Day 3 - From Lima to Cusco

Friday we were up early following our Director/Facilitator, Adrian Macedo, as he directed us from our HQ Villa Hostel to the Lima airport again. This of course meant reloading all of our boxes, tech equipment and luggage in a waiting truck. We were on our way to Cusco. After check in at the airport, Mason decided to have the baggage handlers shrink wrap him. After the wrapping and spinning, they put him on a luggage cart and wheeled him away.

Once we arrived at our gate and we started milling around waiting for our flight. People were curious about the group in the matching green t-shirts, and when we explained who they were, they requested a performance. The kids did three of their big numbers and the crowd loved it. They were able to talk to people about their group and what they will be doing while in Peru.

On the flight to Cusco, we had a cute flight attendant named Jose. He was a good looking Peruvian guy about 22 yrs old that started flirting with our girls the moment they got on the flight. The girls really enjoyed getting his attention and McKenna ended up getting his email address. She was in love! I think McKinley may have cajoled a kiss on the cheek from him.

The flight was like no other I have ever been on. We were flying into the Andes whose peaks reach 17-22,000 feet. Airplanes typically fly at 30,000 feet, but it looked more like 20,000 as our airplanes wings seemed like they were just clearing the peaks. The lakes were amazing shades of turquoise and green. Our approach into Cusco had our plane banking right and then left as we dropped into a high mountain valley and the bowl that Cusco is built in. Let’s just say that I was very glad when we landed on a runway and we all deplaned safely.

The hostel was surprisingly clean, relatively modern and homey. After getting settled, we headed off to lunch at the Mama Killa Bistro Restaurant. It was in the town square with lots of vendors and people in costumes. The kids could hardly wait to shop.

After lunch we met our historical guides, Juan and Marybel. They took us on a tour of Cusco, and then up to see Saqsaywaman, the Inca ruins above Cusco. Saqsaywaman pronounced sort of like “sexy woman”, is a walled complex near the old city of Cusco, at an altitude of 3,701 m. or 12,000 feet. Some scholars believe the walls were a form of fortification. Others believe the complex was built specifically to represent the head of a puma, the effigy shape which Sacsayhuamán together with Cuzco forms when seen from above.

There is much unknown about how the walls were constructed. The stones are so closely spaced that a knife will not fit between many of the stones. This precision, combined with the rounded corners of the limestone blocks, the variety of their interlocking shapes, and the way the walls lean inward, is thought to have helped the ruins survive devastating earthquakes in Cuzco. The longest of three walls is about 400 meters. They are about 6 meters tall. The estimated volume of stone is over 6,000 cubic meters. Estimates for the weight of the largest limestone block vary from 128 tons to almost 200 tons. Some believe that the Incas had a way of precision carving to get the stones to fit together, others believe they had a substance that would soften the rock to help shape and then create an air tight bond between the rocks before it again hardened.

The site was a ceremonial center for religious as well as political activities. These people built structures and occupied the site for hundreds of years before the Incan people, between 900 and 1200 AD. We could tell they were preparing for the famous annual Inca Festival of the Sun on June 24th.

After Saqsaywaman, we went to the Saxonmarman Temple and Cathedral. The city of Cusco was originally set up in the shape of a puma and the temple would have been the heart. The original Temple was partly destroyed when the Conquistadors took over the region. The Spaniards took stones as mentioned above from other Incan sites to build a Cathedral on top of the Temple site. The remaining portions have been excavated and have revealed many amazing things about the people that built and worshiped in this structure. Morningstar performers and chaperones alike were taken with much of what they saw in these two locations.