Monday, July 28, 2014

Cuzco

Our flight to Cuzco left at 11:15. We were told to leave for the airport three hours before the flight. Whiile that sounded crazy, we did what we were told. What could possibly take three hours?

But we had breakfast at the hotel about 7:00, and were packed and ready to go at 8:15. The ride was uneventful (is there a difference between uneventful and noneventful? In any case, it was both). This was on a Sunday morning, the Sunday morning before a national holiday (Fiestas Patrias. I think it was the celebration of the Peruvian, or more likely the Colonial, forces over the Spanish at the Battle of Ayacucho. But that is from memory) So we did not anticipate any problems.

But the airport was packed! Luckily,  because our frequently flyer status lets us stand in the short line at Avianca, we didn't have to wait in line for an hour to check in.

But we waited in line at least an hour to get through security.

Good thing we were there early!

But after that, the day was pretty easy. The hotel had arranged transportation from the airport, and our room was (almost) ready, and they let us check in a little early. A nice start to this phase of the trip.


We flew over some very pretty scenary


but I didn't have the window seat.

That made it very sad to be me! 

The room is very nice. It has a very high ceiling, and a nice view over the courtyard and the city"




After we checked in, we wandered about for a while. 

Cuzco is built on the ruins of the Inca Capital (Qosco?) and you still see plenty of the old Inca stone works.


It is always interesting to see where the new and old stone works meet:

The old stones are set without mortar, (Dry set, I think my nephew would call it) so the stones have to fit perfectly. They had a lot of manpower with a lot of time on their hands.

We also walked by the Plaza de Armas (not renamed in this case) and looked at the Cathedral. On the same plaza, the Jesuits built a nicer church, but of course the hierarchy did not like that.

 This is the catheral:



Then we came back to the hotel for a cup of Coca tea in  the courtyard:

2 comments:

  1. That looks like the same hotel we stayed at. I got a cool felt hat in Cusco, but I lost it.

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  2. I think we are. The Monastario. It's nice.

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