After our wonderful lunch, we went to the ruins of Saqsaywaman (pronounced “sexy woman,” by many tourists). Cuzco is the shape of a puma, and Saqsaywaman is the puma’s head. The area was an Incan temple before it was converted into a fortress that resisted the Spanish. Jorge told us about the important figures in Cuzco’s history: Garcilaso de la Vega : the son of a Spanish general and an Incan princess, who went to Spain after the fall of the Incan empire and recorded the history of the city, and Patchaqutec: the first Incan emperor, known as the “earth shaker” of Peru. We explored Saqsaywaman, but we couldn’t stay as long as we wanted because it started to hail (we were 12,000 feet in the air!)
Afterward, we drove to a large statue of Jesus Christ with his arms outstretched, facing the rest of the city. The statue was gifted to Cuzco in 1945. Henry epically high-fived Jesus.
Lise dropping off mail in the coolest post office drop box ever!
The streets were particularly crowded that night because of an annual procession in celebration of Palm Sunday and an earthquake miracle. The story goes that several centuries ago, a major earthquake hit Peru, leaving thousands dead. The survivors prayed for an end to the destruction, and when they paraded around town and prayed to Jesus, the earthquake stopped. Because of this, the organizers of the procession parade a decorated Jesus statue all over Cuzco from 10 AM to 9 PM. After dinner, we watched the end of the procession, when Jesus enters one of the largest cathedrals in the city. Hundreds gathered in the town square to watch and pray. Once the LED-ornamented Jesus entered the church, the crowd began to disperse. We wound our way through the mass and back to our hotel.
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