Cusco, Cuzco, Qosqo
We made it to the capital city of the Incas after a long journey through the Lima airport.
When looking up our flight from Rio, we realized that we had about 24 hours to spend in Lima before continuing on to Cusco. We spent the day downtown visiting some churches and museums, and had some great ceviche and picso sours. Back at the airport we had to wait until 4:30am to check in and get on the plane. Unfortunately, they won’t let you past security more than an hour before your flight and there were a shortage of chairs in the part we did have access to. We got kicked out of one spot by the cleaning crew, but finally got a few hours rest on a window sill. It was great to finally get on the plane and have a more comfortable place to sleep. However, we weren’t going anywhere due to the weather in Cusco. After two hours of napping, we were woken up by an announcement telling us to get off the plane and wait for two more hours in the terminal for news about the fog in Cusco. We did eventually get there, just a little behind schedule.
The city, Q’osqo in the Quechua language of the Inca, renamed Cusco by the Spanish, also seen spelled with a ‘z’, reflects both cultures in it’s architecture. There are several original Inca walls, doorways, and buildings, mixed in with even more Spanish churches and colonial houses. The original city is rumored to be shaped like a Puma, but the current figure seems a little distorted due to some expansion and sprawl. Even still, the stone buildings and streets are quite impressive. Even some old features like channels for water are still built into the streets. Cusco is also surrounded by ruins of temples and other old settlements, Sacsayhuaman, one of the closest and most impressive, represents the Puma’s teeth in the outline of the city.
We took a tour of the Sacred Valley, where most of the other ruins are located. The highlights were Pisac and Ollantaytambo. Some sites were built only by the Inca, but several also had pre-Inca buildings. When these earlier peoples were conquered by the Inca, the cities weren’t destroyed but expanded keeping the original buildings in place. In addition to the ruins, we also got a look at life in the countryside. All types of animals were roaming the streets, cows, sheep, pigs, llamas, alpacas, etc.. Most of the activity was farming, some families are even using the ancient terraces. We also saw some of the damage from the recent floods. Many towns were built right on the river, and whole fields of corn were underwater, along with houses which were typically made from mud bricks. Bridges were washed out and people were living in government-provided tents. The river was far from normal levels and it looked like it would take quite some time for things to be restored and rebuilt.
In addition to the ruins, we spent time in quite a few churches and museums in town. The Spanish decided the best way to convert their conquered empire to Catholicism was to build churches over the top of the Inca temples. The churches are all beautifully decorated with gold plated altar pieces and paintings made by the famous Cusco School of Art (responsible for all the religious art in the area).
This artwork has a certain local flair that also seems to extend to their view of the new religion in general. Each of the Inca gods was paired with a Saint to make the conversion easier, but it doesn’t seem like they ever totally stopped worshiping the old gods of the Sun, Moon, Earth, and Mountains to name a few. Good Friday is not a day of fasting, but a feast complete with twelve traditional dishes. The art also shares these more liberal views. There is a large painting of “The Last Supper” in the main cathedral where the main course is a guinea pig and Judas is shown with darker skin and depicted as Moor. Other curiosities that we have not seen in other parts of the world are a statue of a pregnant Mary, Saint Francis frequently shown holding a skull, and a black Jesus – known to his friends as “the Lord of the Earthquakes”.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures of these unusual items. Photography is not allowed in any church in the area. The reasons given to us were “the archbishop said so”, and that there have been problems with theft where copies of paintings were made from pictures and hung in the churches in place of the originals. Whatever the reason, you’ll have to come here to see them for yourself.