We left early this morning for a 90-minute flight (vs. a 20-hour bus ride!) to Cusco, the capital of the Incan Empire, whose name means “navel” (as in “the belly button of the Incan world”). For perhaps the first time ever, all the students were pleased to experience cold and rain again. While our lungs strove to adapt to the thin air (Cusco is at 11,200 feet above sea level, twice as high as Denver), we toured the area around the main plaza, had lunch, visited the Qoricancha (the ‘Vatican’ of the Incan Empire), and that evening heard a lecture on Andean spirituality.
After 5 weeks in hot, rainless Lima, students welcomed the cold and drizzle in ancient Cusco.A festival in the main plaza to celebrate the new school year.This wall belonged to the palace of an Incan king (who might have looked like this).The baby alpacas were a big hit.Meghan smiles at the thought of a baby alpaca sweater. The baby alpacas are keeping stiff upper lips.Because Trent did not know the secret to feeding baby alpacas, …… Tyler demonstrates how the pros do it.New worry: finding enough room in suitcases to take back all the desired souvenirs.What looks like an authentic 600-year-old Incan wall in our restaurant … is indeed what it seems.Next stop, the Qorikancha, the holiest temple of the Incan empire. The Spanish left the walls intact to build a church on top.Rowan is standing on a block squinting …… as he verifies that the Incans made these windows align perfectly.The guide explains how parts of the walls were once lined with gold plates.The model shows how the temple would have originally looked.Earthquakes in the past 500 years have wreaked havoc on Spanish buildings, but not the Qoricancha.
