Katie, Nicole B and Ed found an amazing coffee shop this morning called “The Meeting Place” I opted to stay at the hotel and get myself organized. I didn’t stop hearing about how wonderful this place was for the rest of the day. I have a feeling we will be there again!


We had fun walking to meet Maria for our walking tour of Cusco.



Once Maria arrived, we walked up Sol Avenue to San Francisco Square. The San Francisco Square is significant because all of the trees, flowers and fauna are native to Peru.


Across the street was the 3rd oldest school from colonial times for noble people called the National College of Sciences. When we were walking by we saw some kids practicing a dance outside.


We left and continued up the street to the gate that separates the 2 townships called Santa Clara and San Pedro. This was a way to protect the city from invaders.


Once inside the San Pedro walls we saw the Temple of San Pedro


As well as the San Pedro Market that has everything you could ever ask for in a market with products ranging from souvenirs to freshly squeezed juice to pigs to fruit loops to medicinal herbs.




After a brief shop we visited Koricancha, the Golden Temple of the Sun. It was built over centuries and under multiple reigns of Incas kings.


Koricancha is built with many different construction types. The Incans used vertical inclines of the walls, trapezoidal shapes of the structures, irregular shapes and rounded edges. Increased sizes on the bottom coupled with a 3-5% incline gives the walls a substantial amount of stability that has withstood centuries of earthquakes.
The gardens had just been mowed and the smell of fresh cut grass was amazing. It had a Condor which represented heaven, the Puma which represented earth and the snake which represented the underworld etched into the grass.


From here we came to the high altar which has a lot of significance because it is where the statue of the God Weetachocha was worshiped.



The courtyard was where people would bring offerings for the Gods. We just offered up some laughs for the Gods as we had  fun with some metal sculptures in the courtyard.
We had worked up an appetite and went to a restaurant called Pachapapa for lunch. There was a live musician playing a harp that totally set the mood. It was beautiful. We feasted on alpaca, steak, pizza and a chicken dish. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was perfect.


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After lunch we hopped in our tour van. We made a quick stop at the Cusco Fire department because you always need to get a picture with the local fire department.


Then we went to the ruins Q’enco where they mummified royalty until they were ready to be buried. Afterwards, we walked thru the caves and they were substantially cooler than the outside and pitch black! They would also place gold and jewels in places where light shined into the caves.

Once we got thru it we came across a woman who had a pet Alpaca.



At this site, there was “The White Christ” (which looks like the Christ the Redeemer statue) It was a gift from Palestine in 1945.


The backside of Saqsewaman has a rock quart called Chinkana chica with another small tunnel.

We came to Suchuna which is a massive natural slide.

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Next we went to Saqsewaman – (pronounced Sexywoman) which means Satisfied falcon aka condor.

 At the actual Saqsewaman archeological site everything comes in sets of 3’s. There are 3 rows of steps, walls and window – each for the condor, snake and puma. The purpose of the site is similar to the Chinese wall – protection of town of Cusco because the kings lived there. 30% of original site is left now.

We had a mellow dinner and called it a night after an amazing day.