A Sunny Day in Cusco

A sunny day at the Plaza Mayor in Cusco
(Templo de la Compañía de Jesús in the background)

It's the rainy season in the Andean highlands. The forecast was for a 60 percent of rain. Instead, it was a sunny day, perfect for exploring the city at a slow pace. (A slow pace because my adjustment to the altitude is, as they say, a work in progress.)

The hotel is about a half-mile from the Plaza Mayor, the tourism epicenter of the City of Cusco.

It is located on Calle Union, which gets a lot of traffic for a one-lane, one-way street.

This is the Iglesia de San Pedro.

It is across from the Mercado de San Pedro:

The area around it is packed, probably more locals than tourists. The Mercado de San Pedro is supposed to be a good place to by souvenirs (at a lower mark-up than the souvenir shops around the Plaza Mayor) and is supposedly a great place to try local food in that middleground between street food and a sit-down restaurant. It's only open until late afternoon, so it's not a dinner option.

This is the Arco de Santa Clara, on Calle Santa Clara.

Passing through this Arch means you've left the Cusco of the locals and now are in the pure tourism town.

This is the Basilica Menor de la Merced:

Strolling along:

This is the Cusco Cathedral, on the eastern perimeter of the Plaza Mayor:

The Cathedral is incredibly beautiful and ornate inside. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside, even "sin flash" as they say in español. There are a lot of photos online of the interior. Not sure if they are official church photography, or if they were taken surreptitiously contrary to church law, or if the rules changed at some point. 

Which means we skip right to the exit door from touring the cathedral.

The Cathdedral was built on the site of the primary Incan temple in the City because, of course. Lots of cathedrals in major Latin American cities were built on such locales, primarily to destroy the indigenous religion in a manner that demonstrates the dominance of Roman Catholicism over the pre-hispanic religions. And before you tut-tut-tut about this, the Catholic church was not unique to this. See, e.g., Hagia Sophia in Constantinople/Istanbul being repurposed into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine Empire.

And this is the Plaza Mayor, a.k.a, the Plaza de Armas, as seen upon exit of the Cusco Cathedral.

There is no "no photography" rule in effect outside the Cathedral proper. The statute of Incan Emperor Pachacuti is in the middle of the plaza, on a pedestal atop the fountain int he middle of the plaza.

It's a popular portrait-photo spot. Pachacuti is the Incan ruler who is believed to have transformed the Inca from a regional presence into the dominant military and cultural force in western South America.

He is the first true "emperor" among the Inca.

That is the Templo de la Compañía de Jesús, on the southern perimeter of the Plaza Mayor.

Let's juxtapose Pachacuti and the Dome of the Basilica Menor de la Merced.

Let's zoom in on the juxtaposition:

The two cultures of Cusco, together forever. Whether they want to be or not.

This is Qorikancha. It is the ruins of an old Inca temple where the walls were covered in pure gold.

As you can see, the Spanish built the Iglesia y Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzmán literally atop Qorikancha.

Next up: the search for the Twelve Angled Stone.

It is a building stone with 12 angles, perfectly fit into the stone wall along what is now Calle Hatunrumiyoc. It's somewhere among the stones in this wall.

This wall was built by the Inca, who perfectly fit the stones together without mortar and without any visible space between the stones. The twelve angled stone is the most prominent of the large stones used in this wall construction.

Selfie at what might have been the Twelve Angled Stone:

I've got the eyes of a man ready for his afternoon nap.

This is now part of the exterior wall of the Palacio Arzobispal del Cuzco, now a religious art museum. The Palacio Arzobispal del Cuzco (no photography allowed inside) was built atop ... what? ... built atop what? That's right. An Incan temple.

Next top, the Museo de Arte Pre-Colombino:

Photography allowed! So let's click away!

This is a collection of Chimu Silver Spoons:

I didn't know the Chimu used spoons. Or had good silver cutlery for special occasions.

Above is a fine example of Chimu silversmithing. I like the Chimu. I visited their main hub, Chan Chan, outside Trujillo, Peru, on the northern coast, back in 2018. I soon realized the main purpose of this museum. Most of the tourists visiting Cusco and Machu Picchu will not go to the Chimu sites in Trujillo or the Sican and Sipan sites in Chiclayo. This museum, a Cusco outpost of the awesome Museo Larco in Lima, serves as an appetizer course for the pre-Incan cultures of Peru for those whose only visit to Peru might be to Cusco and Machu Picchu.

And there's nothing wrong with that. None of us can go everywhere. And, even if you did, could go through everything at a deliberate enough pace to remember anything?

Woodworking.

Bird staffs.

An owl to the left. Parrot to the right. I can't recall which bird species is stuck in the middle.

The explanatory language says this guy is in a religious pose.

He looks like he is having a particular difficult B.M.

I always find these sort of masks a bit on the creepy side.

And here are ceramic bowls from a pre-Incan culture, I believe the Paracas from the southern coast of Peru (near Nasca) (but not the Nasca, famous for their desert lines that will always remain inexplicable). The bowls are decorated with chili peppers.

Many thoughts. First, I did not know that South American tribes had chili peppers pre-Columbus and the globalization of the food trade. I associated chili peppers with Mexico and the four corners region of the USA. But they had them in Peru over a thousand years ago. And they decorated their bowls with them. Which left me with this thought: I too have some ceramic bowls with a chili pepper motif. Should I save them for the collection at the future Spretnak museum?

Dog and fox ceramics.

Unlike a lot of "anthropomorphic" imagery on ceramics, especially ceramics from more than a thousand years ago, these two -- especially the fox -- are very realistic.

Same with these llama head ceramics.

But I think the fox gets the gold ribbon for "most realistic" looking.

That's it for the museum. That's it for the day's sunshine-filled tourism. I'm tiring out easily here due to the combination of altitude and old age. But, in this instance, I think altitude is legitimately the primary culprit.

Time to pass through the Arch of Santa Clara and leave the tourism part of town.

Coda:

Supper blogging.

I decided to eat at a restaurant close to my hotel, primarily because I didn't feel like walking much. I chose the Restaurante y pizzería URPI, which was just down the hill from my hotel.

This was a local's joint. I was definitely the only tourist in here.

This is an Italian restaurant serving a lot of Peruvian dishes. I was going to order the lomo saltado because it is the classic Peruvian dish. But I realized that I really had a craving for pizza. So I opted for an "Italiana," with ham, mushrooms, and tomatoes.

I had a pitcher of maracuya juice -- passionfruit juice -- because I was thirsty. And they served up a big plate of ooey-gooey garlic cheese bread that would have been worth it at any price and definitely was worth what they charged for it: nada. Gratis.

The pizza arrived looking beautiful.

I ate so much of the ooey-gooey garlic cheese bread that I could only finish four of the six slices of my personal sized pizza. The price was 20 soles, or about six or seven bucks U.S. Yes, the mushrooms were probably canned. Tough to get fresh-everything up on a mountainside in a third-world country. Yes, the ham was processed and not artisanal. Did I mention it was six or seven bucks? I would have gladly paid that for the ooey-gooey garlic cheesebread by itself. Essentially, given that reality, the ham and mushroom pizza came free.

Temple of the Moon, Temple of the Sun, Chan Chan

Inside the "Temple of the Moon" archaeological project: an original wall revealed

The archaeological sites of two great pre-Incan civilizations -- the Moche and the Chimu -- are the reason to visit to Trujillo, Peru.  The Moche culture lasted from about 100 to 700 A.D. The Chimu arose around 900 A.D. and were eventually conquered by the Inca in 1470, a little more than half a century before the Inca were, in turn, conquered by Pizarro and the Spanish.

First stop: El Museo Huacas de Moche, a museum dedicated to the Moche culture:

It is located just outside the Temple of the Moon.

The museum has an interesting and informative collection of material on the Moche, but, unfortunately, photography is forbidden, so on to the Temple of the Moon.

First off, we don't know if this really was a "Temple of the Moon." The Moche disappeared around 700 A,D, and left no written records, so it is mere supposition that this and the adjacent "Temple of the Sun" had those purposes.

This is a working archaeological site that you can tour.

The roofs are in place not to protect the site from the elements, but to protect the archaeologists from the hot desert sun.

Lots of excavations to see:

The original Moche walls, in the original Moche colors (red, yellow, blue, and black) visible here.

The Chimu later took over this site and built their own walls over the existing walls.  Sort of the first millennia equivalent of re-wallpapering the walls of the house when you move in:

You might be able to see a group of students at the base of this mountain:

Zoom in closer:

Apparently they were not archaeologists and were there for some other purpose.

And here is the Temple of the Sun, which is not yet open to tourists, across the way:

These were giant pyramids, and the residential neighborhood was in the land between the two ceremonial pyramids. The pyramids were the center of government and religion. No "wall of separation between church and state" in those cultures!

Next, it is off the capital of the Chimu people:  Chan Chan.  But, first, a visit to Huanchaco, Trujillo's beach town right near Chan Chan:

Huanchaco is known for a few things in particular:

These fishing boats made of reeds:

They look like kayaks. the fish you catch go in the back part of the kayak.

It also is known for having the best ceviche on the northern coast of Peru.  This would have been great except for the fact that, on this day, I am suffering from a nasty bout of food poisoning. Food holds no interest to me at present, which is terrible, since eating delicious food is one of the main reasons to travel.

Apparently Huanchaco is also quite the surfing spot. Lots of people out in the water today. So many, if fact, it looked like surfing rush hour.

Sea bird statuary and surfers. This is the life:

And fish statuary, too.

Next stop: Chan Chan.

This is a reproduction of the "guards" in Chan Chan, which, sadly, the real stone versions are hidden from view (possibly to protect them for tourists).

Chan Chan is huge.

Even the small part open to the public is huge.

Chan Chan is, what I would call, an "all inclusive." The residential neighborhoods, the government, and the religious are all within its walls.

A dignitary of some sort from the United States was visiting at the same time as me:

Here you can see carvings of sea otters:

This is fish. Note the movement of the waves:

And the design visible here is fishing nets, which the Chimu used to get fish from the world's richest fishing grounds:

Again, this is a working archaeological site:

These are a series of small rooms without doors. Possible purpose: grain storage.

And we conclude our visit to Chan Chan with this:

A Peruvian hairless dog walking on the walls of Chan Chan.