Cusco

La Catedral on Plaza de Armas in Cusco

2011 Inca Sculputre Atop 19th Century Fountain

The Incas laid out Cusco in the shape of a puma, with the head of the puma in Saqsayhuaman, which we would be touring with Gate 1 on our second day in Cusco.  Our hotel was at the point of the puma's tail, so we could follow the outline of the tail on either of two Inca pathways from our hotel to the body of the city.  Cusco was obviously a planned community, which my oldest daughter Gina would undoubtedly note to be a very walkable environment encouraging a healthy lifestyle.  The puma represents the life of men on earth as one of three important totems in Inca lore.  The others, the snake and condor, represent the underworld and upper world, respectively.  While modern urban sprawl has since expanded Cusco beyond its original shape, from the air it would have looked like a puma during the prime of Inca civilization, fitting for the capital of their earthly empire.  While UFO theorists would claim this to be proof of ancient aliens who previously settled on earth advertising to ETs in flying saucers zooming through the atmosphere (possibly for some pre-historic Motel Puma), more rational minds (like Julie's) point out that the shape could also be seen entering the valley from surrounding mountaintops.

 

Inca Wall in Cusco

Most of the original Inca structures were knocked down and replaced by the Spanish, who found Inca stone buildings to be primitive.  However, the Inca's perfectly fitted stones, which not requiring mortar could move slightly to withstand jolts to allow the structure to remain relatively in tact rather than in rubble was particularly suited for the high levels of seismic activity found in much of Peru, including Cusco.  Spanish builders apparently recognized the strength of these Inca walls, because they frequently kept them as foundations for their Moorish-influenced European-style structures.  Spanish colonial architecture certainly has its own beauty, but anyone visiting Cusco will be amazed by how Inca builders could plane natural stones smooth enough to fit together as a strong structure without mortar, despite having nothing but harder rocks as tools.

Plaza de Armas

Whether traveling or at home, I like to get an early start on the day, not wanting to delay the promise of another beautiful morning.  I headed down to the lobby of our modern hotel and checked the internet on the free Wi-Fi.  The best way to check voice mail when out of the country is to use Skype Pro, and I find surprisingly few messages considering the number of telemarketing calls I normally receive.  As you know, the internet will eat up your entire life if you give it a chance, so I'm happy that Julie tore me away to head into the buffet breakfast, which was included daily with our tour.  There were optional tours available through Gate 1 that day, and most of the others at breakfast were on their way to morning tours.  The buffet spread included plenty of delicious choices.  With the meal I drank delicious local tea, as I did each morning in Peru, because the coffee tended to be instant Nescafe and the juice being more of a thick nectar that didn't suit my tastes.  Rather than joining a tour, Julie and I wanted to explore Cusco on our own, beginning with a walk to the central plaza to attend Mass at the beautiful Catedral de Santo Domingo.

Fountain near our hotel.

The cathedral site on the central plaza had once held the Inca temple, Kiswarkancha, which the Conquistadors razed to make room to build their Gothic Renaissance cathedral.  Spanish priests and architects directed Inca laborers for 95 years to complete this World Heritage site in 1654.  In many ways, this massive church reminded me of a darker version of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, but with artwork of colonial South America rather than European masters.  A gigantic painting of the Last Supper shows Jesus and his disciples feasting on guinea pig.  Much of the silver and gold "liberated" from the Inca Empire apparently found its way into this beautiful church, and it was not the only massive church on the square, much less in the city.  Obviously, saving souls in the New World proved to yield huge profits for the Catholic Church, whose current Pope should perhaps look to these palaces present throughout the world which are filled with valuable art, if he truly wishes to redistribute wealth.  After all, it is always easy to share somebody else's wealth (some call it theft), and the true test of charity is sharing what you have earned yourself of your own free will.

Diet Inca Cola

After Mass, we went back to the hotel to change into shorts and t-shirts before heading back to Plaza de Armas, where we randomly selected a second floor balcony table at Papillon for lunch, with the promise of free Pisco Sours by the restaurant's street representative sealing the deal.  The restaurant has a beautiful view of the plaza and surrounding area, and the service was friendly.  On this visit, we split a pizza, which I can't say tasted like pizza in the USA or Italy but was tasty in its own way.  Julie found comfort in a Coca Cola Lite, but I went native with an Inca Cola Zero, which tastes very much like Bazooka Bubble Gum.  My sister and Louise Delaney would have liked this when they were bubble-popping tweens.  When Gina, who visited Cusco on a health study in the region, responded to Julie's facebook photo of IKZ exclaiming, "I didn't realize they had a diet version!"

View from Papillon restaurant

We enjoyed Papillon so much that we returned the next day after our excursion for a late lunch, and based on our recommendation, several others from our group were also sitting on the balcony of the handsome restaurant along with us.  We splurged for full meals this time, and my Urubamba trout was  excellent.  We also ventured to another balcony café catty-corner from Papillon in the late afternoon of our first day for a happy-hour-time drink (Cusqueña Negra for me and Bailey's Coffee for Julie), and the view was great from that angle too.

Julie with natives in traditional clothing.

Plaza de Armas (literally "Weapons' Square") is a name assigned to central squares in Hispanic American cities, including what had once been a larger plaza called Huacaypata by the Incas.  It had been the cultural center of the Inca Empire, fittingly located in the heart of the puma shape that is Cusco, their capital city.  It was used for formal festivals and more casual gatherings.  The first Inca, Manco Cupac, migrated from Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca and founded Cusco around the twelfth century. Legend further says he threw his golden staff on the ground, and when it was swallowed up by the earth, he knew the land would be fertile, as the sun god Inti had prophesied, making it his ideal new homeland.



Inca inspired doorway

It is from the heart of Cusco that the Inca Empire gradually grew to encompass the Sacred Valley and the area all the way to Lake Titicaca, before gaining momentum under Pachacutec and eventually capturing all  lands from Central Chile to Columbia, with parts of Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador.  In 1572, the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amura, was executed by beheading in this plaza, and the Spanish would rule Peru for centuries.  About 200 years later, however, Jose Gabriel Tupac Amaru, who claimed to be a direct descendent of Tupac Amaru, rose to prominence as the Marquis of Oropesa, a noble title which gave him some political power in the Spanish colonial government.

View from Balcony of Plaza Coffee Cafe

 

While he also had Spanish ancestors, Tupac Amaru II, as he came to be known, obviously did not identify with being a citizen of Spain.  He led a native revolution, which failed, and like his great, great, great-grandfather, he was beheaded in a public spectacle at Plaza de Armas.  Before what the Spanish must have considered that symbolic end, however, he had his arms and legs tied to horses that ran in opposite directions.  It's hard to believe such barbarism took place in this beautiful, serene plaza.





Even sneakers had artistic flair

While this is a bit off the topic, approximately 200 years after Tupac Amaru II's excruciating execution, a baby was born in East Harlem, New York. His parents were Black Panthers.  His mother, who had been acquitted in her ninth month of pregnancy of 150 counts of conspiracy against the government of the United States and New York City landmarks, was so inspired by the stories of these last Incas that she gave her son the name Tupac Amaru Shakur. He was raised among Black Panther revolutionaries and became a rapper also known as 2Pac.  Tupac Shakur sold 75 million records and became an American success story.  However, the thug culture lifestyle that he glamorized and rode to his fame came back to haunt him in 1996, when he was gunned down in a drive by shooting in Las Vegas.  While I'm not in the habit of advising baby names, I would leave Tupac Amaru off the table, as it seems to lead to violent ends.




Inca Stones

Cusco today, on the other hand, does not seem to be a violent place.  We never felt any danger walking the streets among pleasantly countenanced locals.  There are police stationed at many city corners, and a fan of the Beatles song Lovely Rita Meter Maid must be in charge of the assignments, because the most beautiful Peruvian women seemed to hold these positions.  The Spanish colonial architecture, by the way, is also beautiful, which is something sometimes overlooked in complaints about destruction of the Inca structures they replaced and praise of the phenomenal ability of Incas to perfectly fit stones together into walls before the invention of power tools, much less lasers.  It is not a wealthy city, but the people seem content.  On a narrow road with Inca walls on each side, four children played a kicking game with an empty plastic bottle, perfectly happy to enjoy the sunny day without needing the latest video game or Chinese-manufactured toy.  Other than that faux ball, we saw nothing I would call trash in this very clean city.  We went to Peru to experience Machu Picchu, but we found we also really appreciated and enjoyed Cusco.

Huge Mosaic Tile Picture of Cusco

Point of the Puma's Tail in Cusco

Alley where kids played bottle soccer

Valentina Restaurant

Drinks and snacks at Valentina

Pub we planned to visit but was closed on Sunday.



 Catedral, with Papillon at far end of block on same side.

Saksaywaman (Saqsayhuaman)

As with many of the other cities of Peru, Saksaywaman has many alternative spellings, but most tourists refer to it as "Sexy Woman."  In the Quechua language of the Incas, Saksaywaman means "satisfied falcon."  It sits high above the city of Cusco, like a falcon's aerie in the perfect strategic position to protect the city below.

It was at one time a huge fortress, built in a manner similar to concentric castles of the middle ages in Europe, allowing the defenders to withdraw within the next inner sanctum when one wall was breached.  The inner walls and towers were terraced onto higher ground than the outer wall.

The longest of its walls measures about 450 yards, and it is built of massive Andesite boulders, some weighing 150 to 200 tons each, according to experts.  It makes anyone wonder how primitive people could have possibly smoothed and fit such huge stones together so perfectly that a piece of paper could not slide through the joints between stones, and all without benefit metal tools, much less jackhammers, pneumatic saws or lasers.  Even moving them into position would seem to have been impossible without modern motorized cranes.

Unfortunately, the walls no longer stand nearly as high as they once did, as the Conquistadors forced their Andean labor to drag the boulder blocks down to Cusco, over a mile away, to be used in rebuilding the city to Spanish architectural standards.  While it may sound like archaeological sacrilege to have destroyed such an amazing fortress, the Conquistadors had their reasons.

After the Siege of Cusco, in which Manco II parlayed his victory at Ollantaytambo with a nearly successful 10-month campaign to re-take Cusco using Saksaywaman as his headquarters, the Spaniards acted decisively to ensure the fortress could never be utilized for such purposes again by systematically dismantling it piece by piece.  We're fortunate that apparently some of the blocks were too big to move, although perhaps someone recognized the historical significance and left the ruins behind intentionally for posterity, once its practical function as a fortress had been laid waste.

Llamas that freely roam the impressive grounds don't seem to mind sharing their home with tourists snapping photos.