Tags
Cusco, Peru, photography, photos, travel
Pour notre première journée à Cusco, nous avons décidé d’emprunter un des quatre chemins incas qui partaient de Cuzco (Qhapaq Ñan) pour explorer deux sites incas dans les hauteurs de Cuzco: Kusilluchayoc et le Temple de la Lune. Cet ancien chemin monte graduellement et on peut encore y voir les bas côtés formés de pierres parfaitement empilées. Les deux sites sont environ 200m plus haut que la ville et offrent de belles vues sur les environs. Le premier site contient certaines gravures très usées par le temps, donc difficile à identifier. Le second site est protégé et ne peut être vu que de l’extérieur.
Au retour de cette excursion, nous avons entrepris d’explorer le centre historique de Cuzco. Il y régnait une certaine frénésie alors que des centaines de groupes folkloriques paradaient dans les rues autour de la Plaza de Armas en prévision de l’Inti Raymi, fête qui célèbre le solstice d’hiver. La musique était assourdissante et la foule très dense. Nous avons donc décidé d’attendre notre retour à Cusco après notre trek pour vraiment visiter cette jolie ville.
For our first day in Cusco, we decided to take one of the four Inca trails that started from Cuzco (Qhapaq Ñan) to explore two Inca sites in the heights of Cuzco: Kusilluchayoc and the Temple of the Moon. This old path climbs gradually and you can still see the sides formed by perfectly stacked stones. Both sites are about 200m higher than the town and offer beautiful views of the surroundings. The first site contains some engravings very worn by time, therefore difficult to identify. The second site is protected and can only be seen from the outside.
Upon returning from this excursion, we set out to explore the historic centre of Cuzco. There was a certain frenzy there as hundreds of folklore groups paraded through the streets around the Plaza de Armas in anticipation of the Inti Raymi, a festival that celebrates the winter solstice. The music was deafening and the crowd very dense. So we decided to wait for our return to Cuzco after our trek to really visit this pretty town.
Kusilluchayoc 
Templo de la Luna
Plaza de Armas
Avenida El Sol
[Auteur/Author: Pierre & Suzanne]
Les voyages de Suzanne & Pierre 
I love the first two photos in this set. The woman is colourful and emblematic. The street vista is texturally interesting.
Thanks Jacqui. We fell in love with Cuzco and there will be more photos of this beautiful city in a later post as we spent 1 more day exploring it after our trek and our visit to Machu Picchu. This first day in Cuzco was a prep for our trek as we practiced going up while in altitude…
Wow, the views! And I am really looking forward to your posts on the trek and Machu Picchu.
Thanks Anabel. The views were indeed quite spectacular and the city very pretty. Next post will be on the first day of our 3-days trek so coming soon.
Great photos of the area, the weather looked perfect. I was stunned to see the development around Cuzco… wow, it has exploded in four decades! Life certainly doesn’t stand still. 🙂 Tourism has brought a lot to the area, it seems. Hopefully, it has alleviated some of the extreme poverty I witnessed when I was there.
Thanks Eliza. The weather was indeed perfect…we were quite lucky. I don’t know if it has totally alleviated the extreme poverty but I think it has to a certain extent though the pandemic has probably set them back a bit as tourism was just restarting.
The Into Raimi was and still is a very important celebration for the Inca’s descendants. The almighty sun was representative of God. Thank you, S&P. 🙂
Thanks for your note. Yes, we were able to see the importance of this festival. We were there a few days prior to June 24th and already there were a lot of activities. On the day of our visit, the parade of various groups and of floats were one after the other for the entire day. There were still parading when we went out for dinner…It was very colourful and joyous.
On comprend qu’une pause s’impose en gravissant ces jolies ruelles ! Une série variée entre architecture et paysages somptueux.
Bonne journée
Merci Marion. La montée se fait à petit pas car Cusco à 3,400m d’altitude et il faut se reposer régulièrement. Le souffle est court mais les vues en valaient vraiment la peine. Cusco est une très jolie ville et il y aura plus de photos dans un prochain billet.