Friday, August 27, 2010

Day 14: Cusco

Well we boarded the plane to Cusco, almost missed it.. but we didn't, good thing... The flight was short and sweet and when we arrived we were greeted by our guides, Pursy and Rebelino. They took us to city center to our hotel so we can get settled. Our hotel is called Royal inka hotel. It is so classy, we love it :)

We had snacks and naps and went on our first tour. I had no idea there were so many Inka ruins, they only ever talk bout Macchu Picchu ... So we went to our first set of ruins. Inka stone work is incredible! I have seen it before but I never really had a handle on how ingenious and brilliant it is until seeing it in person. wow. It is surreal, almost cartoon like. Each piece fits together perfectly, with not a single gap in between. They did this by carving the stone so that it is either concave or convexed... Not only that, but the surface that makes up the wall is also carved out so it is perfectly smooth, and rounded inwards at the seams. This is Inka imperialist style. Only used for royalty or religious sectors. The domestic and agriculture buildings were just plain stone. They had very tall thatched roofs with window on either side. they took advantage of the wind so that it kept the inside cool. They would store vegetables inside their houses and they would keep for a long time. there was so much information about the inkas thrown at us its hard to write it all. Pursy is a fantastic guide who is very very informative. There won't be much time in cusco before we head out to see more ruins, and then board the train to Aguas Caliente. We are one day closer to Macchu Picchu...

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