Peru Part II - Cusco

Okay, back to the blogging...

After Lima, we were off to Cusco for a couple of days before making the trek up to Machu Picchu. Cusco is possibly to most popular tourist city in Peru, and it was easy to see why: Around 3400 m (over 2 miles) above sea level, Cusco is a beautiful place with crystal clear skies and none of the pollution seen in Lima down on the coast.

We had an early morning flight into town, over the Andes, and when we arrived in Cusco, we noticed pretty much right away how the difference in altitude affects your breathing in the thin mountain air. It probably didn't help that the elevator in our hotel (an nice little place right off the main town square) was out and we had to lug our bags up 4 flights of stairs.

After getting settled in, we met up with a tour guide for a tour of the Incan ruins above the city. This started out with a bit of an adventure, as the guide we arranged our tour with sent someone else in his place, and the guy he sent didn't speak any English. After about a half an hour we sorted it out and our original guide arranged for another woman to come and give us a tour. Everything worked out, but it was another lesson on being careful what you buy in foreign countries... you never know what you're going to get.

Anyways, we toured the ruins, including Sacsayhuaman, (pronounced like "sexy woman"), Qénqo, and the temple for Pachamama, "Mother Earth". It was all very impressive; the structures will built with giant stones that fit each other perfectly, with no mortar used to hold the stones together, and they've stood for hundreds of years, through wars, earthquakes and weather, and they're still there. Not only is the durability of the structures impressive, but when you think that they didn't really have any tools other than maybe chisels, it's amazing to think the amount of work required to make them.

We had two nights and one more day in Cusco, and we used that time to eat some nice local food, including grilled alpaca (tastes like chicken) and more ceviche, and see other sights in town like the old cathedral, the main square and the Temple Of The Sun. When the Spanish arrived in the 1500's, they tried to tear down the Temple Of The Sun, but found it was too well made and the stones were too difficult to move, so they just built a catholic church on top of it. During an earthquake in the 1960's, most of the church was destroyed, but the Incan temple remained entirely intact, except for one corner of the structure, which was only damaged when part of the Spanish church collapsed on it.

Our time in Cusco was really nice, and while we were sad to go, we were also excited to be off to Machu Picchu for the next leg of the trip. More on that next....

Here are a couple of pictures for now. We'll post some more soon.