October 5, 2024 - Cusco, Peru

We signed up for the optional Cultural Cusco Tour today and it was great. Our first stop was the Cementerio General de la Almudena. This cemetery was built between 1846 and 1850 and was designated as a World Heritage Site (UNESCO) in 2010. The Temple of Almudena, a Catholic church is located next to the cemetery and you can see it in the background.
Just inside the archway on the left is this small altar where sometimes services are said for the deceased.
Before we went in our guide "hired" two young boys to help show traditions of burials and care of the graves. First he had them purchased flowers and then some offerings for the grave sites.

Caskets are placed along the avenues and stacked.
This small structure holds the graves of children because their caskets are so small.
In the rows to the left where Washington is pointing are cremated remains.
He asked the boys to pick any grave they wanted and show what people do. The boys actually picked the grave behid him, and placed the flowers and offerings in the opening. Then he had them show us how they polish the brass decorations using juice from a lime, then rubbing and polishing. It went from very tarnished to shiny. It was interesting to hear about the Peruvian culture surrounding death.
From here we journeyed outside the city to the incredible hillside fortress of Saqsaywaman (sounds kind of like saying sexy woman). The complex was amazing! It is the largest remaining Inca site and was a ceremonial temple built to the sun gold and used by the Incas. It took approximately 50 years to build by 20,000 men. Inside Saqsaywaman, archeologists found large food and weapons stores, as well as channels for distributing water.

Most of the large stones weigh 40 tons each! The small stones are from renovations.



What is so amazing is the way it was built. It has large blocks of limestone, the highest reaching 27 feet and the heaviest 101 TONS!!



The Inca also put "hidden" images into the construction. Can you see the fist below?

It was amazing to see and hard to believe that is only about 2 miles outside of Cusco!

From here we went to Kenko, a holy place (huaca) where sacrifices were held. It as an amazing experience. We met a shaman (holy man) who explained their culture and performed a cleansing ceremony for us.

The young men were playing panpipes and drums and the young woman was singing.

This video is part of the ceremony. https://youtu.be/fp2E-8WFa-o After the ceremony, we all danced together with the shaman. It was very interesting and was quite spiritual.

We did get to feed the llamas, alpacas, and guanacos after the ceremony.

This guanaco wanted to photo bomb the picture with Tobey!


We had a short video after this explaining the weaving and crafts that they sell to support their community. Afterwards, Tobey and I went back to feed the animals again. I ran out of food and one of the llamas was not happy so it actually spit on me! Tobey couldn't stop laughing. Fortunately, it wasn't much (grass) and I cleaned up easily.

We came back to town for a cooking demonstration and lunch. I have to admit, I had trouble staying awake, but the end result of the chef's preparation was delicious!

We got the recipe, and if I can translate it I may give it a try when we get home. The presentation was beautiful.

I had the chicken and Tobey had the trout. Both were very good.


After lunch, the group went back to the hotel and Tobey and I headed off to explore. We stopped in some of the shops and then decided to get massages. The "come on" was that the 60 minute massage was only 20Sol (about $5.00USD). WELL, once there, that was just a light back massage. We opted for an Inka massage which was full body with hot stones for 130Sol ($35USD). They were pretty good for the price.

We took a short break before taking another walk and stopping to get pizza for dinner. Yes, I know, pizza in Peru? Well, it was pretty good and came with a plate of yummy bread. They also served a garlic sauce that we put on the pizza and bread.

We headed back to the hotel since we need to check out tomorrow and head toward Urubamba. This church is across the street from our hotel and looked beautiful tonight.

It's hard to believe that our trip is coming to a close in a few days, but we still have Machu Picchu to come!

October 4, 2024 - Cusco, Peru

We got to sleep in today before enjoying our buffet breakfast. They had FRESH honey available and it was delicious!

We had the rest of the morning on our own in the "Imperial City" before our official tour began at 2pm. We took a short walk and enjoyed some of the local sights.

After a stop in the market, we headed back to the hotel for a short rest. We could hear music and opened our window to see this local group walking down the lane next to the hotel.

You just never know what you will find in Cusco!

This afternoon our group headed to the Convento de Santo Domingo del Cusco.

The temple was built in the 13th century during the government of Inca Huiracocha. The walls of the temple show an amazingly high level of engineering. The stones are constructed as trapezoids and are not just stacked one on another, but have groves and niches to hold them together like Legos. They also made a liquid alloy that helped hold them together. The stones are basalt, and part of the corner pieces were carved so they made an L-shape. It's difficult to see, but they walls also all lean inward which added to the strength of the building and its resistance to volcanic tremors.

In the picture below, you can look through the window of one "temple" and see into the next two.

The Inca Temple of the Sun was one of the most sacred and respected buildings of the Inca Empire. It's original construction took almost 100 years!

The Catholic Convent of Santo Domingo del Cuzco was founded on the foundations of the famous "Inti cancha" in 1534 after the Spanish arrived in Peru. Some time later the temple was looted, almost completely, stripped of the precious metals that decorated it. They painted over the walls and it wasn't until an earthquake in 1950 that made cracks in the paint that they discovered the Inca construction. This shows what the painting was like.

The courtyard view

Inside the convent you could see the inner courtyard. The convent has colonial paintings on all the walls and ceilings, as well as carved wooden sculptures, and gold and silver liturgical objects. The bulk of our tour concentrated on the Inca aspects of the site.

From here we headed down a long alley whose walls were constructed by the Incas. Originally, it was the wall of the House of the Chosen Women. Young girls lived here and were trained to be either the wife of a leader or to be sacrificied to the gods. It as considered an honor for families to have their daughters chosen.

Next stop was the Basilica Cathedral, one of the largest in South America. No pictures were allowed inside, but it was AMAZING! There was so much history and the main altar of the church is covered with 1-1/4 TONS of silver! Original construction of the cathedral took from 1560 to 1643 to finish!

Across the street from the Cathedral is the Plaza de Armas with a statue of the 9th Inca ruler in the center.

La Compania, the Jesuit church is also located on the Plaza.
There lots of local people selling souvenirs.


Our tour wrapped up shortly after our stop at the Plaza. Most of the group headed back to the hotel, but Tobey and I took the long way back exploring some of the streets away from the plaza.

Check out the fancy barber shop we saw!
Do you think Tobey could make it in Peru?

This evening our group had dinner at the home of a local family. Because 17 or our group went, we were split between two families. Our host, John, along with his five year old daughter, and sister-in-law and her three children prepared our meal and joined us for dinner. Our first course was soup made from a dehydrated potato. The potatoes can apparently be dehydrated and last for over 100 years! 
We added fresh sliced avacados and a spicy pico salsa. It had an interesting taste, but I don't think I would order it again in a restaurant!

The main course was a chicken leg served with quinoua and rice with a sauce over it and dessert was tamarillo, a tree tomato.

Our host, John, is at the head of the table. He spoke excellent English and we enjoyed asking him questions about his life and family in Cusco. 

After our meal it was back to the hotel. Tomorrow we signed up for an optional tour, along with nine other folks from our group. Fortunately, we don't start until 9am, so we hope for a good night's rest.