The Ruins of Qenco and Sacsayhuaman, Peru

In the hills outside of Cusco sit the ruins of Qenco. No one's sure just what the site was for, maybe a religious sactuary or place of sacrifice. Here we are in front of a sacred rock with our Peruvian guide.

Notice how the rectangular stones of this building fit perfectly and evenly, not with the irregular polygon shapes you see in walls and fortresses.

Look at the steps and caves that are cut all throughout this huge natural rock outcropping. Those Incan people who probably lived very short lives must have spent a huge amount of their time carving cities and monuments that would outlast them by a thousand years.

I'm sitting on top of a high mount in what was probably a throne. Who knows? I wish I did.

Qenco is around 11, 300 feet elevation and from there you have a breathlessly beautiful view of Cuzco (literally).

These little lojas are found everywhere around the ruins hoping for some tourist business.

Our next stop was the 'fortress' of Sacsayhuaman just outside of Cuzco.

I'm sorry that this picture is so dark. I don't know how to fix it but I wanted you to see the jagged line of wall that goes on forever. Only about 30% of the structure is left standing after the Spanish destroyed it and still it's enormous.

The blocks are around 50 to 70 tons each though some weigh nearly 300 tons and are 40 ft high! The workers used stone, copper and bronze tools, and hauled the huge blocks to the site from quarries as much as 20 miles away using natural fiber ropes and rollers. They must have been aliens.

Now, how did they cut, move and position those massive blocks so perfectly?

Just to give you an idea of how large this wall really is, the picture below is of me standing in this same corner. The smaller brownish block in the center of the above picture is nearly six feet tall.

Why build using such difficult irregular polygon shapes? I quote, "This construction was remarkably stable in an earthquake. During a strong one stone blocks 'danced' near their normal positions and lay down exactly in the right order when it ended". All the angles and rounded, pillow-like shapes seems to have locked the stones in place and kept them from shifting during a bad quake. I'm sure I would have just built a new straw hut.

I was charmed by this sweet little lady herding her llamas around the ruins.

While we were climbing to the site we saw this sweet little baby sitting by the path. The children there had beautiful rosy cheeks, dusty brown skin, solemn eyes and looked older than their years.

Cuzco, Peru

This past April Marsh and I got the chance to visit the Inca ruins of Macchu Pichu, Peru. Fantastic!! I love everything about archeology anyway, especially South American archeology. I couldn't believe I was actually seeing those sites that I had marvelled at so often in pictures. We flew to Lima and from there to our first stop in the bustling city of Cuzco. The plane swoops in between steep peaks. We really liked this clean little town with it's pretty squares, shops full of Peruvian goods and colorfully dressed people. The town sits high in the Andes at about 11,000 feet and we'd been warned to expect altitude sickness, sometimes severe headaches and nausea that could only be helped with a 'special' tea of coca leaves. We immediately noticed on landing that we were a little short-breathed but thankfully nothing more.

Cuzco was the capital of the Incan empire and now is a mixture of Incan and Spanish architecture. The Catholic Church considered everything Indian to be pagan so the Spanish conquerors tore down and destroyed everything they possibly could, then used the stones to build their own cathedrals and buildings. The Incan foundation blocks are so massive that they couldn't be budged or removed and so the new town was built atop them. Today you can see the 'new' Spanish building on top of the old Incan foundations. The Incan looks newer and nicer

As in many Latin American cities no matter how old or poor the neighborhoods are, there red-tiled roofs and colorfully painted walls.

These are views from our hotel room.

The ruins in and around Cuzco are mind-boggling. I can't imagine how the early Incas could have moved those massive stones to the building sites or fit such odd shapes and angles together so perfectly with that you can't slip a piece of paper between the joints.

Below, our delightful guide is pointing out a famous twelve angle block that is part of a wall on a narrow neighborhood street. The stones are huge and irregular and are a perfect fit three dimensionally. How did they do it?!


Most of the women wore these felt hats and full skirts and it seemed like every woman had a baby or bundle slung in a blanket on her back.

I was intriqued by this family with the grandma in old traditional clothes and the teenage granddaughter in a trendy jeans jackets. We saw many old women who had added these wool extentions to their braids to make them longer.

The moment you step off the plane you are surrounded by people, mostly children, wanting you to buy their wares but there are only so many finger puppets and woven bookmarkers you can buy. They were sweet-natured and friendly people, but amazingly persistent.

These cute little kids were so happy to pose but the littlest one seemed like she didn't quite know what was going on. Next blog I'll show our picture from the ruins outside of Cuzco.

Passport Photo

I found the perfect photo for Henry's passport. Isn't that a sweet expression?