Saturday 3 October:

Itinerary: Around Cuzco. A culturally focussed day; morning tour to the historic Cathedral of Cuzco and then to the Inka Sun Temple, Coricancha. Afternoon tour to Sacsayhuaman Inka site followed by a walk down to the city; this will certainly produce more birds and flowers. Accommodation as for last night.

3 October

We had a very good nights sleep.  We woke at 7:15, possibly because of the conversations of the citizens of Cusco going about their business in the street behind the hotel.  The image to the left is of the interesting view from our window. We were having a relaxed day, with the morning free to do as we needed.  So we had a relaxed breakfast and sorted out our luggage - especially since this was an opportunity to get some laundry done, rather than hand washing stuff in basins and showers.

Relaxed breakfast and sorted out room.   We also handed in some laundry to the hotel management.   (I normally avoid such services like the plague, as the typical 'developed' world hotel charge like slightly wounded, but very annoyed, bulls.  However in this case it was charged by weight rather than by the item and was extremely good value: were it not for the postage they'd be getting my business from Australia.)

We wandered to Cathedral (in the Plaza Meior at the bottom of our street) looking to see - in particular - the image of a black Christ at a Last Supper with barbecued guinea-pig as the main course.  We then found it was 25 Soles (about $A8) to enter for tourism. It was free to go to Mass, but the last Mass had finished before we got there. Pass.  Apparently the Church has outsourced their tourism activities to an offshore company - seen as rather an ordinary act by the average Peruvian.  I have to agree - when the Catholic Church is running short of money then there really is a Global Financial Crisis.

Crossing a road we come to another good looking Church.  Cast a rock at the corvids: they also are charging!  However they have a Mass (free - well OK, one expects the collection plate to appear) at noon, which fits in with our schedule, so we decide to come back then to hear the Word and to check out the music.

We then wandered off up one of the main streets towards some interesting looking buildings.  Many of the buildings were very interesting - they seem to have preserved a lot of the older places and the more modern ones seem to have been done in a sympathetic style rather than a concrete and glass high-rise.  I hope that this continnues.  A highlight was the number of enclosed balconies: before leaving we heard the Ambassador of Peru give a presentation about Peruvian culture and he made much of these balconies.  There were also people walking the streets in national costume: while some of these were holding puppies (or kid goats or baby llamas) for the tourists to photograph others semed to be just Andeans going about their business  This tourist took a snap of the latter (but felt bad - OK not really bad) about such imperialist actions.

After a few hundred metres we ended up at the Central Market.  This was really great.  It was a real market, where the citizens come to do their buying and selling rather than - as at Pisak - a tourist oriented affair.  There were a few souvenir places - Frances reckoned the prices were 1/3rd of Pisak for similar article (a set of wooden pipes being the case in point) - but 95% of the stalls were aimed at the locals.

Thus the stall where Frances got gloves, socks and a beanie was also serving local people buying material and their own clothing.  A pleasure doing business there.

We then strolled back to Church #2.  As we entered a nun spoke sternly to us about "No turismo."  to which we replied "Mass" and took our seats .  The church was very ornate - in fact all the Churches we visited tended towards the baroque style.  {The thought has just occurred to me that, given most public buildings have signs about security during earthquakes - and the history of the site we visit in the aftenoon - building Gothic style edifices would not be sensible.  It would however seem to offer chances to rebuild them every few years!  Perhaps that is why they need to charge tourists?}    Once the service got underway it was quite interesting in comparison to what little your pagan author knows about the Mass rites (largely derived form the works of people such as Verdi and Faure).  Actually those gentlemen were some of the few composers  whose work didn't feature.  The first offering by the choir was set to the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's 9th Symphony: this is lovely music and was well perfomed but I have not heard it in a Mass before.  Neither have I previously heard the next musical item - to the tune of Johns Brown's Body - in this context!  Perhaps they had it confused with the battle-hymn of the Republic?  Of course,

• as the service was in Spanish the words to the tunes may have been completely different to those I associate with the tunes; and
• the folk are welcome to sing whatever they want!
  

We had to leave before proceedings were complete to meet up with the rest of the group for lunch.  This was at a classy restaurant in the square and was as usual excellent.  My main course was roast alpaca, which was pleasant but not so far as my memory or my notes record noticeably different to any other red meat.  I do have a memory of chocolate cake being a featured item in the dessert direction.

In many of the places we have visited we have acquired wooden crucifixes as souvenirs.  They are generally locally made and can reflect traditions.  So, while the rest of the group headed off to scope out the market for 30 minutes or so we went off to find a shop run by nuns at which we could acquire a cross.  Finding the shop was a bit of a challenge.

Getting to the position Juan had marked on a map all we could fnd was a museum and a cafe.  I then noticed a library where I thought I'd find helpful people who could speak English and they'd be able to point out the shop.  This theory scored 2 out of 3: it was the speaking English bit that was the deficiency.   I was able to explain that I wanted to buy something made of wood but my rendition of various words for 'cross' got nowhere.  So it is improvisation time: I held out my arms, rolled my head to on side and groaned - Bingo! It turned out the shop was in the courtyard outside the Museum.

So we went there to find a sign saying they opened at 3pm: a helpful young lad came along and was - with a little help frm his English-speaking friend - able to understand what we wanted.   It was explained that the Order was closed and that we should wait a while.  The young lad then hammered on the door and eventually a vertically challenged but temporally over-endowed person in nun's clothes (and apparently a bad temper) appeared scowled and said something to the lad.  The door was then closed and it was indicated we should wait.  As the time at which we should rejoin the rest of the group neared the lad reappeared and hammered on the door again.  This time the short, in stature and temper, person was very brief.  It seems she said "No." and meant it.  Reflecting on this episode, if anyone is thinking of making a movie of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (see especially the entry for Granny Weatherwax under 'Witches') I could solve one casting problem right off the (old) bat.

After a little time in the street outside Coricancha watching people (llama photo opportunistas, taxi drivers, cops, tourists) the rest of the group turned up.  I suspect that a few stalls in the market had to send out for additional supplies!  Again Juan gave a very good explanation of what the temple was, how it was laid out and the masonry involved.  As noted in the wiki the Dominican church on the site did not survive a sismo (earthquake) but most of the remaining Incan material did - apart from one area which took a direct hit from a rapidly descending, and quantitatively significant, proportion of the Dominican edifice.  It was intriguing that one couldn't photograph the Catholic stuff but could the Incan remains.

Our final bit of business for the day was to take the bus up the hill to Alto Cusco where there was a further Inca site.  This was primariy a parade ground (although it looked like a Mayan ball-game court) with a fortress to one side.  Yet again the quality of the mason's wrk was astonishing as were the logistics of shlepping these huge rocks  - several cubic metres at 2.7 tonnes per cube - some 20kms from the quarry.  I think it was here that Juan commented that one of the techniques the Incas used was to water the ramps they built so that ice formed.  With the work involved anything that made the rocks move more easily must have been welcomed.  {A parenthesis is about the concept of labour tax.  The upper classes of Incas provided a whole lot of support services for the lower orders.  The lower ones repaid this in whatever way they could - often this would be by providing their labour as a form of tax payment.  This was all recorded by a system of knotted strings: unfortunately no-one now knows how to interpret the strings.}

As well as wonder about the logistics of the site and the complexities of the society a noticeable feature was that it was damn cold.  I didn't expect to be cold only 12 degrees South of the equator, but I guess 3400 metres of altitude plus a lazy wind (cant be bothered going round you so goes straight through) will induce some chilliness.  We did get a great view of a snowy mountain overlooking the Sacred Valley and ended by seeing the moonrise!

After this we headed back into town for yet another excellent meal.  I was a bit worried when it appeared we were heading for the convent, but we passed right on by and her-in-cloisters stayed right there!

The itinerary got adjusted a bit today, but the changes were all very positive!