As I said yesterday, our trip has most definitely peaked and so today has been a struggle to motivate ourselves to wake up... But considering this is our only real day here in Cusco we had to make the most of it!
Cusco is a gorgeous city filled with so much history; it is the continents oldest continuously inhabited city. The Incas deemed this spot as the belly button of the world (and therefore their capital). Cusco has been described as "an ancient Andean culture knocked down and fused with Spanish conquest, only to be repackaged as a thriving tourist trap." There also is a lot of contradiction going on since ornate cathedrals sit on top of Inca temples and traditionally dressed women and children peddle the streets with llamas trying to sell trinkets to you. There is lots to do in this city and so we picked some of the highlights to get a taste of everything during our one day.
Regional History Museum
The boleto turístico we bought to visit the Sacred Valley ruins also includes entrances to some excellent museums around Cusco. We started off the morning at the Regional History Museum. The museum starts with the Preceramic Period and continues on to the Wari, Pukara, and Inca cultures. The last few rooms of the museum include Spanish conquistadors, traditional Roman Catholic paintings, and biographies of Peruvian war heros.
La Cathedral
This cathedral is part religion worshipping space and part art museum. There are over 400 works of art that hang on the walls of the three connected churches. The main cathedral sits in between two smaller churches. Iglesia de Jesús María is on the left of the cathedral and was built in 1733.
Iglesia del Triunfo is on the right of the cathedral and is Cusco's oldest church (built in 1536).
Construction on La Catedral began in 1559 and the stones used were taken from the nearby Inca site of Sacsaywamán.
Inside the cathedral there are 14 columns the run down the middle of the building. On each side are 8 side-altars and in the center opposite the altar is a Cathedral choir. Oh and everything is in gold... Like in order to make the altar stand out, it was silver because everything else was gold!
As I said there are works of art that cover every verticle surface. Included in this count are two very famous ones, the first is the The Last Supper by Quecha artist Marcos Zapata. This painting is gigantic (20' x 30') and features Jesus and his disciples sharing a small Andean feast which includes Cuy (guinea pig) as the main course.
Also I was able to see the oldest surviving pairing in Cusco which shows the entire city during the earthquake of 1650. The people can be seeing parading around the plaza with a crucifix praying for the earthquake to stop. It miraculously did and therefore this crucifix is now famous and can be seen in one of the side-altars in the church.
The crucifix is called El Señor de los Temblores (the Lord of the Earthquakes). This crucifix with Jesus statue is taken out every year on Holy Monday and paraded around for people to pay respect to. The devotees will throw ñucchu flowers (that resemble droplets of blood) at the statue, which in combination with votive candles has turned the statue black. Legend has it that under Christ's skirt, he is lily white.
While wandering around I happened upon a couple English speaking tours. The most interesting thing I learned was that the Peruvians didn't know what horses looked like so when Spaniards told stories that included horses, the painters would draw these animals like a llama. So if you look at some of the paintings, you can clearly see llama shaped "horses" throughout the picture.
Also the Virgin Mary is depicted as Mother Earth which is a combination of Inca and Catholic tradition. Mary is dressed in large skirts that take the shape of a mountain and down the front center, the fabric will outline what looks like a river. I'm not sure why but in all of the churches I visited, Mary is always the main icon at the front of the altar. In some cases, the cruicifix and/or Jesus aren't even shown up front (only on the sides). I found this very interesting since some people believe Catholics worship Mary and these churches I visited definitely appeared that way.
With this cathedral being so old, there was definitely restoration that needed to be done. In recent years, Cusco was given enough money to properly restore many of the paintings and statues within the church. As I was leaving I actually got to watch the restoration in progress. Four workers were carefully scrubbing and restoring one of the giant half-circle paintings that is found above a side-altar. It was really interesting to watch!
Qorikancha
We were told that if you only visit one ruin in Cusco, make it these Inca ruins. Qorikancha was once the richest temple in the Inca empire and was literally covered with gold. All that remains today is the stonework which forms the base of a colonial church. There are lots of beautiful paintings and masterful stonework in and around the ruins.
So we mustered our strength and walked down Ave El Sol to the outside of the church to take in its greatness. However the ruins greatness did not surpass our desire to take a nap so we went to the underground museum outside the ruins and called it a day. We've definitely seen our share of ruins and knew we had one more to go to at the end of the day.
Falafel
Clearly we have our priorities straight since on our way back to the hostel we got sidetracked by food. Dr Franćois told us about a small restaurant down an alley off the square that had the best falafel he had ever tasted.
So naturally we took a detour to find this nameless falafel place. Well Franćois didn't disappoint and he directed us to some delicious pre-nap falafel.
Sacsaywamán
Whooo more ruins! Franćois recommended to see these at night so we went right at dusk to catch a little bit in the light and hopefully see them lit up once the sun goes down. Being cheap and all, we decided to hike up to the ruins which was a nice little workout. But it did take us through a new part of town and gave us great views of the city has we climbed.
ALSO we found more llamas and alpacas at the base of the ruins... great day!
I'm not sure if it's bc we approached these ruins from below but they seemed like the largest we've seen. Turns out that what's left is only 20% of the original structure bc so many people pilfered the stones to build houses and buildings in Cusco.
The ruins were used as a religious and military area for the Inca capital of cusco. The 9th Inca king envisioned Cusco as a puma and Sacsaywamán as the head. One aspect of the ruins are 22 zigzag walls which look like the teeth of the puma. It also has military use since it forced attackers to expose their flanks. My favorite fact though is that the name Sacsaywamán translates in Quechua to "Satisfied Falcon" but most people remember them by the mnemonic "sexy woman".
Jesus statue
I have no idea what this statue is called, but we called it the Rio Jesus statue. Just like the statue in Brazil, this Jeuss overlooks all of Cusco from one of the high surrounding mountains. You can see the staue from anywhere in Cusco as well. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect since we got to watch the sunset over the city with Jesus carefully watching over it.
After we finished exploring Sacsaywamán, Casey and I hiked up to the Jesus staue to get a glimpse of what He sees everyday. What a view! And what a giant statue!! I'm so glad we stayed back to see this wonderful view of such a well-known city.
Cuy and Alpaca for Dinner
For our last dinner in Peru, we went all out and ate some crazy food. Cuy, aka guinea pig, is an Andean favorite that's been on the menu since pre-Inca times. Cusco is definitely where you want to try this delicacy since they prepare the cuy using traditional methods. They remove the hair with hot grease before skewering it and placing it on a fire to roast. The cuy came out with head and feet attached before they cut the cuy into 5 pieces, one for each of us to taste. Turns out, the cuy was actually really good once you got over the whole guinea pig part; It tastes like a cross between rabbit and quail.
Because we chose to split the cuy (no one was brave enough to only order that as the meal), we also ordered other food which meant I got to try alpaca! This restaurant was amazing bc the meat was perfectly cooked and seasoned. It tasted amazing! Also to top off the night, a local Peruvian mariachi band came into the restaurant and started performing for us. It was a great last night all in all!
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