We meet in the hotel lobby at 7:50 this morning and walk across the street to the airport for our flight to Cusco.  I was expecting the airplane to be a turboprop, but it is actually a large Airbus jet.  Our flight takes just over one hour.  One of the travel agency's local representatives meets us at the Cusco airport and drives us to our hotel, which is very nice and near the central town square.

	Barbara, Beth, and James deplaning 5-23-2008 @ 10:52

     We are on our own this afternoon, so Beth, James, and I have lunch and then explore some around the town square, the Plaza de Armas, the same name as the one in downtown Lima.  Two churches on the square immediately stand out: The Cathedral and the Iglesia de la Compania.

The Cathedral 5-23-2008 @ 1:40	Iglesia de la Compania 5-23-2008 @ 2:17

     As in Lima, the flowers in the Cusco town square are beautiful.  There is a large fountain in the middle.  We have a group meeting at 7:00 this evening and meet our head guide, Ruben, and assistant guide, Ramiro.  Beth has been having fever and diarrhea today, so she borrows some Tylenol and Pepto-Bismol from others in our group.  Hopefully this will take care of her problems.

Flowers in Plaza de Armas 5-23-2008 @ 2:16	Fountain in Plaza de Armas 5-23-2008 @ 2:16	Flowers in Plaza de Armas 5-23-2008 @ 2:17

     We meet Ruben in the hotel lobby at 8:30 on day two.  Our first stop is the Cusco city market.  It is similar to the one in Lima, but seems to be cleaner and more organized.  Ruben explains that most local residents visit the market daily for their food needs.

The market place 5-24-2008 @ 9:06	The market place 5-24-2008 @ 9:07	The market place 5-24-2008 @ 9:08

The market place 5-24-2008 @ 9:05	The market place 5-24-2008 @ 9:10	The market place 5-24-2008 @ 9:11

     We then walk from the market to the Plaza de Armas and on the way pass another small square with more beautiful flowers and a pretty fountain.

Flower gardens in city square 5-24-2008 @ 9:34	Fountain in the city square 5-24-2008 @ 9:34

     After some shopping around the square, we are off to visit the area on a hillside overlooking Cusco.  There is a huge statue of Christ here that was a gift to Cusco from Colonial Palestine.  Beth and I get our picture taken with some locals and their llamas.  To do so, we are required to give them a tip.  The view looking down on Cusco shows just how large the city is.  Most of the homes have orange tile roofs.

"The White Christ" 5-24-2008 @ 10:29	Beth & Richard with Peruvians 5-24-2008 @ 10:34	View across Cusco 5-24-2008 @ 10:36

     We next visit the Inca ruins at Sacsayhuaman.  The ruins are massive and display incredible Inca craftsmanship in building with stone.  Each of the base stones weighs 90-125 tons.  It's amazing that the Incas were able to quarry the stones, move them here from great distances, shape them to fit together so precisely, and finally lift them into place to form a wall.  Across the other side of the city on a hillside is a huge engraving celebrating Peru and Cusco.

Ruins at Sacsayhuaman 5-24-2008 @ 10:56	Sign at Sacsayhuaman 5-24-2008 @ 10:45	Ruins at Sacsayhuaman 5-24-2008 @ 10:59

Ruins at Sacsayhuaman 5-24-2008 @ 11:20	Ruins at Sacsayhuaman 5-24-2008 @ 11:32	Hillside engraving 5-24-2008 @ 11:41

     We then head downtown to visit Qorikancha, the Sun Temple, and most sacred of the Inca temples.  We get an up close view of Inca wall construction.  The Incas never made blocks or window openings rectangular in shape.  Instead, to combat the ever present earthquakes in the region, they made their blocks and openings shaped like an isosceles trapezoid.  Their stone blocks fit together so tightly that no mortar was necessary.  Additionally, inside their temples, they made each block with a peg or hole to accept the corresponding feature from an adjacent block, providing more strength against earthquakes.  This temple was the center-most temple of 132 they had.  We get the rest of the afternoon to ourselves.  Beth's fever and diarrhea are worse today.

Qorikancha, the Sun Temple 5-24-2008 @ 1:07	Inca stone wall construction 5-24-2008 @ 1:18	Individual stone block 5-24-2008 @ 1:30

     On day three, we again meet in the hotel lobby at 8:30.  Our first visit this morning is to Chinchero where we are given a demonstration on washing, dying, and weaving llama and alpaca wool.  The soap used to wash the wool is from a plant that is grown locally as are all the dyes.  After only a little washing, the washed wool is almost pure white while the unwashed wool is its original brown color.  The skills these people have are impressive.

Wool washing demonstration 5-25-2008 @ 9:46	Wool washing demonstration 5-25-2008 @ 9:46

Wool dying demonstration 5-25-2008 @ 9:47	Examples of dyed wool 5-25-2008 @ 9:58	Woman weaving wool 5-25-2008 @ 9:58

     We walk to the other side of the village and come to an old church.  In the yard is a cross where married couples meet and reaffirm their wedding vows.  A young couple has just been married inside the church and are coming out.  The procession is quite pretty with confetti and flowers.

Cross to reaffirm wedding vows 5-25-2008 @ 10:45	Newly married couple 5-25-2008 @ 10:48

     We are getting used to the open air markets with locals selling their goods to tourists.  Many of their wares use the red and orange colors most commonly associated with Peru.  One vendor is displaying the colorful dyes used on the alpaca wool.  Even though this is Saturday and school is out today, the students have assembled in school uniforms or traditional clothing for a parade through town.

Vendors at the market place 5-25-2008 @ 11:15	Wool dying colors 5-25-2008 @ 11:17	Students parading downtown 5-25-2008 @ 11:24

    Our next stop is high above Urubamba and the Sacred Valley for some picture taking.  Beth is still pretty sick with fever and diarrhea and throws up behind the van.  We are concerned that she may not be able to make the real hike tomorrow.

View of Urubamba 5-25-2008 @ 11:41	James, Richard, and Beth 5-25-2008 @ 11:45

     We then go to the Pichincoto Salt Mine in Maras for a small warm-up hike.  A stream with brine water is diverted through numerous channels into small holding ponds for the salt collection process.  This place is huge and demonstrates the creativity of the people to use their natural resources.  Two workers are preparing one of the small ponds for the water while a woman is adding chemicals to another pond to aid in the salt formation.

Pichincoto Salt Mine 5-25-2008 @ 12:35	Workers - Pichincoto Salt Mine 5-25-2008 @ 12:43	Worker - Pichincoto Salt Mine 5-25-2008 @ 12:46

     We stop for lunch at a very fancy restaurant in Urubamba.  After lunch we head to the Huchuyqosqo ruins for a longer hike to help prepare us for our real hike tomorrow.  The terracing on the steep mountains is incredible.  I can't imagine the effort it took to build all the retaining walls to reclaim small strips of land for farming.  The ruins display more of the Inca method of building with trapezoidal shaped blocks and openings.

Terracing, Huchuyqosqo ruins 5-25-2008 @ 3:53	The Huchuyqosqo ruins 5-25-2008 @ 4:25	The Huchuyqosqo ruins 5-25-2008 @ 4:37

     On the way back to Cusco, we stop in Pisac at a pharmacy to get Beth more drugs for her fever and diarrhea.  Ruben is quite concerned about Beth's health.  Tomorrow we leave for the start of our real hike on the Inca Trail.

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