Cusco City Tour
Over our many trips, I have noticed a strikingly high correlation between the time the hotel closes the restaurant for breakfast and when certain members of Roberts family wake up in the morning. Not to say there is any specific link (coincidence is always a possibility, however remote), but something worth further study, maybe as a research project for some enterprising statistics major.
Anyway, after emerging into the sunshine just shy of noon, we set of in search of a tour of the sights around Cusco (conveniently, the only one that hasn’t started hours ago). I figured a “city tour” would take us places like the major churches, plazas, and other notable buildings, but we’re in for a treat as the focus is all on what was here before the Spanish arrived. While Machu Picchu gets all of the PR, we soon find that there are a host of equally important stops both in and around the Cusco.
Right in the heart of the city is a former complex called Qurikancha. It was partially destroyed and rebuilt as a church, but in its time housed the most important temples in the Incan Empire. Then, the walls of many of the buildings would have been covered in silver and gold, but what remains is still very impressive. It is one thing to read about how skilled Incan craftsmen were with stone, but to see firsthand the detail takes it to a whole other level. During a period without mortar or metal tools, the blocks in these buildings fit so tightly together (hundreds of years later in a seismically active area) a playing card wouldn’t fit between them.
Above the city are a series of ruins, each with a different purpose. Tambomachay was a bath complex, with some debate as to whether it was for high ranking citizens of Cusco coming up for a spa day, or visitors to Cusco getting clean before entering what was the holiest city of the time. At 3,765 meters it is the highest place we will visit (despite its impressive perch, Machu Picchu is over 4,000 feet lower), and is the site of Sammy’s first llama hug.
Next up are Puka Pukara (a military outpost/customs depot) and Q’enqo (a religious site where mummification of high ranking officials was carried out). Of course we have many pictures of these as well, but I can’t post everything or I’ll be here all night.
The last site is Sacsayhuaman, considered to be one of the most impressive sites built by the Incas. Here, blocks weighing as much as 300 tonnes are fitted together with mind-boggling precision. They are just rocks, but it feels like I could spend all day just staring at them, imagining the work it took to put them together, and the people that have come and gone since.
Finished with our tour for the day, we stop in for a quick bite to eat. Sam is thrilled to find the home of the Big Max.
Tomorrow we are off on another tour, this time to the Sacred Valley.