as that's almost exactly as it's pronounced (pick which photo)
An 11 sided stone is believed to be the foundation stone for the whole complex from which all other stones were precisely fitted around. A similar size stone is believed to be the largest at 130
tonnes. The size of the perimeter indicates it was a massive structure but the 6 mtr foundations indicated it was also planned to be high but there is no record how high or intended. The Inca's used platforms & cylinder rounded granite stones to roll from the nearby quarries. The 2nd & higher level of stones have rounded grip type indentations to somehow leaver into position but it's still unknown how.
The Spaniards believed humans could not have produced the intricacy of the building & therefore destroyed the fort for being evil & not a place to worship demons.
The Tambomachay waterfalls was all about sustaining life. Water still constantly feeds from the still perfectly working architecture with 2 streams frowning from the monument. Ceremonies occurred around sustaining life & if you drank from the left stream you would be lucky in fertility was the right was for luck in eternity.
We are leaving tomorrow without enough time to explore the city itself but we will return after our Inka Trail walk.
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lynni
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Jack's
nice to see it is still there - just hope the food is as good as it was 10 years ago :)