cuscotopia

kaboom

our next stop after arequipa was cusco and the sacred valley. another fairly early morning but the hotel was kind enough to pack us a little bag breakfast - yogurt, an apple, and a sad little sandwich. okay, maybe it was more of a bagged lunch. the flight itself was fairly uneventful except that oh yeah, i saw a volcano erupting. i just happened to look out the window, luckily it was in time to catch a glimpse of it.

when we made our way over the andes and landed we were at our highest elevation yet. arequipa had been about 8,000 ft above sea level but cusco was something like 11,000. it was probably in our best interest to do it all gradually. i didn't notice many problems although i did get a little short of breath at times when normally i wouldn't have. we got a taxi and within about 15 minutes we were in the center of town. the outskirts reminded me a bit of nepal at first, a mountainside city with shoe box style houses stacked on top of one another. the historic district was a bit more spread out. our hotel was just about a block and a half from the main square. my mom had booked a different hotel but then decided to splurge for the marriott, worried that she'd have trouble with the altitude. (the marriott is one of those upscale hotels that has oxygen piped in to the rooms). it was pretty fancy, too - the hotel itself was built inside a converted convent, complete with a massive central courtyard (once cloisters). there was an entire spa in the basement - with a sauna, hot tub, and heated pool - and the breakfast tables seemed never-ending.

why is it called the plaza de armas, anyway? what arms?

after quickly getting settled we made our way to the plaza de armas. the weather was beautiful - nice and warm with bright blue skies - but the forecast for the next few days didn't look so good so we thought we'd try to make the most of it. we first went in the templo de la compañia de jesus, a fairly massive structure with a cavernous interior and bright gold altar screen. we couldn't take photos except when we went upt he tower steps and looked out the window on to the square. from here i was trying to find a certain convent but instead we ended up at a convent/museum that explained the lives of the nuns who once lived there. it was nicely down, exploring each facet of their lives with lots of artifacts, including their elaborate embroidery. my mom really enjoyed it - she's always liked learning about life in the cloisters. no photos once again, though.

clouds roll in

incan walls

from here we stopped for a quick lunch of sandwiches, empanadas and truly massive juices (we were each given a carafe that was meant to be a glass). no turkey on the menu (oh did i mention it was thanksgiving?) so we settled for chicken instead. then on to the convento santa domingo, primarily significant because it was built on the remains of qorikancha, the heard of this central incan city and the most sacred shrine, dedicated to the worship of the sun. there was still evidence of the incan civilization - many of the trademark incan stone masonry could be seen in walls and even rooms that were left intact. the genius of incan masonry is that there's no mortar joining the rocks yet nevertheless the walls are quite solid. rather than using some material in between the stones, masons painstakingly wore down the sides of each rock with a smaller stone so that the grooves would fit together perfectly. to the point that you can't fit so much as a pieces of paper between them. the later church was built on top of and around these stone walls. much like the churches built around mosques in moorish spain. the expansive courtyard was filled with tons of groups. our timing wasn't great since in addition to tons of groups the clouds rolled in just as we arrived.

rambling san blas

as we were leaving the skies were starting to clear a bit so we thought we'd do some more of our outdoor activities in the city. we hailed a taxi for a ride uphill to san blas, the bohemian area of the city filled with little cafes and artisans' shops. by the time our very quick cab ride was over the skies were blue again and the weather was glorious. from the top of a small staircase we could see over the red rooftops of cusco, enjoying a light breeze. we walked around the main plaza, filled with lovely brightly blue doors and white and yellow walls. even the street signs were lovely, decorated with carved bells and painted flowers. also dotting the plaza were a few groups of women, dressed in traditional peruvian garb walking with llamas. their aim is to get tourists to take a photo of them (i have to admit, baby llamas are quite enticing) and then get a little money from them. occasionally the police chase them off so i imagine it's discouraged.

gorgeous doors

we continued walking around the plaza and up some steps to a little alleyway. definitely the hostel dwellers' destination of choice - streets lined with silver earrings on display, incense burning from within little shops and pleasant little cafes with coffee and wifi. we made use of the latter, relaxing for a bit in a lovely little courtyard as we sipped café con baileys (only to be found in touristy areas to be sure - but does anything say 'vacation' more than bailey's in your coffee?) and wrote some postcards.

elaborate signs

we popped in and out of shops along the street, where i was delighted to discover a shop filled with hand-painted ceramics, a craft i hadn't seen too much of in peru as yet. the pieces were all done by one artist, tater camilo vera vizcarra, recognized by unesco. if you know my predilection for tiles you'll know that i was already done for. i walked away with a lovely little circular tile painted with a hummingbird, which i thought was a nice reminder of my time in arequipa. exploring the area made for a perfectly pleasant afternoon and a very nice introduction to cusco.

downhill we go

we rambled through the area and slowly made our way down a sloping street lined with little souvenir shops and more upscale alpaca stores (which i've seen alternately called cuesta de san blas, hatunrumiyoc, and calle triunfo on the map). a narrow street with well-worn cobblestones, from the top we could see some rooftops and into the main square at the bottom. again the streets were dotted with lovely bright blue shutters and window grills and the occasional flower pot. we popped in and out of shops, looking for scarves, blankets, and little knick knacks, making note of items we might like to buy later and what the going rates seemed to be. when we made it down to the main square it was getting close to dusk. there were plenty of people milling around - families out for the evening, tourists taking photos and several women selling gladiolas (which seem to be a favorite for worshipers who use them as offerings in church altars).

lights on in the plaza

we made our way back to the hotel - with the sun starting to go down it was quickly getting cooler. i didn't stay too long, though, before venturing back out to take some photos of the square as the sun set and the lights came on. getting a good picture was hard since it was already quite dark but i managed to get a few less-blurry shots of the fountain, the cathedral, and the hills beyond. for some reason the church facades themselves are not lit. mom was a little tired of peruvian food so we settled on a restaurant that had some non-peruvian dishes. as for myself i tried an entree that had two dishes i'd been wanting to try - chicharrones (fried pork, quite good) with tacu tacu (little yellow balls of rice and lentils, sort of odd), all accompanied by what i will go on record saying has to be the best juice combo there is - pineapple/mango/passion fruit. mom had some pasta that was surprisingly good. that night i made full use of the spa's sauna, steam room (which had some kind of giant leaves) and hot tub and, in spite of the hotel's size, i was the only person there. (idiots!)

massive doorway

the next day we ventured off into the sacred valley and towards machu picchu, but we we returned a few days later we were able to do a bit of what we'd missed in cusco before. it was a bit rainy, as predicted so we were happy to finish up some shopping, splurging on alpaca sweaters and finding some patterned shoes for me and adorable little booties for my friend expecting a baby. we also went in the cathedral - much like many of the churches we'd been in before (including the ban on photos that i think is rather silly in the age of smart phones) it was cavernous and filled with lots of gold and embellished altar niches. there were a few murals that helped explain the history of the city, punctuated by several major earthquakes. all in all we found cusco to be a perfectly pleasant city with lovely shops, significant architectural and archaeological sites and of course gorgeous carved and colorful doors. a hallmark of many great cities, i'd say.