Cusco

We finally got to Cusco which was the Inca capital of South America. We started with a "Behind the Scenes" tour. The first thing was a visit from an Andean Shaman. He was very interesting and only 46!

He is the local healer for his village as he is skilled with medicinal plants and also delivers babies for women in the remote regions of the Andes. He came to do a blessing/offering for us. He placed a bunch of symbolic stuff in a pile and we placed some coca leaves in it.

We thought this looked like
something Claire would put together

He then wrapped it up, blessed us with it, and then was going to take it and burn it as an offering to the Picchu or mountain gods (and the Catholic God to keep things cool with the church). Apparently this is one of the few surviving pieces of Incan culture left.

After the Shaman we went to the local cemetery. It was crazy over the top. Our guide Hector told us about how expensive funerals and maintaining the sites were. It seemed absolutely insane. Whenever I see stuff like this it makes me want to be cremated and very grateful for my personal beliefs about the afterlife.

Hector then took us to the local market (for the people who live in Cusco) and were able to try the local bread and do a bit of shopping.

The last stop was a restaurant where we had a cooking demonstration and another Peruvian lunch. Our waiter was an artist in his last year of art school. I really liked his work so I bought a couple of pieces.

After lunch we were stopped at the hotel for about 40 minutes to take a breather and were off again. Our next stop for the day was Sacsayhuaman (or sexy woman as Hector told us). Cusco was designed in the shape of a Puma, which represents life on earth and great power. Sacsayhuaman is the head of this Puma. It is told to be one of the most mysterious sites of human construction with the Pyramids and Stonehenge. Hector believes it was constructed as a monument to Incan power and is supposed to be a prime example of Incan architecture. It is as impressive as it is beautiful.

The last stop of the day was at the main cathedral in Cusco which was built on top of the Incan Sun Temple. This was the biggest and most important temple in the entire empire, which was probably why it was chosen as the site for the Cathedral. The whole temple was allegedly covered in gold. Apparently the Incas saw gold as decoration only and were a bit confused as to why the Spanish were so interested in it. The Spanish were unable to destroy the temple completely and instead plastered over the walls. In 1950 there was a massive earthquake which brought the plaster down and the walls have since been cleaned so we can enjoy how amazing they are. This area is plagued by earthquakes and Hector believes that the purpose behind the amazing Incan architecture was to withstand those earthquakes, which is fairly self evident as they sustained very little damage in the earthquake as everything else was crumbling around it.

I like this picture because you see the
contrast between the Incas and the Catholics

We also toured the church which was crazy opulent. It was said that in the colonial times gold was almost worthless because there was so much of it. That is obvious as so much of the church is covered in gold. Hector also pulled no punches in telling us about what he thinks of the Catholic culture in the area. The funniest part was that he also insisted that he was Catholic. I don't get it.
After the temple were had about 90 minutes to shop and I was able to get everything I had missed along the way. That night we had more Peruvian food and I was able to eat alpaca. It was actually good and quite mild. After dinner I totally crashed, especially since I was still sore from our hike yesterday.