We have another day off of school today, by order of the Department of Education, because apparently there were more aftershocks yesterday. We didn't feel anything, so we will try to take advantage of the down time to catch up on our trip recaps.
We got to Cuzco on Wednesday the 21st and it is just a beautiful place. Cuzco was the capital of the Inca empire, which had swelled in size in the 100 years prior to the Spanish arrival in 1532, and still boasts a lot of Incan ruins as well as colonial buildings, since the Spanish coopted Cuzco after their defeat of the Incas. The city is at about 3350 meters above sea level (almost 11,000 feet) and is surrounded by hills. I found it to be just lovely.
Here is the Plaza de Armas:
We stayed in a hostel right on the plaza, so you couldn't beat the location. Back in the Inca's day, apparently the plaza was even bigger, probably double the size, but when the Spanish came they changed things to the way they are today. The Spanish also added some gigantic churches to the plaza, including this one built by the Jesuits, Iglesia de la Compania:
This is the Cathedral of Cuzco, which is just gigantic.
Both churches were built in the 1500s, and according to our Lonely Planet book, the Jesuits and the Diocesan contingent were fighting about the church construction, because the Diocesans were worried that the Jesuit church was too fancy and would compete with or take away from the Cathedral. They even tried to get the Pope involved, but given the considerable distance from Cuzco to Rome, especially in the 1500s, his response that the Cathedral should be fancier than the Jesuit church didn't arrive until after the Jesuits were done. Regardless, there are now two amazingly ornate churches right on the plaza.
The Cathedral actually has a smaller chapel on each side of it, so when we toured it we got to see three churches in one. They are all quite ornate, and have some huge artwork on the walls, but my favorite part was the painting, from 1650, of the Plaza de Armas during the earthquake that year. You can see the cathedral and the buildings around the square, similar to the way they look today, with fires coming out of some roofs and stones falling off some buildings, and there are a group of people marching around carrying a crucifix that they had taken from the church. The story, according to the text on the painting, is that the people were praying for the earthquake to stop and it did. The crucifix is still in the church as well, and is quite popular as a place for special prayer requests.
The plaza also has a nice fountain in the middle, so here we are checking it out:
Our first day in Cuzco we also set up a tour of some Inca ruins in the surrounding area, and got to attend a performance of traditional dances that night:
I took a bunch of pictures but not many came out. In this one at least you can get the idea of some of the costumes. It was a fun evening and several of the dances reminded us of Día Familiar here at Miguel Pro.
Up next: Our tour of the Sacred Valley
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