Today was another sunny and steamy day in Cusco. We ate brekkie in the hotel before heading out on a tour of the city and it's Incan history.
We began by driving around the main part of town. The streets are so narrow and the traffic is crazy. There appears to be no road rules here, let alone lanes.
We headed to the main cathedral in centre of town, Convento de Santo Domingo, which was built by the Spanish conqeurors on the site of the main sun temple of the Incas, Qorikancha. The ruins of the sun temple were quite spectacular. The standard of construction was phenomonal. Tapered angled walls, constructed of stone with seamless joints. All the individual stone pieces calculated and cut to perfection. Amazing!
Our next stop was the Incan ruins on the top of the hill overlooking cusco - a place called Saqsayhuaman - which when pronounced sounded like sexy woman.
Was pretty cool place, larger site of Incan ruins. We also saw some alpacas and not a bad view over the city either.
Our next stop was more Incan ruins in the hills, Tambomachay, where we saw the remains of the Incan viaduct system. The fountains and drainage channels carved out of rock are quite incredible.
Our last stop on the tour was an old Incan place of worship called Q'enqo. The cool part was the tunnels and nooks carved out of the rock formations forming offering places and altars. The stone work of the Incan people is amazing.
We headed back into town and checked out a fresh food market. Was an eye opener. Lots of everything there. The girls freaked a bit at the guinea pig meat for sale.
That afternoon we had a rest back at the hotel. We were tired and a bit sunburnt too.
The evening involved a trip to a jewellery making warehouse. Was really quite interesting to see the whole process, from raw material of silver and all the varieties of stone, to a finished product. We spent a while in the shop buying some something somethings for s few someones. Really good prices too.
That evening we headed into town for an easy meal. Sim was feeling great so we just got dome simple pizza. We also tried the Inca Kola - delicious. Taste nothing like cola tho, more like the boutique cream sodas you get back in Oz.
Anyway, off to bed early. Inca Trail awaits munyana.
- Blog from iMat
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