Cusco

We loved Cusco, we began enjoying it even before getting there.......

The main square is obviously the beating heart of the town.
We expected markets, Llamas and folk clothes (like in Otavalo) but we couldn't be more wrong.
This town is refined, cultured and stylish.
Here's a couple of views of the main square under an hail storm.

As soon as you leave the main square you enter in a maze of cobbled streets.

When we turned this corner I had a feeling of having been here before..... I must have seen this street in so many movies filmed in South America.

We had dinners at 2 of the best restaurants in town: Chicha from the famous chef Gaston Arcuro and Cicciolina, a restaurant that share its name with one of the most famous italian politicians of all times.

In both cases the food was spectacular and we could not decide which one was our favourite.

Deserts at chicha

Dessert at Cicciolina

We spent our last day in Cusco doing the tour of the Sacred Valley.

The site we loved the most was the Koricancha temple, off the avenida del Sol.

This was originally an Inca temple converted into a convent by the dominican priests after the spanish conquest.

The result is a weird mix of architectures, i.e.european arches meet trapezoid inca doors.

In this lucky second picture the round shadows of the arches meet the trapezoidal shape of the inca doors!

500 years later we had the feeling that our guide wasn't too pleased with the presence of the catholic invaders in this inca temple.

He pointed out that "incredibly" the peruvian government still pays every year $80,000 to the Church for the use of the site.

The tour went on with the visit of 4 sites just outside town.

The most famous of all is Sacsayhuaman. Built in the shape of a head of a puma, some of the stones used are as heavy as 300 tonnes.

I am glad it wasn't me that had to move them there.