The central courtyard of our hotel had a few women selling their items and one of them brought this adorable baby alpaca!  It made us all smile.

We learned this morning that one of our younger, and fit, men had become ill.  We assumed altitude sickness as we were once again above 11,000 feet.

The rest of us embarked on a tour of Cusco with Enrique.  This historic square (that was more like a triangle) has original walls that were built in the 1300s and 1400s by the Inca,  and the 1500s by the Spanish.

Santa Domingo Monestery is on the site of the most important Incan temple – Koricancha – The Temple of the Sun.  The Spanish tore Koricancha down and built the very first church in the Americas, Santa Domingo.

The Convent of Santo Domingo del Cuzco was founded in 1534. The Catholic church was built over the Inca Temple, as if to demonstrate the destruction and annulment of the Inca faith.

Notice the smaller door on the lower right hand side of the larger door.

This wall is part of the adjacent Inca Temple of the Moon. The stone walls are fit together so tightly they are earthquake proof.   An artificial intelligence assessment says these walls could not be built by the Inca with the tools they had – yet they did.

We traveled above the city.  The Inca formed their capital, Cusco, in the shape of the Puma.   The Inca lived and ruled here for 300 years.  Some believe that their conquest of the area was generally peaceful because people wanted to be part of the Inca civilization.

The Inca were eventually conquered by the Spanish.  People of mixed Inca and Spanish heritage are considered mestizo.  There are people  in Peru, who are still about 70% Incan.  That is because some population groups escaped into the mountains when the Spanish came.  Some remained hidden for 200 years.   As time passed, they came out and intermarried.  Their population became less DNA pure Incan.  Our guide, Enrico says he is about 40 percent Incan. 

Cristo Blanco was a gift from Arabic Palestinians in 1945 who sought refuge in Cusco after WWII. It is similar in likeness to Christ the Redeemer in Brazil but smaller.

Our next stop was to largest Incan structure.  It was named Saqsaywaman by the Spaniards.  The pronunciation sounds a little like “sexy woman.”

The complex, begun in approximately 1350, would have required the work of 25,000 men including architects, astronomers, engineers, stonecutters and stone transporters. 

The stones are placed in the shape of a zig zag, making some call it the Temple to the Lightning Bolt.  

Many of the stones weigh 150 to 200 tons. How did they get here from two miles away?  The local vicinity did not have these stones.

This square shaped section is unusual in the complex.

Like most places, the old wasn’t always valued.  Approximately 40 percent of the rocks in the complex were removed and used elsewhere in Cusco.

These stones are remains of the last glacier erosion.  This area was used as an altar.

Where there is visible damage to the stones, the damage happened in a battle between the Inca and the Spaniards. 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology did ultrasounds on the rocks of Saqsaywaman.  There is not any cement between the stones, but they could not determine how the Inca accomplished their stone cutting and placement.

Archeology and academia has found and studied skeletons found in the vicinity.  Those are of a species that shares 25 percent homosapian DNA.   These are not the same as the skeletons with the elongated skulls discovered near Nazca that share 30 percent DNA.  So, are there two extra species in Peru?

Enrique spoke about energy vortexes in a fourth dimension.  In Peru, the energy vortex is thought to occur here and in Machu Picchu.  (In Arizona, Sedona is thought to also have this energy vortex.)   He raised the questions about whether there was another species that built this place.  Did the Inca try to emulate this site later in those known to absolutely be Incan?

Our next stop was the Basilica Cathedral of Cusco. Unfortunately, once again there were no pictures allowed.

It took 100 years for the Catholic Church to build Cusco’s cathedral but the Inca didn’t accept their Jesus.  Over time the priests began to introduce the Virgin Mary.  The Inca loved and accept her because they were used to worshipping Pachamama, mother earth.

Enrique told us that religion in Inca traditions always involved decorated skirts.  This tradition has transferred to providing a garment for Jesus. There is a multi-year wait for the privilege of providing the skirt for the Black Jesus.

Enrique’s extended family provided a skirt for Black Jesus in 1990. At that very time, a cousin was healed of polio. The family received a certificate of miracle from Pope John Paul II.

Black Jesus, thought to be more similar in appearance to the local Incan, mestizo, population was created in 1620.  It was brought out of the church in 1650 and is credited with stopping continued tremors from a devastating earth quake that killed over 5000 people. Black Jesus is credited with stopping a plague in the  next century.  A procession of Black Jesus around the city of Cusco still happens annually.

One of my favorite memories of our visit to the Basilica Cathedral of Cusco is a painting of The Last Supper.  The painting was represented or our entrance ticket and this is a photo of that ticket.

In a very large painting, Jesus and his disciples are eating guinea pig at The Last Supper.  Although some were offended by the rendition, it makes perfect sense because guinea pig is considered a delicacy.  They were eating important food at an important meal.

After our tours, a group of us went to Paddy’s, the highest elevation Irish Pub in the World. Sounds like a must do, doesn’t it?

We shared the best Shepherd’s Pie we have ever had!

Later in the evening, I saw  this group of four dogs wandering the streets. We have seen so many unattended dogs – over a hundred – all over Peru. .  This has been difficult for dog lovers to see but they all seemed to be in good shape, many with collars and/or blanket wraps.  Our guide said almost all have homes.  They enjoy their days out and about and return home in the evening.  I’m not completely sure this is true – but it sounds nice and made us feel better about seeing so many dogs!

We were in Cusco on September 20, 2024

Next Up: We journey to the Peruvian Amazon