Images by John Page unless otherwise noted
Day 11, September
14, Saturday
Cuzco See Map
Sept. 14, Saturday – In the morning, we bought our Boletas Turisticos (tourist tickets necessary for many attractions in and around Cuzco), and went to see the Religious Art Museum and the Inca Museum. I particularly enjoyed the latter, but we had to rush through it because we were scheduled to take an afternoon tour in a tour bus with a local guide.
The first stop on our tour was Koriconcha, the site of an Inca temple that was destroyed by the Spanish who then built a church, Santo Domingo, on the Inca foundations.
Next was
the cathedral. It was enormous, with many side-chapels. 
The place was
brimming with tourists following their guides around just like us. As we
walked through the various sanctuaries and chapels, we were accompanied by
haunting hymns being sung in Quechua by a group of Indians. I wish now I
had bought one of the cassettes they were selling. Our excellent guide
pointed out a large painting of the Last Supper, showing Christ and his
disciples about to eat a cuy (guinea pig), a traditional Andean
dish.
From the cathedral, we drove up
to Sacsayhuaman, the huge Inca fortress that overlooks Cuzco. 
This
impressive site may also have been a ceremonial structure. It is supposed
to form the head of a gigantic puma – with the town of Cuzco as its
body. We only had time to walk along the base of the zigzag ramparts
(representing the teeth of the Puma) and marvel at the huge size of some
of the boulders and the perfect fit of adjacent rocks. 
It is hard to
imagine the size it once was. Only about 20% of it is left - the Spanish
carted off most of the stones to make their own buildings. Next stop was
Qenko, a large rock outcropping that was transformed into an Inca
ceremonial site with elaborate carvings. Beneath the rock are several
caves, tunnels, and carved niches and steps. 
A little farther up the road,
we were taken to Tambo Machay, a wonderful example of Inca water works 
and
stone masonry. And nearby are the ruins of Puca Pucara, an Inca hunting
lodge.
Daylight was waning by then, so we weren’t able to explore Puca Pucara. We did, however, take time to stop at a souvenir shop. Here, I bought some of the knitted caps with ear flaps for gifts.
That evening, we walked down to the main plaza again and ate in a little restaurant on a narrow side street. Had asparagus soup again – my favorite, and an entrée of tasty truchas (trout). On the way back to the hotel I stopped at a tourist shop and splurged ($218 US) on a beautiful little silver, inlaid figure of the Sicán culture.
