Peru - 5 December, 2001

.

Travel Distance

Leg 1 Total:

4,786 km

Galapagos:

771 km

Grand Total:

5,557 km

We have another day in Cusco to go and explore.  We spend the morning doing touristy things.  We visit the Coricancha, where Inca ruins form the base of the colonial church of Santo Domingo.  Today all that remains of Coricancha (once the Inca empire's richest temple) is some of the stonework.  All of the precious stones and metals were looted.  In Inca times the walls were literally covered with gold and there were huge solid gold ornaments and objects.

We can view much of the stone work and it is very impressive.  But it is also sad to see how the Spanish damaged the original buildings to make their houses and to hang their paintings from the walls.  But the impressive stonework can be admired - at some points it is hard to see the joints between the stone blocks.

We have Asian food for lunch - not bad, but not quite the real thing.  After lunch we head back to the hotel and work on our journals and update the website.  This takes pretty much the whole afternoon.  After we have dinner, we decide that we want to return to our favorite bakery for dessert.  We get there at 8:10 PM, after climbing the steep hill, only to find that they had just closed.  But the bakery is run by a group of nuns at the convent next door, so Paolo talks to some people in the convent and they are, after a bit of sweet talking, willing to get us each a couple of pastries.  What a great place!!!