Day 5
Since Cusco's altitude is kind of high (3,400 m or 11,200 ft.), we took it easy yesterday, only went to the two big churches at the main plaza. Today's our main sightseeing day in Cusco, we walked all over the place, including San Blas neighborhood and San Cristobal Church up on the hill.
1. Walking around Cusco, these three ladies saw us coming, asking us if we wanted to take pictures with them, I said no, but they literally stood on either side of me so I couldn't go and gestured Dave to take pictures, so he took one. Then they suggested Dave to take picture with them, so I took one for him as well. I thought I just need to give them some change, but they demanded 10 Soles ($3) for each picture! Oh well, our fault for not asking price first.
2. Qurikancha / Convento de Santo Domingo. Qurikancha (Quechua for ‘Golden Courtyard’) was once the richest temple in the Inca Empire, unfortunately all the treasure was looted and melted down by the conquistadors, and a church was built on the site.
3. Convento de Santo Domingo.
4. Cusco from Convento de Santo Domingo.
5. Convento de Santo Domingo.
6. Inca walls.
7. Inca walls.
8. Inca walls.
9. 12-angled stone.
10. Going up to San Blas neighborhood.
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14. Cusco from Plaza San Cristobal.
15. Plaza San Cristobal.
16. Plaza San Cristobal.
I was wondering why souvenir vendor bothered to setup shop here since there weren't many tourists coming here. It turned out that right behind the plaza, up another set of steep stairs is Saqsaywaman. Some people will take a taxi to Saqsaywaman, and then walk their way down to Cusco through here.
17. San Cristobal Church.
18. Stairs to go back down.
19. Half way down the stairs we walked past this restaurant. I googled it, it serves whole guinea pig with head on and it reviewed really good, so we decided to come here for dinner later.
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21. Back to the main square.
22. Can you see San Cristobal Church up on the hill?
23. Roasted guinea pig at Kusikuy (70 Soles) that came with a giant stuffed pepper and a tamale, enough for us to share.
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(To be continued)
