Tag Archives: Pisac

Cusco

Cusco, PeruCusco is a wonderful city. There is so much to do and see in a relatively small area (not that Cusco is small just seems like everything is close enough not to be overwhelmed or frustrated by the logistics of it all.) The place we were staying was right off of the Plaza D’armas, and it was really cute and clean.

They had a communal sun room, communal kitchen with a TV and computer area and all the tea you could want for free which was great because it was fricken cold at night. Only one day was a little frustrating as the water stopped working completely. Apparently there are random water restrictions in the City of Cusco that residents have absolutely no control over.

In Cusco, we ended up purchasing the Boleto Turistico, which is necessary to visit most, but not all, of the ruins, museums and monuments. We used ours to visit Sacsayhuaman (a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1983), the ruins at Ollantaytambo and Pisac (as previously mentioned). We also visited the museum at Qorikancha. We had hopes of visiting Tipon as well, but by the time we saw all of the other sites there was no motivation left in me for a 5 hour round trip.

Cristo BlancoWikipedia has a panoramic photo of Sacsayhuaman.  Check it out. While at Sacsayhuaman, we went to Cristo Blanco as well. It was a bit of a trek, but I wanted to see it.  You can see the tall white Jesus from Cusco. He’s kind of like a mini Christ the Redeemer. (Cristo Blanco was a gift from Palestinians settled in Peru to Peruvians.)

We walked Av El Sol, one of the main streets, and saw the monument of Pachacutec, but didn’t have time to do a tour. More on Pachacutec later. We also found the famed 12-sided stone in the Incan wall on one of the side streets of Cusco, Hatunrumiyoc. ps: Kind of weird that there is a police officer guarding the rock.

Hatunrumiyoc
Bet you just counted the sides didn’t you?

 

Dio mio!

Finally on board the train to Machu Picchu and have some down time to actually make an update.

Yesterday was pretty rough, (but not as bad as today.) It was our first day in Cusco and seemed like it was going to be a good weather day. Oh no…it turned to torrential down pour, and then it turned to hail. Bad weather makes for a tough time taking photos and walking around. And, that makes Jon crabby!!

Today we ended up at the Pisac Ruins and wandered around forever. And then the place closed and there were no people to follow around. And then we were lost in some ancient Incan maze of ruins that all look the same. That makes Jill crabby! Jon says it was like a multi-player level gone bad. Long story short a taxi driver saved us from a 15km hike down a treacherous road that was half blocked with an old mudslide.

More on the taxi driver later, Amigos!

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