Cuzco

The first thing we did after breakfast was to go to the Sachsayhuaman ruins. Lynn had trouble with the pronunciation so she kept calling it "sexy woman", which seems to be a popular thing with the tourists. Super Mark and Super Cindy went up to the ruins by foot from Cuzco and the rest of us took a taxi. We found each other at the top of the ruins where we took this picture.



From the construction perspective, Sachsayhuaman is the most impressive of all ruins. Machu Picchu is breathtaking because of the size and location of the ruins and its shear beauty. But Sachsayhuaman has the biggest stones you will ever see in a construction site. The stones are so perfectly put together and bound that you can't put a razor blade in between them. Moreover, the fit is three dimensional. These runins were built as a fortress to protect Cuzco, but people wonder why the Incas decided to build a fortress that required such an amazing amount of labor. Pulling those rocks from their origin must have taken thousands of labor hours and, to this date, there are no modern cranes that can lift some of those rocks.

Notice in the picture how Delphine sneaked on Mike and Lynn's picture. Also notice the size of the stones in the pictures. Some stones are about three times as high as a person and 15 feet wide or more. Mike and Alberto returned later to take night pictures because they have lights, but it appears that they had some electrical problems and they shut the lights early that night. Bummer!!





We then returned to the center of Cuzco and walked over to the San Blas area, which is a beautiful part of town with a little plaza and church at the top of the hill.








There are several cafes, shops and restaurants in this area. We found a coca shop where you can buy coca gum, tea, candy, leaves to chew, etc.

We then returned to the center of town where Mike and Alberto took this picture from inside the Jesuite church, which is very old and beautiful. The Town Hall plaza in Cuzco is a really happening place with restaurants and bars all over the place. We walked for a while and visited the Cathedral, the Jesuit Church, and many other places of interest around the plaza. While we were visiting the Cathedral we spotted Super Mark and Super Cindy enjoying some Cuzquena beer from a second floor balcony at some restaurant at the plaza.

We then re-convened and walk back to the San Blas area to have dinner at Pachapapas, which is an awesome local reasturant. Here Super Mark insisted in drinking Chicha de Jora, which is basically fermented corn juice. The waiter told him that it was too late in the day to drink it and that he would get sick because of the fermentation in his stomach, but this didn't stop Super Mark. He later reported that he felt a little funny that night, but didn't quite get sick. This is when we began to suspect that Mark was a real Inca disguised as a gringo tourist. The vase he is using to drink the Chicha Jora is actually a replica of the vases they used to offer blood to the gods. Seco y volteado, go Mark!!

After visiting museums, the Monasterio Hotel (operating in a real historical monastery) and other places in the area, Mark, Cindy, Delphine and Lynn went to an artistic play at some theater (the local version of Circ du Soleil) and they reported that the show was fantastic. Mike and Alberto stayed at the plaza taking night pictures. We later gathered at the Inka Grill, had some Pisco Sours and went to a local bar called Kamykazi where a local band called Awar Inti played several modern Andean tunes with pan flutes, charangos and other Andean instruments. The band was outstanding and we had a blast. We drank beer for several hours. The tab? about $5 per person. Can't beat that.

The next day we had until early afternoon to tour around, so we split to see and do different things individually. Alberto and Delphine went to the Koricancha temple and Santo Domingo church, which are right across the street from our hotel. This is an interesting temple because it exemplifies how the Spanish built their palaces and temples on top of Inca constructions, where the two types of construction co-exist, like in many other places in Cuzco.


We were then picked up by Viajes Pacifico to take us to the airport. But the airport was closed because of bad weather and there were like 1000 stranded tourists at the airport due to all the flight cancellations. We heard the LAN Peru people explaining to passengers that when there are weather cancellations they are not responsible and that some tourists would probably have to stay 3 or 4 extra days because all flights were fully booked. Miraculously, the sky opened up for a few minutes, our incoming flight which was circling Cuzco was able to land, and we embarked on our flight with only a 30 min delay. This trip really went without a glitch. Except for the traffic in Lima. What a nightmare!!