Cuzco

Photo by Tony Hoffman

The biggest regret I have about the whole trip is that we were unable to spend another day in Cuzco.  We arrrived toward evening on Wednesday, spent the next morning touring the Qorikancha, then a few hours to wander around on our own.  Because of the travel and rigors of the previous days, coupled with the high altitude (11,200 feet) we were starting to get worn out and so after walking through the Plaza de Armas and shopping around a bit, we elected to return to the hotel for a nap and bit of a rest.  It would have been nice to have a little more time to explore the sights and markets at a more leisurely pace.

Still, we had a good time!

Our hotel, the Palacio del Inka was a very nice place, with excellent service.  It occupies a former palace of one of the earliest conquistadores, either Pizarro himself or one of his brothers. Some of its walls are original to the Incas.

Supposedly, Cuzco was laid out in the shape of a puma, or cougar.  This early map shows this theory with the fortress at Sacsahuaman being the head.  The puma, along with the serpent and condor, were the three main animals in the Inca pantheon of Spirits.

A typical street in the older part of Cuzco showing the Inca base wall of finely fitted stones and the Spanish construction above.  There was an earthquake in 1950 that destroyed about a third of all buildings in Cuzco.  The Spanish construction suffered greatly, but the Inca portions survived mostly intact.

Another Tony photo.

This is the famous stone with twelve angles!  Count them.  Look how perfectly the adjoining stones fit.

Here's a good example of a weep hole and drainage channel on a retaining wall.

Self-portraits at the Plaza de Armas.  We did a little shopping here and once we stopped to buy something we were besieged by other merchants!  One gal followed us for over a block trying to get us to buy something from her.

Siesta time!  photo courtesy of Tony!

The view out of our hotel window.  The window was a double pane that when shut and secured you could barely hear the cars and buses.

Another view of the Inca masonry.  The edges of the blocks are beveled so that rain flowing down the wall will drip off the edge to the block below and not seep between the stones where it might freeze during cold winter nights and eventually lead to cracking.  Those Inca builders were not dumb!

Besides their lust for gold, one of the things that the Spanish brought was Christianity, specifically Roman Catholicism.  In their efforts to subjugate the Inca and other native people they demolished the Inca temples and sacred spots and erected their churches and convents over them, often using the Inca walls as foundations for their own edifices.

A quick note about the name of the city:  Cuzco is the Spanish spelling of the original Quechua word Qusqu or Qosqo.  It is also seen spelled as Cusco by Peruvians.