Cusco & Machu Picchu

Cusco was beautiful.  It's an hour flight from Lima and the climate is significantly different. Cusco lies in the south eastern slopes of the Andes mountains at 12,000ft above sea level.  It took a while to get used to the change in altitude but I loved the crisp, cool, dry air ... unlike Lima's polluted and VERY humid overcast skies.  It was lovely to see the sun again.  July is the coldest time of the year in Cusco and with the sun shining during the day it's still long sleeve weather and at night .... brrr... it's SUPER cold.  Craig and I were greeted at the Cusco airport by Cesar with Lamanita Travel (Lamanite travel).  He even remembered Craig even though it had been 10 yrs since he traveled with him last.  He dropped us off at of at our hotel: Rumi Punku, which was absolutely wonderful.  It definitely had lots of personality.  We sat down in the lobby and they brought us both some Coca tea made out of Coca leaves ... yes the same coca leaves that cocaine is made out of.  I decided not to partake ... probably not the best thing for the baby.  Our room was amazing.  It was overlooking the courtyard with fountains & plants all over and was simply wonderful.  The bed was super comfy and the location was perfect.  We were just a block or so away from the main square.

Our room in Cusco at the Rumi Punku overlooking the courtyard.

The courtyard of our hotel.

View from our room.

We had a few hours before Cesar was going to be back to pick us up for the city tour so we kicked it around the Plaza de Armas and ate some lunch at the Inca Grill.... so yummy!  Isn't this city beautiful!?!

Craig in the Plaza de Armas of Cusco, Peru.

We just happened to be in Cusco for the 100 yr. celebration of the discovery of  Machu Picchu so there were all sorts of parades and performances going on.  Lucky us.

Eating at the Inca Grill.

In the streets of Cusco there are woman and children dressed up in traditional clothes all over the place that try and get you to take pictures with them for money.  I got suckered in.

We started the city tour at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo.The Incas built the temple known as Kiswarkanchar (Coricancha) on the main square in Cusco. It was the Inca temple of the sun. When the Spanish conquistadores arrived in Cusco, they decided to take down the temple and build their Christian cathedral in that prominent site.The cathedral's construction began in 1559 on the foundations of Kiswarkanchar. It is shaped like a Latin cross. The location of Viracocha's palace was chosen for the purpose of removing the Inca religion fromCusco, and replacing it with Spanish Catholic Christianity. Because 1559 was only 26 years after the conquistadores entered Cusco in 1533, the vast majority of the population was still of Quechua Inca descent. The Spaniards used the Incas as a labour workforce to build the cathedral.


The Coricancha (from the Quechua words Quri Kancha meaning 'Golden Courtyard'), originally named Inti Kancha (' Temple of the Sun') was the most important temple in the Inca Empire, dedicated primarily to Inti, the Sun God. It was one of the most revered temples of the capital city of Cusco.

The walls and floors were once covered in sheets of solid gold, and the courtyard was filled with golden statues. Spanish reports tell of its opulence that was "fabulous beyond belief". When the Spanish required the Inca to raise a ransom in gold for the life of the leader Atahualpa, most of the gold was collected from Coricancha.

The Spanish colonists built the Church of Santo Domingo on the site, demolishing the temple and using its foundations for the cathedral. Construction took most of a century. This is one of numerous sites where the Spanish incorporated Inca stonework into the structure of a colonial building. Major earthquakes have severely damaged the church, but the Inca stone walls, built out of huge, tightly-interlocking blocks of stone, still stand due to their sophisticated stone masonry. Nearby is an undergroundarchaeological museum, which contains numerous interesting pieces, including mummies, textiles and sacred idols from the site.

We also visited several historical sites surrounding the city such as Sacsayhuaman, Qenqo, Pukapukara, & Tambomachay.  Sacsayhuaman being the most famous.


Sacsayhuamán (also known as Saksaq Waman, Sacsahuaman or Saxahuaman) is a walled complex on the northern outskirts of the city of Cusco, Peru, the former capital of the Inca empire. The complex is as many other Inca constructions made of large polished dry-stone walls, each boulder carefully cut to fit together tightly without mortar. The best-known zone of Sacsayhuaman includes its great plaza and its adjacent three massive terrace walls. The stones used in the construction of these terraces are among the largest used in any building in prehispanic America and display a precision of fitting that is unmatched in the Americas. The stones are so closely spaced that a single piece of paper will not fit between many of the stones. This precision, combined with the rounded corners of the blocks, the variety of their interlocking shapes, and the way the walls lean inward, is thought to have helped the ruins survive devastating earthquakes in Cuzco. The longest of three walls is about 400 meters. They are about 6 meters tall. The estimated volume of stone is over 6,000 cubic meters. Estimates for the weight of the largest limestone block vary from 128 tonnes to almost 200 tonnes.

Exiting Sacsayhuamán there was lots of women selling crafts.  I took a picture of these women and they followed us demanding payment for taking a picture of them ... so Craig said he wasn't going to pay anything unless I got in the picture.  They can be pretty forceful women. :)

On the way back into Cusco we stopped at an Alpaca clothing store.  They explained the difference between real alpaca cloth and the fake stuff that gets sold on the streets.  They had a balcony that overlooked the city. It was beautiful.  It was so cold that night.  I washed my hands there and the water was like ice.  It took the longest time to get them warm again.

Overlooking Cusco, Peru at night.

After returning from the city tour we shopped around in some of the street markets to get some scarfs, hats, & gloves so we didn't have to freeze during the remainder of our time there.

Craig doing what he does best ... bartering for the best possible deal.

The next morning we woke up at 6am to get ready to head to Machu Picchu.  I was really sick with a nasty cold and was throwing up as well due to pregnancy issues.  Luckily after we arrived at the train station and I got some hot chocolate in me I started to feel better.  The train ride was a rocky 4 hours.  When we arrived in Aguas Calientes we took a bus up to Machu Picchu.  It was switch backs for 15 minutes and then we were there.  It was even more amazing then I imagined it.  I didn't realize I had a fear of heights until riding that bus on a dirt road up, up, and further up.

Craig and I at Machu Picchu in Peru.

Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site located 7,970 ft above sea level. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is 50 mi northwest of Cusco and through which the Urubamba River flows. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it is perhaps the most familiar icon of the Inca World. The Incas started building the "estate" around AD 1400, but abandoned it as an official site for the Inca rulers a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Although known locally, it was unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham (who was also the inspiration for the Indiana Jones Adventure films). Since then, Machu Picchu has become an important tourist attraction. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of what the structures originally looked like. By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored. The restoration work continues to this day. Since the site was never known to the Spanish during their conquest, it is highly significant as a relatively intact cultural site. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll.

The Sun Temple and the Incan emperor Pachacuti's royal residence...

Our tour guide was awesome!  He has worked as a guide at Machu Picchu for 35yrs. has written 5 books on it and is very passionate about it.  He taught us the significanse of many of the stone structures like the sacred Mountain rock and the Intihuatana or the "Hitching post of the Sun" an astronomical calendar of sorts.

View from the Caretakers Hut or watch guard.

Alpacas wander around the ruins and aren't afraid of the people here.  One time they almost knocked me off the path as they trotted ahead on their way to higher ground.

The views of the mountains are amazing.  

Girl of the Jungle just chillin' in Aguas Calientes after returning from Machu Picchu.

Aguas Calientes - waiting for the train back to Cusco.  What a day.  We ended up getting home around 10pm.

On Sunday we just hung out in Cusco.  Enjoying the architecture of the buildings and just walking around.  We enjoyed breakfast at Jack's Cafe which was just down the street from our apartment. The food was great.  I'm most definitely getting spoiled and probably gaining much more weight then I'm suppose to.

 

Jack's Cafe and the streets of Cusco.  Cobblestone roads and Incan base to most of the buildings.

Plaza de Armas of Cusco. 

They have a parade every Sunday and collect donations to help support the orphans of Cusco.

I sat by this little guy.  His mom was selling ice cream and jello to the parade watchers.

Craig getting his shoes shined and standing in front of the main fountain.

Before we left Cusco Craig insisted on trying Alpaca so for lunch we had Alpaca steak.  Not too bad - tasted like lamb.

AWESOME weekend in Cusco.  I LOVED Cusco and hope to visit here again.