December 30, 2024 to January 1, 2025:  Atlanta, Georgia to Lima, Peru and on to Cusco, Peru

Well, once again I am determined to write a travel blog to chronicle our latest travel adventures.  I have to get in blog mode and actually force myself to write this thing, but once I get in the groove, it becomes a little easier each day.   Or anyway, I hope so.  A side note to my mostly appreciative audience: Comments are nice. I know WordPress can be difficult to comment on, but if you find it trying, you can always text me. No pressure.

Now onward and upward! On Monday we flew to Lima, Peru from Atlanta, Georgia, a direct flight on Delta Airlines of just under seven hours.  We spent the last couple of nights in a hotel in Lima to rest up and prepare for our trip early this morning to Cusco, a city in the Peruvian Andes that was once the capital of the Inca Empire.  To get to Cusco we had to take another flight from Lima, because the drive would take about 19 hours and the flight is just over an hour.  Then tomorrow morning we board a train, which takes us the last 74 miles or so to Machu Picchu, the “Lost City of the Incas.”  To be truthful, I came into this trip knowing very little about the Incan civilization or Mach Picchu, so I’m a novice.  

Roger, our guide for today in Cusco and for the next two days in Machu Picchu, is of Incan descent.  Roger understandably has a giant axe to grind with the Spanish conquistadors who conquered the Incas back in 1532, and most notably with Francisco Pizarro, who was the lead conquistador.  Yes, Roger is still mad after 500 years, and I can’t say that I blame him.  Apparently, Pizarro sprang a trap on the last Incan emperor, Atahualpa.  He befriended him, lured Atahualpa to a feast in the emperor’s honor and then opened fire on the unarmed Incans.  With fewer than 200 men against several thousand Spaniards, the Incans never had a chance.  

Today, we toured the city of Cuscos.  Roger’s accent and his flare for drama were a little difficult to follow at times, but we did learn some stuff.  First we visited the Plaza de Armas, the central square in the old city, with arcades, carved wooden balconies and Incan wall ruins. Then we toured the Temple of the Sun, or Qoricancha, which was the most important temple in the Inca Empire.  Most of the temple was destroyed after the 16th century war with the Conquistadors (another beef of Roger’s) because the Spanish settlers took it apart to build their own churches and residences.  However, much of the Inca stonework was used as the foundation for the seventeenth-century Santo Domingo Convent that was built in 1538 by the Dominicans, so there’s still evidence of the early Incas.

The animal in the last picture is an alpaca. I think. Alpacas have fluffy heads with flatter snouts, softer features and short ears. Llamas are larger and have distinctive banana-shaped or devil horn ears and longer faces. Alpacas have the far superior wool, so there is an alpaca boutique on practically every corner.

After the Temple, we visited the Cathedral of Cuscos, or the Cathedral Basilica of the Virgin of the Assumption, which is the main temple of the city of Cusco.  I was so tired by that point that all I remember is Roger mentioning that some of the chapels in the basilica had a black or dark Jesus to represent the native Incas, and some had a white Jesus.  This was, indeed, true.  They did not allow pictures inside the Cathedral, so the picture below is not mine, but it gives you a good idea of what a small part of it it was like.

At the end of the day we were brought to an historic hotel that was once a monastery, aptly named the Belmond Monasterio.  Predictably, the rooms are quite monasterial, but adequate.  I’m not sure why, but we entered through a door to the chapel adjacent to the hotel. (I think it was for dramatic effect.)