Museum Day in Cuzco

Day 8 in Peru

Since we walked like 10 miles yesterday, we decided to have a museum day today. We also have a limited time to use up our boleto touristico, and it will be expired once we return from the Inca Trail, so this seems perfect!

Museo de Quoricancha, elongated skulls

The day started with a decent breakfast at the Tierra Viva Plaza. We then walked to Quoricancha, and visited the museum (included in our boleto turisticos). This was a museum where you'd want to really take your time and read everything, so we went at a relaxed pace. It was a great museum, and contained all the information we'd need to really understand our next stop, the Quoricancha site itself!

We paid S./10 each to get in to Quoricancha. Photography was prohibited inside, but I'll do my best to explain what we saw.

Part of Quoricancha was a cathedral which has a monestary inside. The other part is what I'd call the "ruins." While we were exploring the cathedral section we found some secret doors, some of which were unlocked but I was afraid we'd get in trouble if we went in. (We did peek inside one set of doors, and there was a large sanctuary inside. It was beautiful!)

Suddenly, a group of young men came out of someplace, and walked by us and through a door that was painted to blend in completely with the wall so well that I hadn't even noticed it before this! I'm guessing these guys were studying there, learning to be priests or serve the church in some way. They said hello and smiled. I was so curious as to what they were up to, but too shy to ask (and they looked like they were on their way somewhere important). 

We actually spent most of our time in the cathedral section, but the ruins were really cool too. I just think at this point, I've seen a lot of ruins, and they all start to look the same after a while. (Never thought I'd say that!)

Afterward, we wandered around Cuzco some more and went to a few more museums. At one, the guy in the ticket office was taking a nap, and everytime someone would walk by, he'd snap his head up pretending he was awake the whole time. Just sort of an observation about the lifestyle here. At this museum, we went into an art exhibit with all these detailed, trippy paintings. The guy working in that area only spoke Spanish, and started telling us about the paintings. Turns out, he was their creator! His father was a shaman and taught him how to go into the jungle and drink this special juice that would make him hallucinate, after/during which he painted all of these. A lot of them had to do with the origins of the Earth, origins of man, and specifically the origin of horses. There were spaceships involved. It was interesting -- entertaining even. He gave us a poster which we have that shows one of his paintings. (Unfortunately, we could not fit the poster in our backpacks to take home, and I haven't been able to find his name or his work online since. If you happen to know where I can find information, please comment! I believe it was the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, and it was mid-April 2013.)

We also saw other older paintings that were religious (Catholic) in nature. They were bizarre...like, Jesus on a cross with the Andes Mountains in the background. Or Jesus riding a llama instead of a donkey or camel. And most interestingly, a rendition of The Last Supper which included a large guinea pig for the feast!

Beautiful center squares in many buildings in Cuzco!

We went to the Llama Path office for our night-before briefing. This got me pretty nervous, but it was good to meet everyone the day before we'll be going on the trail. Our guides gave a presentation about the details of each day on the trail. I found myself looking around the room sizing everyone up, wondering where I would fit into the group -- slow, medium, or fast. Definitely not fast... But, everyone seems really nice, and we represent several countries: Australia, England, Scotland, and the United States!

After the briefing, Adam found a place to eat on Trip Advisor that was close to our hotel and was listed as #1 in Cusco, called Inkazuela. We went there late, and I was so nervous about not having time to pack for the trail that I only ate bread, and a couple of potatoes from Adam's soup. 

I don't know why I am so nervous, but when we got back to the hotel around 9:30 I went to bed and Adam packed everything up. Maybe it's because I'm about to do something I've been dreaming about for years. Maybe it's because I'm afraid I won't make it. Maybe it's because we haven't done anything with a tourist group the whole time in Peru, and the introvert in me is freaking out a bit. Maybe it's because I'm not really in a "hiking mood" like I was two days ago. 

Either way, I guess tomorrow we will see if the feelings subside!