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Haven’t made it to Cuzco yet? Here’s a breakdown of how our initial visit shaped up.  

Good morning! We are up enjoying breakfast in the courtyard and gathering our energy for the day ahead. The service we booked should be dropping off our city-wide tickets in the next few minutes. Then, it’s off to the museums and sites that aren’t on our city tour this afternoon . . .

The day recapped: After squeezing in both the Incan and Pre-Columbian museums in Cuzco (see pics below), we grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to the hotel to wait for the city tour pick-up.

An artifact from the pre columbian museum.

The first stop was a church / monastery built on top of several Incan temple ruins.

(An unexpected piece of artwork at the first church stop that we were allowed to photograph. It shows the Incan interpretation of the Milky Way constellations. Can you see the llama?)

After this, we toured the city cathedral where we were unfortunately not allowed to take photographs. It was quite beautiful, however, and the European influence in both the art and architecture was quite evident.

Next, we climbed a few hundred meters in altitude and drove outside the city to visit a set of Incan ruins called Sacsayhuaman, where Pope John Paul II once spoke to a packed crowd. Here are few pictures . . .

At the entrance to Sacsayhuaman.

Llama pic.

After Sacsayhuaman, we went to another Inca site where we had to walk through a narrow stone labyrinth to where there were two sacrificial stone tables (one for humans and one for llamas), and a preservation niche for mummification.

( A late afternoon shot from outside the labyrinth.)

From there, on to a set of ancient  water fountains used for purification. The guide told us that archaeologists had found underground man made channels from the Incan empire that had routed this water from another location, although apparently they still do not know the original source.

A burrow we saw on the way to the Incan water fountain.

A front shot of the waterfall ruins.

A close up shot of the Incan imperial building style. Notice how precisely the stones fit together. This style was only used at places of great importance, so this fountain was clearly important for ceremonial purification.

We left the waterfall / fountain site to go to an ancient fortress the Incas used to guard the city of Cuzco at one time.

The day finished off with a stop at a jewelry and alpaca weaving factory for demonstrations and shopping for those who were interested. Then, for us it was a quick dinner and back to the hotel to get organized for the spiritual pilgrimage to Machu Picchu. The hotel agreed to hold our backpacks in the storage room until we return. So we just needed to toss minimal overnight necessities into the day packs and get to bed early.

Posted on January 26th, 2007 by Myscha Theriault
Filed under: Trips and Destinations