City of Cusco

We took a private tour of the city of Cusco the morning of our departure. Cusco was once the capital of the Incan empire but was proclaimed Spanish territory by Francisco Pizarro in 1532. He made this proclamation in what he named the Plaza de Armas (formerly called ‘Huacaypata’ by the Incas), which is home to the beautiful Catedral de Cusco you see in the photo taken at night. Cusco is marked by a mix of Incan and Spanish architecture. I like the picture on the right because you can see remains of an Incan structure with colonial walls and roofing on top of it, and a cross in the distance. Today, Cusco is a very busy tourist city (95% of its residents have work that relies on tourists). Side streets are narrow and are often filled with people like those you see in the photo of one of the small street markets. Our tour ended with a visit to the walled complex of Sacsayhuamán, described in the next post.