Cusco!!

/ Ed Armstrong
I bought this poncho today!! I was not planning to buy anything, but it is so incredibly soft from the baby alpacas that I could not resist the purchase.

Within Cusco, we first visited a large Inca ruin site, right in the middle of Cusco!! It was amazing to see the craftmanship of the ruins.

We were amazed to see how precisely the stones were cut as the walls were built. The elevation of this was was 11,800 feet above sea level. Walking up and down the steps made me become short of breath very quickly!!

It was incredible to see the width of the stones through the door openings!!

The stones were huge!!

I was impressed with the detail of the rocks as the wall was constructed!
How tour guide brought us to this section of the wall to emphasize the enormous weight of the cut rocks!!

I have no idea how they cut the stones into such weird shapes and fit everything together!!

The Incas designed this waterspout to all water to drain from the upper level!!

This statue of Jesus overlooking Cusco mimics the famous statue in Brazil.

We kept walking and walking and the wall just seemed to go on and on.

The name of this Inca ruin is “Saqsaywaman.” The Peruvians who know English call it “sexy woman.”

This is a long-haired llama and he loved seeing us!!

These long-haired llamas were fun to see!!

This short-haired llama was showing his teeth and wanting something to eat!!

I thought this fuzzy alpaca was especially cute!!

This guy was quite inquisitive!!

This long necked llama was shaggy, but very soft!!

This long-haired llama was amazing. The tour guide said he looked like he had dreadlocks.

This dog is an actual “hairless” dog. She was quite friendly!!

This alpaca was incredibly soft!!

They seemed to see fine through their shaggy hair.

I thought this guy was very cute!!

I was impressed with all the colors of the llamas!!

This alpaca was so soft!!

This llama was checking everyone out!!

This llama had such different colored hair!!

He looks shaggy, but his hair is so incredibly soft!!

This llama was short-haired!!

This was a Peruvian deer that liked to get into mischief and eat the flowers.

These women were taking the hair and making different articles.

I thought the weaving design was beautiful!

The type and color of hat indicates where the ladies are from in Peru.

My new poncho is reversible!!

We next went to another Inca site within Cusco. I was so impressed with their building precision!! This is looking through a window in a wall and it shows how a series of windows were lined up perfectly!!

The doorways had the same trapezoidal design that we saw at Machu Picchu.

Over the Inca site, the Spanish built this convent. The straight lines were built by the Incas and the arches were built by the Spanish.

This is a view from the convent out over Cusco. In the distance you can see “Viva el Peru”