Day 6 Cuzco

Finally, we got a bit of free time. Peter was feeling better - not great but better, but thanks to local altitude pills & Tylenol he’d come back to life.

Jim, Jacqueline, Peter & I wandered up past Santo Domingo church to the main square - Plaza de Armes. We really lucked out - it was our Lady of Rosary Festival honouring the Virgin Mary. Love it when we chance upon local celebrations. This one was great - colourful parade with young girls dancing, little girls dressed up like angels, full marching band, and a large Mary being carried down the streets. When I asked if I could take a pic of Jacqueline with one girl, several surrounded her. Reminded me of India.

When the parade was over, we found a coffee shop - Cappuccino Café - overlooking the square where we watched Mary being carried around the square followed by great crowds.

2:00pm we headed off for a guided tour - Santo Domingo Church then Basilica Catedral. The churches are opulent here - the Spanish built them even in tiny villages to entice the Incas to convert.

Incas worshiped Mother Earth, so the Spanish put in more images of Mary than Jesus. Mary is usually dressed in a tent like outfit to resemble a mountain. That way the Incas could relate to her & start to worship her.

It's an understatement to say Peruvians didn’t / don’t like the Spanish. According to our guides, they pillaged the gold & silver, tried to annihilante the Incas, indoctrinated the people into the Catholic religion, changed the names of people, street, landmarks etc.

From here we wandered down a lane showing an original Inca wall, and the way it was reconstructed after the earthquakes of 1659 & 1959 - haphazardly as the pic shows. Amazing how the Incas constructed their walls by chiselling rocks to fit perfectly together - no fillers.

Final stop was Templo Del Triunfo - what opulence - some shrines in pure silver, others in gold & gold plate. What about the poor??

That night we had dinner at Chicha - recommended by Chris, our guide in Lima. It exceeded expections.Leer más