An early morning flight to Cusco was on the agenda for day 1 of the tour.......
Flying in was a little hairy! Cusco is at an elevation of 11,200ft and is surrounded by rather high mountains!
......a bit too close for comfort........
Happy to land.....
First stop was to check out the Inca palace of Koricancha which had the Convent Santo Domingo built on top of it......
When the Conquitadores arrived this palace had all walls covered in gold and precious stones ......not much is now left of it! Still one can see the beautifully aligned blocks....
... although one could see some earthquake evidence....
This was the main palace of the Inca ruler, Atahualpa ........ he was told if he allowed the conquistadores to take all the gold from the walls etc they would leave his people in peace. They killed him instead! Not nice!
Then on to Sacsayhuaman, a fortress built by the Incas. This was plundered until a few decades ago to contstruct homes in Cusco!
The remaining walls are huge.......with massive boulders.....
Then on to Pisac, a small village with a native handicraft market......
At one point we were able to get a view of the Sacred Valley,
which was to be where we were staying for the first few nights. It is lower than Cusco and so seen as a place to somewhat acclimatize to the high altitude in the area.
We were booked into the Aranwa Sacred Valley hotel which was great. After check in we were greeted by the resident alpaca.........
The grounds were beautiful.... it had been an original hacienda
with its own private church.
The pool looked inviting......but the temperature wasn't warm enough to get me to go in!
Flying in was a little hairy! Cusco is at an elevation of 11,200ft and is surrounded by rather high mountains!
First stop was to check out the Inca palace of Koricancha which had the Convent Santo Domingo built on top of it......
When the Conquitadores arrived this palace had all walls covered in gold and precious stones ......not much is now left of it! Still one can see the beautifully aligned blocks....
This was the main palace of the Inca ruler, Atahualpa ........ he was told if he allowed the conquistadores to take all the gold from the walls etc they would leave his people in peace. They killed him instead! Not nice!
Then on to Sacsayhuaman, a fortress built by the Incas. This was plundered until a few decades ago to contstruct homes in Cusco!
The remaining walls are huge.......with massive boulders.....
Then on to Pisac, a small village with a native handicraft market......
At one point we were able to get a view of the Sacred Valley,
We were booked into the Aranwa Sacred Valley hotel which was great. After check in we were greeted by the resident alpaca.........
and the peacock......
with its own private church.
The pool looked inviting......but the temperature wasn't warm enough to get me to go in!
No comments:
Post a Comment