A Walk Around Plaza de Armas
After checking in to your hotel and a cup of coca tea you’re ready to explore Cusco. It’s been a day and a half in transit, this is the real start of your Peruvian adventure. It’s a pleasant afternoon, bright sun with lots of puffy white clouds. You purposely do not look at any maps. Other than a general sense of direction toward the city center you have no idea where you’re going.
The street from your hotel has a sidewalk two feet across. The road itself is so narrow when a truck speeds by you lean towards the wall. Not far along you reach an bustling intersection at Calle Triunfo, a pedestrian street lined with colorful shops. It slopes downhill in the direction you want to go, and you see the hills of Cusco beckoning in the distance. You start down the crowded path, stopping to peek at the endless stalls of colorful souvenirs.
After a few blocks the stone walls get bigger. Some are Incan foundations. The way opens up and you are standing on the corner of a big open space with large churches on either side. This is Plaza de Armas, the historic central plaza of Cusco. The space is one green block with statues and a fountain surrounded by churches, shops and restaurants. It is extraordinarily clean and you see people working hard to keep it that way. The streets are paved with beautiful stonework. It has an almost Disney-like feel.
It even has characters. Several beautiful women in traditional Peruvian dress along with alpacas offer photos for a few soles. One nice lady poses perfectly in front of a stone wall with her baby alpaca. Other characters are not so fun, people offering cheap souvenirs and artwork in your face as you walk around. The first Spanish you use on the trip is “no, gracias”, and you use it quite a few times this afternoon.
On one side of the plaza you spot a KFC and make a note of it for later. School is out and many children are coming down the hill. A group of teens is walking toward you in the crosswalk, dressed in red. They look a bit threatening after you notice one carrying a whip and another with a pointy stick. It turns out they are practicing for some kind of coming of age festival this weekend. The rest of your time in Cusco you will see young men in red whipping themselves or swinging fake machetes and pointy sticks with their friends.
You make your way through and across the plaza for a better shot of the two giant churches as they catch the sinking sun. One is the main cathedral of Cusco, the other is a Jesuit church. Dodging bikes, cars and people selling things, you reach the other side. Again you notice the clean and shiny street as you line up a wide angle shot and try not to get run over in the crazy traffic.
Iglesia de la CompañÃa de Jesús is the fancier of the two churches with its Baroque style. It is a Jesuit church built in top of an Incan temple between the 16th and 17th centuries with some setbacks from earthquakes. Its twin towers are very imposing rising up into the blue sky. It also has a neat little dome.
The Cathedral Basilica of the Virgin of the Assumption on the other side is the main cathedral of Cusco. It is a plainer building but still impressive with its huge green doors. This is the main chapel, with a smaller chapel on each side. It was built in different parts over a long period of time. The church is busy this afternoon with many people gathered on its steps.
You duck down an alley by the Jesuit church where you see an old Incan stone wall as the base of a modern building. This city was built on top of the Incan capital, and many remnants remain. The perspective looking down the alley with the sky and dome of the church is like the sweep of a centuries long clock.
The details in the buildings here are amazing. Every building has balconies, many intricately carved in wood. There is fancy stonework, woodwork and metal work around every turn. The roofs are almost universally red tile. Even the corrugated metal roofs around Cusco mimic the red tile.
As you turn another corner, an unusual set of balconies with a green awning draped across make an interesting scene. It is not until later you realize their purpose. A drawback of old tile roofs, apparently, is that chunks fall off of them. This was not an awning, it was to keep rocks from falling on your head.
As the day and the altitude start to catch up with you, you head back towards the hotel, chancing an alternate route that is different from the way you came. On the way you pass a bright blue fountain with puma sculptures. Pumas are revered in Cusco, the original city having been built in the shape of one.
Your hotel is just around the corner, and as you pause outside to pet some stray dogs, you witness the first of several traffic confrontations in this awkward cramped intersection. Some poor guy is making a twelve point turn in a van with a red light while a line of cars is beeping and yelling. You are glad you will not be driving in Peru.
Coming back up the hill was surprisingly tiring, and you realize the effect of altitude is real. At over 11,000 feet Cusco is the highest place you have ever been for more than a short time. After making yourself another cup of coca tea in the lobby, you head down to your room for some rest. Eventually you will realize coca tea and rest do not go well together, but it does make you feel better.