First Day in Cusco

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Trip Start Sep 10, 2009 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 19, 2009

  Cusco, Peru
Saturday, September 12, 2009

This is coming to you from Cusco, Peru! at the end of another long day. But, here's how we got here. . . Our morning rendezvous came at 7:45 am to meet with our REI rep Ofelia to give us boarding passes and get us to the right place at the airport. We met everyone in the hotel lobby and all seemed to be great folk. So, we are 2 from Arizona and their 2 good friends from Georgia, 2 from Washington state, 2 add ons from Minnesota, and the 2 hicks from Texas. We briefly got to know each other and then we were off to the airport to catch our plane to Cusco at 9:30. The trip was short, just about an hour, but we had a great conversation with a man from Lima who was a distributor of construction safety gear and clothing. We shared photos of our trip and his business and family - made the trip go a lot faster!
The approach and landing in Cusco was exciting because of the mountains all around over 12,000 ft. and a short runway . . . lots of brakes and reverse engine thrusters

President Tommy's arrival

! Deplaning was down a roll-up stair case just like the President! Made me feel very important. I even waved to everyone! Peggy didn't understand, but that's nothing new!
Our greeter, Miguel, met us with our driver, Ivan, outside and hurried us to our hotel to unload and get ready for our afternoon tour. On the way, he told us some of the things we would be doing today and that we would meet our guide for the week, Erika Palomino at the hotel. He said she was the best Machu Picchu guide REI had. We arrived at the hotel about 11:20, filled out some paperwork and then met Erika. We had a little over an hour to get settled in our rooms, get some lunch and meet in the lobby to begin our tour.
Our room, oh, yeah, our room. Nice double bed with a couch and hardwood floors, long desk with a great view of Cusco from our window, some of which you will see and marvel at.(Oh, by the way, our room in Lima was just as good, but we didn't have the presence of mind to take pictures the first day!) The Novotel Hotel is built on a colonial building which, as so many have been, was built on top of Inca ruins like most of the city. They are still finding ruins all over town while undergoing construction today. The architecture is modified from an open courtyard mansion and converted to a hotel. It is quite modern yet traditional at the same time.

Miguel, the airport contact

Our first trip was to a ruin called Saqsaywaman or sometimes they call it (cover your ears children) "sexy woman." This is a large ruin that is continuing to be restored and is the site of the world renown Inti Raymi Festival where the various pre-Inca tribes are represented in celebration of culture, song, dance and tradition. A large open field between the ancient structures is the setting for thousands of people in native costume celebrating their heritage. Then we were off to Tambomachay, another ruin that had a central spring for the surrounding community. The ancient Inca put great significance on things from the earth that they counted on for sustenance. A brief stop at Puca Pucara (red earth) gave us a view of the Inca trail that we would be traveling tomorrow. Then a stop at Q'Enqo where we saw numerous rock carvings and a large carved table in a cave where it is thought that the Inca performed brain surgeries and probably a few sacrifices. On our return back to the hotel we stopped at the Inca temple Koricancha, on which the Spanish built a monastery and church,of course. It was interesting to see how the Spanish "converted" the Inca temples and buildings into their own structures incorporating them into the foundations and making them quite sturdy over the years.
Our last stop was the Santo Domingo Church, which is actually 3 churched in one, built over the years since 1537 and using native artisans to decorate some of the artifacts in the church. When the native population wasn't converting fast enough for the Spanish, they allowed them to incorporated some of their own religious heritage showing the importance of "Mother Earth" in the "mountainous" shape of the Virgin's dress, or adding snake designs to some of the paintings of clothing as well as using Llamas in European scenes before they would have actually arrived there.
So, tomorrow we are off to Pisac for more exploration of ruins, markets and native cultures.

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The Roomy Room	View of Cusco from hotel room window	Erika, the best guide in the area!	Saqsaywaman open field
Ancient Inca Spring	Operating/Sacrificial/Ceremonial Table	Monastery on Inca ruins site	Santo Domingo Church

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