Cusco

After Arequipa, the Colca Canyon and the Cruz del Condor, my next goal was Cusco, which I reached after an early morning flight via Julianca.

Cusco (or Cuzco, or Qusqu in the native Inca – Quechua - language, still spoken by the local population) is the centre for visits to all kinds of pre-Inca and Inca sites. The altitude is around 3500 meters (11500 ft) and the city is today - of course - a Cultural World Heritage site.

Cusco (translation, the “navel” – of the world) was the capital of the Inca Empire, which more or less covered the present Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile and part of Argentina. When the Spanish conquerors arrived around 1533-34, they made it to their Peruvian capital, but later they transferred this role to Lima and Cusco lost its importance, until the discovery of Machu Picchu and some other nearby sites, making it to a tourist capital.

The Spaniards of course destroyed most of the Inca buildings, but constructed on top of Inca foundations, which have resisted to different earthquakes, including an important one in 1650 and another one in 1950, when actually a number of foundations, which had been more or less covered, reappeared. This goes e.g. for the foundations of the Sun Temple Koricancha, the major Inca temple, on which the Church of Santo Domingo had been built. Many of Cusco’s central buildings are standing on today visible Inca foundations and you can admire with which precision they fit the heavy stones together (see one picture of a stone with 12 angles!!).

The Spaniards built a large number of churches including the Cathedral and La Compañía, which you can find on the central place, Plaza de Armas, not to mention Le Merced, San Francisco, San Blas…. Most churches are full of gold, of course “stolen” from the Incas and smelted down. (Basically, you are not allowed to take any pictures inside churches, but I took a few in Cusco and elsewhere – of course without flash – and in some cases I even got the exceptional permission.)

The city centre is of course full of tourists, meaning hotels, restaurants, shops…, but you can also take walks on the surrounding hills, where you can again find traces of the Incas, but especially the local population and their streets and houses. You can see some school children – often in uniforms; schooling is compulsory in Peru, which however does not mean that all children attend school. I spent four nights in Cusco and it was worth it! But, Cusco is of course the place from where you visit Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. These will be the following episodes.

For a better view of the above photos, I suggest that you visit my photo blog!