first day in the city of Cusco
We arrived in Cusco late the previous night but we had reserved rooms earlier at the Niños Hotel. We slept in and ate breakfast out on the patio before heading out to explore the city. The top of our list was the church with the painting of the Lord’s Supper - eating guinea pig. We set off for the main plaza and the church.
The church wanted S/25 to enter and I really didn’t care that much about the painting so Amanda and I sat and people watched in the plaza while Steph and Sara took the church tour. It turns out sitting on a bench in the plaza is very stressful. I started keeping tracking of how many times someone asked me to buy something. I lost count after 20.
Amanda went off in search of coffee and two other gringas joined me for a few minutes. Suddenly the kids from the bench across the way ran over to get their picture taken with us. Me being white, while the other two were Asian and Hispanic looking.
Our next destination was the Qorikancha Site Museum (covered by Cusco ticket) so we walked on down the main drag until we came to the big grassy area.
After the museum we went up the hill to the church, which was not covered by the ticket. The church is also the site of the Qorikancha, or Temple of the Sun. We wandered through and explored the gardens and when I came back in I was shocked to find the place packed. It seems as though quite a few tour groups had joined us in that ten minutes. I didn’t like it. Too many people here. But I had to weave my way around everyone so I could see everything.
It was about 3 pm so we decided we should eat lunch. We walked to a place recommended by the guidebook, Pacha Papa, and it was an excellent choice! I got the alpaca stew and it was really tasty (a little too much alpaca for me, but I wanted to try it). The other girls all got Chicha Jora, a corn beer. I didn’t get any beer and I’m glad I didn’t - I didn’t like it very much.
We got a little turned around on the walk back and ended up going UP a bunch of extra steps/pedestrian streets but we did get a nice view of the city.
We set out around 6 pm and that seems to be when school gets out because the streets were filled with school children in their uniforms. We again walked down the main drag to the dance theater. When we got there we found a ton of people (lot of kids, too) in line. Here’s a good example of looking like a tourist - someone picked the four of us out of the crowd of Peruvian children (hmmm, I wonder how?) and asked us if we had the Cusco ticket, which we did. We were brought to the front of the line and whisked in. The theater was about half full so we took our seats with no idea what time the show started. We didn’t have to wait long before the place was full and the lights dimmed.
The dances were introduced in Spanish and English and were performed by couples in traditional costumes accompanied by a live band. I think there were three dances in each half of the show with the last two being the only ones I really remember. The second to the last one was some sort of bird mating dance and was very sexual. The last one was danced only by the men with some strange man in a mask. The men had whips and they danced together and then whipped their partner’s legs while the partner tried not to show any pain. Of course the whippings got harder and harder by the time they got to the end of the dance. You could hear the audience groan (with delight I think) at every loud snap of the whip.
After the dance show we walked back to a wine bar near our hotel called Los Perros.
Our first visit was mainly for wine but also a light dinner (and beer). Since it was later in the evening, the place was filled with people hanging out and drinking (but not drunk). We found a corner of board games, so we helped ourselves to Rummikub as we waited for our food. The service was fast and good. We ordered sandwiches, yucca fries and glazed chicken and then shared. The food was really good and reasonably priced.
Our next visit was for lunch the following day and we got sandwiches, which again were really good. It is a nice, relaxing atmosphere to hang out and talk, read, or play games. A wide range of music plays in the background. The only thing I didn’t like was that you can smoke in there. You rarely find Peruvians smoking – usually only tourists.
The Santa Dominigo church took over the destroyed sun temple and built their convent on top of the Inca walls. Parts of the church were destroyed in the earthquake in 1950 but the Inca walls were exposed and found undamaged.
The entrance fee is S/5, about $2 US, and you can get a guide or walk on your own. The beginning has some history written in English and Spanish. Following the history are several rooms with more history and some displays. The complex surrounds the courtyard where the Inca sacrificial stone remains. You can wander around the beautiful gardens and see several Inca stones as well as the very impressive rounded stone wall that hasn’t moved an inch during all of Cusco’s earthquakes. One room has a ceremonial niche, another has a painting of the Inca’s version of the constellations in the Milky Way. A side room contains a small chapel.
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I ordered an alpaca stew with alpaca meat and olluco tubers. It was served with fried bananas and rice and was really, really good. The alpaca tasted like beef and I’m not a huge fan of beef but I wanted to try it. I passed most of the meat off to my friends but thoroughly enjoyed the stew. My friends all got Chica Jora – a type of corn beer. They liked it but I didn’t care for it. Everyone really enjoyed their meals. The food was excellent and service great. The menu was in both English and Spanish. Yum yum.
The museum is at the base of the Qorikancha Temple. Probably not worth your time unless you have the Cusco ticket, understand Spanish, are in the area and are really interested in either Inca artifacts or getting your money’s worth on the ticket. You can’t take photos inside but there isn’t much to take photos of. It was sort of neat that the museum was underground and that the exit is a stairway up through a hole in the grassy lawn. I'm not sure if it is handicap accessible - I don't think it is.
We entered the basement and found seats in the quickly filling auditorium. A stage with a red curtain was in front of us. A small room in the back of the auditorium had examples of costumes worn by native dancers. The program began around 6:30 pm.
Each dance was introduced in Spanish and English and was performed to music played by a live band. The first three dances were couples’ dances and then a short intermission. Two more couples dances, a women’s dance and then it ended with a men’s dance. The last two dances were probably the best. The second to the last one was some sort of bird mating dance and was very sexual. The last one had men with whips and they danced together and then whipped their partner’s legs while the partner tried not to show any pain. The show was finished around 8 pm. It was a neat experience to see the native dances and native costumes.
