Bolivia, 2001
Cusco- Machu
Picchu Index Bolivia, 2001
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Cusco - Machu Picchu
Page 1: La Paz to Cusco
Copyright: Jim Ciotti, 2001
September 20, 2001
Click on Images for Enlargement
Although
their Empire lasted only a relatively short period of time, the Inca were
prolific builders. They left finely-made, stone cities strewn across a
territory that stretched from Colombia to Chile and Argentina. There are
even three such cities near Cochabamba - a place on the outskirts of the
Empire. However, the center of this frenetic activity was Cusco, "the
naval of the world," the Incan capitol. It seems that every street
and building in this ancient city contains Incan walls or stones. The
fields around Cusco are littered with remnants of the ancient empire. And
of course, near the capitol, especially in the Urubamba Valley, are other Incan
cities and temples. The most famous of these is Machu Picchu,
but there are many, many others - some still await discovery.
Perhaps
the most common way to travel from La Paz to Cusco is to take a bus to
the Bolivian city of Copacabana,
take another bus across the frontier to the Peruvian city of Puno and then take
a train or yet another bus on to Cusco. After a day's delay due to roadblocks,
we left La Paz on August 30 and arrived in mid-afternoon in Puno.
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La Paz with
Mt. Illimani (6,400 mts.) in the background. |
El Alto is
not only expanding rapidly outward, it is rising out of the Altiplano
piecemeal. Several floors of a building may be built but only the
bottom one finished. The others await the money necessary
for completion. In many buildings, rusting iron reinforcing bars
reach
upward in anticipation of future floors. A nice faįade is the
last thing added. All this gives El Alto a terra cotta, unfinished
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Campesino
women in La paz. |
El Alto
street scenes. Can you find the Coke signs in these pictures? |
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Once out of
El Alto the Cordillera Real stretches across the horizon to the
East. This is Huayna Potosi (6,000 mts) |
Boats at
Copacabana, a Bolivian resort city on Lake Titicaca. |
The
day's delay had put things out of sync - trains out of Puno did not run the following morning and
we had neither the time nor desire to remain in the city an extra day.
Thus, we took a dreaded overnight bus - why do all long trips depart in the evening and arrive at
their destination at a
ridiculously early hours? The bus outdid itself; instead of
arriving at its projected 5 AM, it arrived at 3. We took a cab to a hotel
where we had reservations - it turned out to be a hovel...dirty...the lights don't
work...the toilet doesn't flush. But who's going to argue at 3 AM? We carried
our junk up three flights of stairs and crashed into bed. However, using
my extraordinary ability to get by with little sleep, I arose at seven, staggered out into near deserted Cusco, and found a place called
the Hostal Machu Picchu, a converted 17th mansion . Its owners were
friendly and it was clean and very pleasant.
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Hostal Machu Picchu |
A flower from the hostal's courtyard |
Before
the Spaniards destroyed the place, Cusco must have been a magnificent city.
Most of the buildings in its old section are partly made of Incan stone and many
are built on old foundations. After destroying the Incan capitol, the
Spaniards did manage to build a number of churches which are impressive in their
own right. Cusco is a pleasant city, but the most noticeable things about
it today are these churches along with the tourists and the vendors that feed off of
them.
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Loreto St. -
Spanish buildings built on Incan foundations. |
At the center
of most Peruvian cities is a place called the Plaza de Armas. The
first photo is of the Campaņia from across Cusco's Plaza de Armas.
The Campaņia was built by
Jesuits in 1576 over the site of the palace of the Inca, Huayna Cápac.
The Spanish construction was destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt in 1661-68. The second
photo is of the
Cathedral of Cusco. It was built on the site of the palace of the
Inca, Wiracocha, out of stone taken from Sacsayhuaman, an Incan ruin just
above the city (see next page.) It was completed in 1664. In the
foreground of the 3rd photo is the bell tower of the Merced, (first built in
1534...earthquake in 1660...rebuilt
in 1670). In the background is the Campaņia. |
August,
the tourist
rush is over. Those remaining have their choice of water colors,
postcards, carved gourds, etc. Anne with Oscar, Valerio
(postcards), Margarita, and Francesca (gourds.) |
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Page 2: Inca Sites near Cusco
Cusco - Machu
Picchu Index Bolivia, 2001
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