Cusco

Cusco is a magical city.  Although the Spaniards destroyed most of the Inca city, they build on top of it, so there is a lot underneath and you can see the old Inca walls.  We had the best hotel, as  I have said and we had 2 days to explore the city.  We stayed near the Plaza de Armas and also went back up the hill to San Blas and the old Inca sites.  Saqsayhuaman is a fortress where the Inca held ceremonies and kept a watch on Cusco.  It is also sacred and related to astrology and the solstices.  It's where they held the Inti Raymi, or winter solstice festival that we went to the next day, June 24th.

There is a huge field where the Inti Raymi is reenacted.  The same massive stones of granite are evident and, again, we marvel at their ability to get those many-ton slabs of granite up there.

Everywhere you walk in Cusco you can see the age.  The cobblestone streets and the beautiful cathedrals.  There is some beautiful Catholic stuff in Peru; it's just hard to enjoy it when you think about what they did.

This is the main cathedral in the Plaza de Armas.  We loved the flag.  The first time we saw it was on a bus in the Amazon.  We thought it was the gay pride flag and I was thinking those homophobic latins must have really evolved.  But, no, it's the Inca flag with the colors of the rainbow and they are all over Cusco, especially for Inca festivals.
Inti Raymi is the most important festival in Cusco.  We spent the day watching various parts of it.  It starts at the Qorikancha, the richest temple in the Inca Empire.  It means "golden courtyard" and the walls were literally covered with gold.

Dancers appearing on the wall of the Qorikancha

The Inca appears after a lot of dancing and it is obvious that they've practiced and practiced.  I had a weird experience here.  We were taken by our tour guide to a reserved space where we could see well.  Some very pushy French older tourists pushed in front of us.  The women were shorter so we didn't say anything, but when Mariana tried to take pictures, they became angry and they kept pushing more and more of their people up front.  I asked them to please stop pushing us and one of the men punched me in the face.  Gillian told him to leave her mother alone and hit him back.  We got no help from the police and finally another Peruvian man tried to help us.  Very scary.  Gillian karate chopped him in the arm as he reached for me again.  Luis was with Marcio back at the hotel, but that was my last crowd for the day....luckily we had seats for the main festival later in the day.

Dancers

The Inca

After the first stage of the festival, the dancers walk to the Plaza de Armas and the dancing continues.  When they have all paraded around the Plaza de Armas, then everyone, and I mean everyone, heads up the hill to Saqsayhuaman the fort I mentioned above.  Thousands of people climb the hill and mini-markets are set up along the streets.  People cook and sell food, and party in the streets.  It's quite a sight.  We loved the action.

dancers in the Plaza de Armas

Inti Raymi is the Festival of the Sun.  It is a reenactment of the winter solstice festival that took place at Saqsayhuaman.  So, heading up the hill we sat  through 3 hours of dancing and ritual and fake sacrifices; they don't actually sacrifice a llama anymore.  The pageantry is amazing!!

We enjoyed the whole spectacle and the girls got into the spirit of the day with braids and ribbon of the Inca flag.

Gillian and Mariana

Us in the crowd

As always the Inca's arrival is spectacular.  He speaks in Quechua, but we had a program that translated everything for us.  Mostly, they thank the sun god a lot for good harvest and make sacrifices for the future hope of good rains and good harvests.  We left the next day for Puno and Lake Titicaca.  More on that later.

The Inca's arrival