Day 4 - Cusco - Ruins Tour
The coca leaves that I got from a German dude that was staying at the hostel
Church of San Blas...it has one of the most famous pieces of wood carvings in the Americas, a beautiful mestizo pulpit carved from a single cedar trunk. Sorry no pictures inside any of the churches.
The famous formation of rocks at Sacsayhuaman, just above the city of Cusco. You can pronounce it "Sexy Woman" but its not entirely correct. It's more like "Sexai whoa-man"
Closeup...I fought through a headache pretty much the entire time, so these were hard-earned pictures. Hehehehe
Margaret really blends in well
Interesting terrace structure...
360 of Saqsaywaman
[Picture from Margaret] You can get a feel for the size of the rocks...huge boulders.
One normal pic...look at that Incan doorway!
I have no idea what that pose is
[Picture from Margaret] You never feel the same after a pic with Margaret...esp when a stranger is helping take a picture of you.
High up above Cusco
"Incan construction" as our Inca Trail guide Ozzy would say
Funny thing about Margaret's bag...it had an open top that just screamed "Please look inside my bag". Nothing happened to any of us though. No slashers...nothing.
I seriously had no idea why I was doing the Asian thing this trip...usually I don't.
Defensive stairs
Pretty steep
Lack of water + high altitude = weird antics. Looking back I wonder what I was thinking...
There's almost no mountain left to build on!
Alpacas grazing nearby
[Picture from Margaret] Waiting for the taxi that never came back...lucky we had Jose
The spring shrine of Tambo Machay
[Picture from Margaret] No...Margaret didn't fill her bottle with the water. We did have Pepto-Bismol though.
Our guide Jose explains his interpretation of Tambo Machay...that it was a place where virgin babes would come bathe. Hahahaha jk, he said that its possible that the rumor that the Inca emperor would bathe there was true but he believed that it was probably a shrine of some sort that was protected by Puka Pukara, our next stop.
Awesome view of the mountains from just above Tambo Machay
At Tambo Machay, we met 2 odd-looking local Peruvians...something about them was off...
We did end up getting the parkas but not the hats. That was a whole bargaining ordeal...actually I made him bundle it with another hat.
The Inca Fortress of Puka Pukara (Red Fort)
Doorway aligned with the moon
Getting pretty dark...actually I just turned the exposure down. Still it was getting there...
Another Incan Doorway
[Picture from Margaret] You can't really tell from this picture...but I have a huge headache at this point. Too much running around at high altitude I think.
A lot of the stones seem to have been taken away for use elsewhere...
Incan throne at the temple and amphitheatre of Qenqo.
[Picture from Margaret] My pic didn't show off the throne very well.
Going into the huge hallowed out stone...
Inside was an altar where llamas/alpacas were sacrificied. Incans typically did not do human sacrifices. Notice I used the word typically.
Blood stained altar...hahaha jk
Do you see the llama? Look at the brown mud that is filling the channels cut into the rock. The top middle is the head. Different animals were cut into rock. The llama, a snake, a condor, and the puma.
That wavy line near the bottom is the snake. It's a channel running downwards that would sometimes be filled with blood or drink. It's said that it was used for divination.
The seats in the amphitheatre
Cristo Blanco...it stands and looks over Cusco at the top of the mountain. He was given to the city as a mark of gratitude by Palestinian refugees in 1944.
Jose went quite a ways down this slope to take this picture...we were pretty afraid that he would trip and fall and told him to be careful...to which he replied,"No problem...I know the way".
Jose, the best taxi driver in Cusco. It was a whole adventure
Peru Trip 2005
