Cusco – An Enchanting Place

Qué Bueno! Nos encanta a Cusco!

We actually did not take too many photos. Spent our time taking it all in. There some extra shots under Cusco in Photo Albums for those interested.

While Cusco is a bit of a tourist mecca it is a beautiful city of 500,000 odd people at 3400m.

Most South American cities have a merry, hectic street energy and Cusco is no exception. Walk through the Plaza de Armas in Cusco and you’ll see touts selling water, food, finger puppets, paintings, bags and textiles. You could be forgiven for feeling like a walking ATM, and wish ‘no gracias’ was written prominently on a sign around your neck

The streets are narrow and cars, pedestrians, dogs and llamas seem to share them quite happily. We have seen 11 school children fit in the back of a normal sedan with the driver and two teachers, drivers talking on mobile phones – one driver we had was using his 2 phones and driving at the same time.

It sounds hectic but it is an enchanting, beautiful place. You can’t walk fast (those of us born with normal size lungs, get very puffed) so you can just take your time and soak it all up!

We could not drive anywhere near our apartment and so had to lug our bags up the stairs of several streets, but we were rewarded with a great view over the city. There were tooting trains and cars, music, dogs, chickens and occasional gunshots – we hope shooting wild dogs, markets, fountains and even a couple of weddings late at night.

Cuzco is the oldest continuously inhabited city in South America, and the continent’s undisputed archaeological capital. One of the closest sites, only a 2 km walk up the hill is Sacsaywamán (in English pronounced Sexy Woman), In 1536 the fort was the site of one of the most bitter battles of the Spanish conquest. It seems huge but apparently what we see is only 20% of what it was. One building stone, incredibly, weighs more than 300 tons.

I am very sad to be leaving this wonderful place. We could spent a lot more time here. The kids are starting to gain confidence with their spanish, so much so on our last flight William watched 2 movies on the spanish channel! Perhaps he just didn’t realise that there was English as well!!!

We must continue on our adventure – so after all that high altitude training we have been doing we are rewarded with a week the beach in Mexico!

Adios!