Blogs from Cusco, Peru, South America - page 2

This morning, we left Puno behind for another day of travel. Our destination was Cuzco, and all the Inca wonders associated with the area. Not long after leaving Puno we had the dubious pleasure of driving through Juliaca, which we were told was the ugliest city in Peru. The reason for this seems to be that the residents have, for generations, dedicated themselves to the pursuit of money by embracing the black market in all its forms. Apparently, they specialize in creating fake luxury label items of every kind. But none of the profits are being used for infrastructure or improving the city, which remains mostly a place of dirty roads and unremarkable architecture. The main event of the day was the stop at the ruins of the Temple of Viracocha who was one of the ... read more

Read my article about Choquequirao on Matador Network ! The most important things to know about Choquequirao are that it is much bigger than Machu Picchu and that the trail to get there is very steep and has significant elevation change. (This blog and many more photos are on my website https://heatherjasper.com ). The Choquequirao ruins are all of the things you want in an archeological site: beautiful, mysterious, extensive, unique, fascinating, etc. They have been classified successively as a fortress, a ceremonial center, a city and the last residence of the Inca. In my opinion, the most important aspect is that they were never discovered by the Spanish during the decades of conquest. I was very disappointed to hear from local families that they have be... read more

http://www.heygo.com 26th February - Chincheros Incas Textile Techniques. Another trip I didn’t want to miss, these virtual trips are often more than one date but I had missed out earlier and just by chance managed to book one thus afternoon. To the Incas gold was merely an adornment. Far more valuable were their alpacas, Vicuña which produced an ultra-soft fleece that they wove into clothing, rugs and tapestries. These textiles – not gold – were used as currency throughout the empire. Soldiers and high-ranking officials were paid in alpaca garments, and clothing woven from vicuña wool was so highly prized that only members of the royal family were allowed to wear it. The Inca had developed this ultra-fine fleece through centuries of selective breeding. They culled all but the best male alpacas and separated vicuñas and ... read more

After writing for almost a year about other people having Covid, I now have the opportunity to give a first person account of having Covid in Cusco. Thankfully, I had a very mild case. I had a fever for two days and a slight cough the third day after the fever was gone. Unfortunately, the person who brought it to my home was so sick that I had to play nurse for about a week, before a family member could come get him. I’ve done the contact tracing, which goes from my houseguest-turned-patient to his family, who live in a small town in the Sacred Valley. When I first realized that this was probably Covid, I found a list online of places in Cusco that supposedly can test for Covid. Of the 57 places listed, I ... read more

Sunday, 20 December, 2020 Hatun Q’ero is about a six hour drive from Cusco, which is why we asked the mayor of Paucartambo to send transportation that could pick us up at 5am. The night before he had sent a large truck to pick up twenty desks which were generously donated by the school where Henry’s sister teaches. Of course, the school has been closed all year due to the pandemic, so nobody has gotten to use these desks in 2020. All of the villages of the Q’ero Nation are part of the district of Paucartambo. Last Sunday, Sofia, who works in the Paucartambo’s mayor’s office, organized everything for our visit to Japu. Unfortunately, she was not available this weekend and we didn’t have anybody like her to help everything go according to plan. We were ... read more