Excuse me, the Inka were like Arnold Schwartzenegger

Yesterday, Dad and I took a city tour of Cusco. We had the same tour guide that took us to The Sacred Valley and he was not nearly as entertaining day two. If we had a sol every time he said "excuse me, the Inka were like Arnold Schwartzenegger", we'd be rich. Also, our guide had always been upfront about the fact that Quechua was his first language. Quechua is an indigenous language of Peru that is still pretty widely spoken and, being a pre-colonial language, is nothing like Spanish. It sounds very guttural and melodic when spoken. Our guide was getting a kick out of asking us if we could pronounce the names of the places we were at, because they were all Quechua names, and then there would be a chorus of grunting and clicking that really sounded like the entire tour was vomiting.

Anyway, the tour took us to the main cathedral, Quoricancha, Saqsayhuaman, Q'enqo, and an alpaca sweater factory. We got rained out going to the Temple of the Waters, which I would've liked to see, but we saw something similar in Ollantaytambo the day before, so it wasn't too horrible of a loss. The rain really started when we were at Saqsayhuaman, which was unfortunate because I would've liked to spend all day there. The stone work was amazing and very different that what we saw in The Sacred Valley. Here, the stones were enormous (our guide says the tallest building stones in the world, but his statements weren't always factual) and they fit together perfectly. Ok, I know everyone characterizes Inkan stonework by it's perfect edges without mortar, but this were really impressive because the rocks weren't regular. They were like three times the height of dad in some parts and full of jagged corners, curves, and angles, but always fitting together like a puzzle. It was awesome. While I'm not buying that the Inka were extremely tall people, as our tour guide claimed, there is no doubt that they were machines.

Quoricancha was interesting. It is an Inkan temple that the Spanish built a convent over. It's really interesting to see the two architectural styles one on top of the other. What was also interesting, was that some of the walls had been partially disassembled and there were bricks laying out, so we could see the inner working on Inkan masonry. The rocks weren't simply piled up on against the other, but contained notches and holes that allowed them to fit together like a 3D puzzle and also be seismic-proof.

Q'enqo, or Temple of Mother Earth, is a cave site where a table and other alter-like structures out of the walls. It really was a neat place. It is debated as to whether or not human and animal sacrifices took place here or if it was used for mummification.

At the alpaca sweater factory, we learned that alpaca and vicuna clothing is some of the most expensive clothing you can buy. A sweater made of baby alpaca wool is hundreds of dollars while one vicuna scarf cost USD$900! The lady explaining this all to us said that should would give us a nice 10% discount if there was something we really liked. Thanks. Now I can afford that pretty vicuna scarf!