Peruvian Adventure Day 14 Cusco

Day 14 Cusco

Waking up at the Monestario, was a bit surreal.  

The Monestario Hotel

The Monestario Hotel- last white cedar in Peru

When we left the room, we heard Gregorian chanting.  We assumed that it was coming from the chapel.  Turns out, it was actually a piped in CD, but perfect for the location. Breakfast at the Monestario is an experience.  It was hard to resist the thousands of calories available. So, we didn’t.  We can diet when we get back to NH.  

Our guide, Reuben, picked us up at 8 to try to get a jump on the tourist crowds. We were going to spend a few hours visiting Inca sites outside of the city, and then La cathedral and the Temple of the Sun in Plaza des Armes.

The Monestario Hotel- Our guide for the day, Reuben

It took forever to get out of Cusco, steep, narrow streets, and lots of traffic. Our destination, Saqsaywaman National Park, was high above Cusco, at around 12,000’.

Saqsaywaman Site  ("pronounced sexy woman")

 Quechuan is a bit like Chinese, with slight intonation changes, changing the meaning of words.  The meaning of Saqsaywaman can be either “satisfied falcon”, “head of the mountain lion”, or my favorite- “sexy woman” (that’s not really a definition, but easy way to remember the pronunciation).  During the height of the Incan Empire, the population was estimated to be 13-25 million people.  The people under Incan rule were called “Runa”, but the Spanish changed this to “Qechua”, and the name stuck.  Roads between outlying areas and the capital, Cusco needed to be protected, and way stations for messengers were needed.  According to Inca oral history, Tupac Inca , Pachacutec’s son, remembering that his father called Cusco the lion without a head, decided the "best head would be to make a fortress on a high plateau to the north of the city.”  The Killke people, pre-Incan inhabitants of the area had already built on this hill beginning as early as the 10th century., so Tupaq merely expanded on it.  The fortress was used in 1536 when MancoInca laid siege to Cusco in the rebellion against the Spanish.  It was nearly successful, but Pisaro stormed the complex and massacred the rebels.

The stones used in the project were massive, some estimated at around 200 metric tons (4,400 lbs.).  The stones were rough cut at the quarry, then dragged with ropes by hundreds of workers. The Incan society involved the concept of “Mita”, service to the state, in return for which the State provided food and protection.  All non-nobility either farmed, or worked for the State.  Consequently, these projects had tens of thousands of workers.

Following the siege of Cusco, the Spaniards began to use Sacsayhuamán as a source of stones for building Spanish Cuzco; within a few years, they had taken apart and demolished much of the complex. The site was destroyed block-by-block to build the new Spanish governmental and religious buildings of the colonial city, as well as the houses of the wealthiest Spaniards. 

We stopped briefly at Puca Pucara, a way station for the Inca trail, not too far from the main Saqsaywaman site, and shot a few pictures.  During Inca times, Puca Pucara was located on the road that lead to the Antisuyo province (bordering the jungle) of the Inca Empire. Historians believe that it was used as a guard post that protected access to Cusco from the marauding tribes of the Amazonian east. 

Puca Pucara- Inca way station

Puca Pucara- Inca way station

Puca Pucara- Inca way station

Q’Enqo, a site thought to be used for human sacrifice.  Human sacrifice was rare in the Incan culture, reserved for times when Viracocha, the god of gods, was really angry, like during an earthquake, drought, flood, etc.  The sacrifice was generally heavily drugged prior to being put to death by having their heart cut out or some other gruesome technique.  Being a virgin ain’t all that it’s cracked up to be. 

Site of human sacrifices

Altar

Jeri made it out alive

From Q'Enqo, we had a great bird's eye view of Cusco.  

Aerial view of Cusco

Prominent features were the soccer stadium (soccer is huge here.  Peru is going to the World Cup in Moscow and Peruvians are going insane),

Cusco soccer stadium

and the airport right in the middle of the city.

Airport mid city

At this point we needed a bathroom, so Reuben brought us to an alpaca woolens factory outlet nearby.  Big mistake. We had to have been there over an hour, with the ladies all buying sweaters and scarves.  Dave S. got off easy, because Molly had come down with a a bad cold and stayed at the hotel to rest.

This had taken up a fair bit of our morning, and we still had the Plaza des Armes to explore.

Driving back into Cusco we were struck by the steepness and narrowness of the roads. This is not a city in which I would like to drive, especially without insurance.  

Kids at play in middle of steep street

La Catedral on the Plaza des Armes, the cathedral, like many other churches built by the early Spanish, was built was on the site of Viracocha Inca’s palace using blocks repurposed from Saqsaywaman. 

La Catedral

Construction began in 1559 and took almost a century. It is renaissance style and has  many paintings from the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^thcenturies adorning the walls.  There is an interesting “Last Supper” that is uniquely Peruvian, with Jesus and the Apostles drinking “chicha”, and dining on “cuy” (guinea pig).  No photos, sorry, not allowed.  

At the southern end of the Plaza is the Temple of the Sun or Qoricancha and the church Santo Domingo.  

Temple of the Sun

The Spanish built this church on top of the Incan Temple of the Sun, a huge temple housing perhaps as many as 4,000 high ranking priests dedicated to sun worship (I wonder how much skin cancer occurred).  The walls were covered with gold plates and the Spanish looted it thoroughly.  One conquistador drew pictures of the gold wall coverings allowing us to have an idea of the actual content (before they were melted down).  

There were displays here as well showing how the Incas joined the massive blocks in their construction.  The Spanish construction was shoddy compared to that of the Incas, and as in many other areas, earthquakes destroyed the Spanish walls, leaving the Incan temple walls intact.  

Inca Legos

Stone connections

We returned to the Monestario around 2 with plans to find a 2-hr. laundry and get some clean clothes before leaving for Lake Titicaca.  Dave S., Rich, Suzie, Jeri, and I left our 5+star hotel carrying huge, full laundry bags, and began walking down the street looking for a laundry our guide had recommended.  We passed several sketchy “2-hr” laundry places, but we were determined to find the “good one”.  Never happened.  We walked up and down the streets, finally deciding to try any available service. They were all 3 or 4 times the cost of the laundry we used after the Amazon, and none could get it back to us tonight (we were leaving for Lake Titicaca at first light).  After about a mile of schlepping our dirty laundry around, we dejectedly returned to the Monestario.  Dave started discussing our problem with the concierge (who I think wanted nothing more than to get these crazy Americans with dirty laundry out of his hotel entryway) and finally negotiated with him a reasonable price for all our laundry to be done by the hotel.  Paying piecemeal for the hotel laundry would have been more expensive than last night’s dinner.  Pays to have a good negotiator (as well as Sherpa) along on a trip like this. Turns out that on Saturdays, the laundries in Cusco only work a half-day, which is why no one was able to get us our laundry until tomorrow.  By the time we returned from dinner, our laundry was cleaned and in our rooms.