Cusco, Peru—April 7-8

We left the Sacred Valley heading to Cusco driving through beautiful farmland that produces crops of corn and grains like quinoa in the valleys and on the terraced mountains.

Farmer spreading corn.

 

Fields of Quinoa (the red plants)

 

Town of Pisac with terraced mountains

 

This map shows the area we have travelled so far.

 

Cusco is the ancient capital of the Inca Empire.  Cusco means the navel of the earth.  Outside the city, high on a hill is the remains of a huge Inca structure.  Coming from all parts of the Empire as far away as Columbia, the Incas would gather here for the Festival of the Sun.

 

 

Some say that the structures here are even more impressive that those as Machu Picchu in terms of engineering and  architecture. To give you some idea of the size of some of these boulders,   I am standing in front of the tallest one which is 27 feet high and the heaviest which weights 128 tons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 From this vantage point near the Inca ruins, you get an overview of the city.   I zoomed in to the main plaza  with the Jesuit church at one end and the Cathedral on the side.  A fountain is in the center with at welcoming golden Inca king.

 

 

 

We later went to the main plaza to visit these churches. The painting that took my attention was near the main altar was one of the Last Supper done by a Cusco artist.  Notice what is being served--

--a roasted guinea pig!!  Since it was/is such a mainstay in this part of Peru, the artist assumed it must have been served for this momentous occasion.

I got a chance to eat it myself when we went to a family’s home for lunch.  Our host, Manuel, was proud to serve it as our main dish.  Roasted, it is called “cuy asado” in case you ever what to order it.

 

 

The four course meal was prepared by his mother who lives in this home with her two sons and one daughter who have not married.  She used to own a restaurant and now provides this home cultural experience which our travel company, Vantage,  features on its tours. We had a good time trying out our Spanish to try to talk to these hospitable people.

 

The  next day began with a shaman who came to our hotel to show us and have us participate in a healing ritual.  Pedro is a farmer who has learned these rituals from elders.

 

He brought with him various herbs, leaves, objects like cotton that represented clouds and other things to symbolize earth, important events.  He carefully arranged them on a paper.

 Each of us was given three coca leaves to hold in a certain way.  We were to think of pains or stresses we would like to have eliminated.  We blew on the leaves three times and placed our leaves with his objects. When finished arranging these items, he wrapped the paper, tied it up, put it in a pouch.

 

Then each of us was blessed by name as he said some words while moving the pouch around our body. He will then take this packet up into the mountains and burn it. It really was a spiritual experience.

We then visited a cemetery.  Before we went in, Washington, our guide, “hired” two children who were in the plaza outside to buy some flowers and a candle other things to take into the cemetery.

 

Here, everyone works.  There is no welfare, so if you don’t work, you don’t eat.  Consequently, you see people doing whatever they can find to do to make some money.  If you only have a shovel, you go out and dig in the clay and make adobe bricks.  If you raise some vegetables, you pick them, spread them on a blanket on the street, and try to sell them, like these 80 year old women.

 

But,  I digress.  Back to the cemetery.

These children work in the morning helping people who go to the cemetery (and  then go to school in the afternoon from 1 to 6). For instance, they will clean the brass frames around the crypts or replace flowers, or climb up to maintain the high ones that older people can’t reach.

 

People here honor their dead by creating little “windows” of things that represent their likes (coca cola or beer or miniature piano, or Snoopy), or important events in their lives.  They will place a glass of water for them to drink, or a piece of cake that the family had to celebrate the deceased family member’s birthday.

 

 

Going to visit the dead is done frequently, and if you go and see that a friend’s family member’s space needs cleaning, you will do it for them or hire children to do it.  Washington just picked  sites that needed attention and had it done by these children the morning we visited. Outside, flower and trinket vendors make their living by providing the flowers and other items people use to decorate the niches.

Next, we went to the Central Market.  On our way, the streets were teeming with all sorts of interesting people, some selling, some buying, some delivering, all very colorful.

 

 

 

This market is huge and sells every imaginable thing.  

 

There is a clothing area, not only for new clothes, but a place to have your clothes repaired by women using treadle sewing machines.

 

There are large areas selling  meat,  chickens,  fish, sausage, bread…

 

Cheese, fruit, vegetables, flowers, grains, spices...Even exotic things like frogs for soup.

 

After this wonderful experience, we went to a restaurant where we given a cooking demonstration of how to prepare a dish called,”Causa”.  It was named after the cause of attaining Peruvian Independence. It was served to us as our first course.

 

 

And if that wasn’t enough, in the evening we went to a restaurant for our farewell dinner with Washington . We ate while being entertained by musicians and dancers.

 

I love Cusco!