Our hotel bed was really dreadful-hard as a board! Complained but they said all beds were the same! They promised to try and do something for us.
Anyway our first free morning so we relaxed, had breakfast about 8.30, and then went out to explore in the sunshine. We walked around the old centre of Cusco, radically different to the half built city we saw as we drove away from the airport. Lovely squares, lots of restaurants and coffee shops.
We stumbled across the Museo de Cafe and had an excellent coffee on a private balcony overlooking the Plaza de Armes. More exploring and then back to the hotel to prepare for our city tour, with a pick up at 1.15 pm. We then
merged into a bigger group at the Basilica. Our guide was Qucomma Hidalgo and he was superb. His English was excellent, was very clear on what was to happen, was very knowledable and he was a character.
After the Basilica we visited Q’orikancha which is the remains of an Inca temple to the sun which was built over by the Conquistadors with a catholic church, Santo Domingo. Fortunately portions of the old temple were left and we learned a lot more about the Inca masonry techniques. They not only used the dovetail effeft to lock stones together but used bronze staples or poured liquid bronze in keyed grooves cut on stones. At one point we saw a section where the wall had been broken through - it was more than a metre thick and the perfect horizontal joint continued on throughout the wall. Absolutely amazing.
We then took a bus out of town to the first Tambo (Tambo Machay - a hostal on the original Inca trail from Cusco to Machu Picchu - these places were sited a day apart with engineered springs every hour along the trail.
Our trip included a visit to xxxx to see a sacrificial chamber used at the winter solstice to ensure that the sun returned where animals and children were sacrificed. Finally we visited Sacsayhuaman which was the site of a massacre during the Inca Rebellion 4 years after the arrival of the Conquistadors. Somewhere between 1500 and 3000 Inca warriors armed with bows, bronze swords etc were defeated by a few hundred Spainards equipped with horses, guns and cannon. Thus ended the Incas.
We were dropped back at Plaza de Armes and had a nice meal at La Feria.
View from our table
An amuse bouche of chicken broth with chickpeas and corn followed by Lomo Saltado. Kay had a Pisco Sour minus the egg white, Howard had a beer. We were also given samples of Chicha the local corn beer, almost homebrew. It was very sweet at first taste but had an unpleasant mouth and aftertaste. We walked back through the Plaza where a local dance activity was in full flow and thus to the hotel.
