Cusco, Peru

On our way to a free walking tour of Cusco, we went to the Plaza de Armas, the main town square, and saw thousands and thousands of people there with music and marching bands. Every Sunday they have a huge parade and local schools, military personnel, local politicians and bands are invited, on a rotating basis, to participate. The parade lasts at least an hour and a half, and everybody takes it extremely seriously.

We met our red shirted guide, at 9:20 and started our tour. The original town of Cusco was only about 12 blocks by 8 blocks and had a population of 20,000 people. It is now 400,000. In the early days, ritual offerings consisting of meat, bread and symbols of the important things of their lives would be presented always at sunrise in the Plaza, and always facing the east.

Our guide commented on the ridiculous price of coffee at coffee shops. He said that you could buy one kilogram of coffee in the local market at 25 SOLES which is just under eight dollars. The price for a cup of coffee at a coffee shop could get as high as, you guessed it, eight dollars!

The original Inca houses were only one story high. The town walls were much higher. A picture of Lee standing at the corner of one of the many remaining Inca walls shows how big the stones were. They are so huge that it seems almost impossible that they could have been moved. They are also perfectly shaped and notched to fit each other. In every case the walls lean in to minimize wall crumbling or bursting out during earthquakes. Virtually all the walls in Cusco and at the major Inca historical sites in Peru have survived earthquakes as high as 7.8 on the Richter scale. Some of the stones are slightly rough on the surface, the result of the chiselling that they used to form them. Others are remarkably smooth, achieved by sandpaper like abrasion using very fine river stone.

During the 400 or so years at the height of the Inca influence between 1350 and 1450, there were approximately 10,000 royalty. When one of their sons was born, they would be given a 1/2 acre of property but when they died, they had to give it back to the government. Therefore, there was no private property.

We visited a courtyard that had both llamas and Alpacas. Llamas are the taller of the two, their ears are laid back and can carry up to 25 kg of cargo. Anything over that they just refuse to move. Alpacas are shorter and are sheared every 2 to 4 years, their ears are short and stand up. They are both of the camelid family. Another member of this family is the Vicuna. They are the slightest of the three, rather like small white tail deer and they are a national treasure protected by law. Their hair is so fine that it commands $3000 for fleece which is sheared every 2-3 years. The babies are so agile that they can walk five minutes after birth. Clothing made of the Vicuna hair is usually the natural brown colour and a scarf costs $1700.00 and up.

Guinea pig is a Peruvian delicacy. It is called Cuy (Kwee). The reason they are so popular is because they grow particularly well at this altitude, they don’t take up much space and they don’t eat much. We had Guinea pig earlier. He also talked about quinoa which was used like milk 25 years ago and only farmers would eat it. However, after the astronauts took it to space in 2015 because the seeds are rich in protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins, and dietary minerals, it became very popular. It grows easily in unfavourable conditions, is easy to prepare and stores very well. It is extremely popular in third world counties as well as North America and is now a staple of Peru.

The women on the streets, in the Plaza, and even in the fields, wear colourful clothing consisting of wide brim hats (with a profile not unlike a pilgrim’s hat), pleated skirts and a colourful wide shawl (called Lliklla) that they use across their shoulders to help carry things either in front or behind them. Many of them carry their babies, hammock style, on their back. To get it into position, they put the baby in the shawl in front of them and deftly swing it up and around their head so that they end up carrying the baby on their back. I wonder what the practice sessions were like when they were first learning to do that!

We saw the remains of a palace where there were eight rooms per block, with an open quadrangle in the middle. It was closed on Sunday but because you could look through the glass walls surrounding it, we could see most of the area. One of the churches in a plaza just a couple of blocks from our hotel was built between the 16th and the 17th century and was called San Blas. It had a lovely wall behind it of cascading water. Every time we went by, there were lots of people on the steps and lots of cars stopped waiting to pick up passengers.

Our guide talked to us about Cocoa leaves. Chewing them allows the workers to work harder and longer and reduces hunger and thirst. Chewing the leaves was even better than making cocoa tea. Lee and I have had many cups of cocoa tea but have not chewed the leaves.

The final leg of our walking tour was to climb a set of stairs 105 steps high to an amazing lookout over Cusco with the traditional red clay terra-cotta roofing tiles. Up another few steps and we were at a bar where we were all treated to a small Pisco Sour. The barmaid mixed the Pisco sours for our group from scratch and explained each of the ingredients as she went along. After receiving our drinks, we spent some very comfortable time looking out over the town. We said goodbye to our guide there and tipped him handsomely for his services following which we walked back down the hill to the hotel.

That evening we were pretty tired and opted to go to a Peruvian type hamburger restaurant that Gary and Karina found. We did indeed order hamburgers with French Fries. They were delicious, tender and flavoured with local spices so that it didn’t taste like a normal hamburger from North America. The restaurant was a very popular place with quite a few people from hostels coming to enjoy a reasonably inexpensive meal.Leer más