From Puno we boarded a tourist bus for the 6 hour trip to Cusco stopping at a few interest spots and lunch along the way. Four stops included Pukara for a Inca and pre-Inca museum, La Roya for beautiful mountain view points as we passed into Cusco valley (5th row down right), Sicuani for nice lunch, and Raqchi for an Inca temple (5th row down center) plus one additional stop for a 15th century church that we never got to due to farmers blocking the one road to Cusco with huge rocks, trees and anything else they could find to stop traffic. We were at a total stop for more than 1.5 hours while the farmers had a confrontation with police to protest unfair taxes and contaminated water supply (5th row down left). Luckily we were only a little over an hour from Cusco making our arrival at 7.30 pm manageable.
Our Cusco hotel, off the Plaza San Blas was nice, but noisey as we were inconveniently located
next door to a music school where piano, violin, and singing classes were heard from early morning to early evening. The city of Cusco was very busy with cramped cobbled streets, vendors, and great food options. A personal favorite was Jack's Cafe where comfort food like gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches were offered with refreshing citrus/mint frappas....yum. Among the sites enjoyed, were the Cathedral off the main square, Plaza de Armas, and the Saint Dominic Priory-Qorikancha rich in Incan history. (4th row down, center & right)
During our stay we took an all day excursion to the Sacred Valley with a private driver, tour guide (Raul), and new friend we met at the hotel (David from Minnesota). First stop was an interesting animal sanctuary for lamas, alpaca, vicuna where we could feed the aminals alphalfa and learn how their wools are dyed, processed, and woven or knitted into top quality goods. (3rd row down, center & right)
It was a magnificent day as we continued on to Pisac with it's flowing terraces and Inca city remains, then in town, it's infamous Sunday market where everything you can imagine is sold. (2nd row down, left, center & right) We were also given a private tour of a silver factory where we could see first hand how the silver jewlery is prepared, stones selected, etc.
Next stop was Ollantaytambo with amazing terraces that lead to remains of a sun temple and the town below with preserved street plan and waterways from an Inca settlement. After walking up 290 steep stairs to the sun temple we also were amazed to see the carvings into the mountains of Inca profile to left, face with beard in center, and area for food storage to right (top row, center & right). This was one of our favorite sites.
Last stop at end of the day was to Chincheros where we were impressed with dramatic landscapes and a 15th century church built on top of Inca ruins. (top row, left) The interior was lavishly decorated with gold leaf and beautiful hand paintings on the walls and ceiling depicting religious-historical themes with a Peruvian twist - like the battle between Christian Spanish and the Moors with the Spanish riding lamas instead of horses. Amazing.
Last day in Cusco Susan got a terrible sore throat, cough and cold. Since she was determined to be healthy enough to see Machupicchu, she got some good drugs, rest and had lots of positive thoughts.
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