We flew out of Guayaquil early in the morning for Lima on Monday, Oct. 14. The flight was over the ocean and very smooth. As we descended into Lima we could see all sorts of fishing boats at anchor. The airport is reasonably sized. We were able to buy a Peru cup at Starbucks before our connecting flight to Cusco. We noticed the difference of 11,200 ft as we deplaned. Our hostel, Tayta Wasi is nice and clean but chilly as there is no heating, which is typical, but our showers are hot and the bed has two heavy wool blankets and a quilt. It is like lying under the lead cover they put on when you are getting x-rays at the dentist, but once you warm up it is quite toasty.
Tuesday afternoon we booked a tour of sites around Cusco. The first stop was La Catedral, a hugh cathedral built over the Inca Palace of Viracocha, to impress the conquered Incas with how mighty and powerful the Spanish were. Some of the not so suitable jabs at the Incas are present in some of the art work. A large painting depicting the Last Supper by a Quechua artist shows Jesus and the apostles dining on cuy or guinea pig. Everyone has light skin except Judas. This was required by the bishop who commissioned the Qhechua artist. Another painting of St. Thomas shows him trampling Incas with his horse. The many of the altars are covered in 18 karat gold leaf or silver.
Our next stop was Qorikancha, an Inca site near the cathedral that the Spanish built the Convent of Santo Domingo Del Cusco on top of. The original Inca site was in a square with chambers dedicated to the moon, the stars, the rainbow, etc and housed the mummies of the sacred persons of indigenous peoples they had conquered to show how powerful the Inca were. Only the two opposite sides of the original Inca structure exist and the convent cloisters used the other two sides as foundations and building materials.
After a bus ride up we were at Saqsayhuaman, often pronounced "Sexy Woman". This megalithe site in the shape of a puma, was built of large rocks, some weighing as much as 120 tons that were quarried from a site 5 kilometers away. Two rows of these rocks, fitting together so exact that you can not get a credit card in between, were originally about 7 meters high and formed a lightening bolt about 100 yards long. Rich and I slowly climbed to the top of the site with a beautiful view of Cusco. Saqsayhuaman was also the site of the famous battle between the Inca and the Spanish, where the Spanish victory marked the end of the Inca empire.
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