Cusco, A View Of The Ancient Inca Capital Through My Lense

There are many interesting places to visit in Peru, and while we didn’t make it to all of them (not even close), we did spend three days in Cusco. There are so many awe-inspiring cultural and archaeological sites to visit in the Cusco region that we would have needed a lot more than 3 days to see them all. Some day, we will make it back and spend at least a week, if not more.

For those that don’t know, Cusco sits in the Andes, at an altitude of around 11,000 feet. To put this in perspective, that’s just a few thousand feet shorter than Pikes Peak or Mt. Rainer.  It’s a major tourist center, with millions of people visiting every year. Most visitors, including us, head to nearby Machu Picchu and other local Inca sites.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the city (click on the picture to see it bigger):

A bird's eye view of the city of Cusco, taken from Sacsayhuaman, elevation 12,000 feet.

Another bird's-eye view of Cusco. It's the main square in the old part of town, with the old Cathedral on the left.

A couple of pictures of the same square as above, taken after dinner (including courses of guinea pig and alpaca meat).

In Cusco, the Incan temple, Quirikancha, which was taken over by the Spaniards when they conquered the city. Inside, you can see a lot of the original Inca architecture, along with the best piece of artwork we saw during our trip.

Throughout the city (and everywhere we went in the country, for that matter), there were peddlers hawking their wares. Some had stores, carried stuff with them, or pushed their carts and bikes down the old narrow streets.

Naturally, some things are found everywhere.

Here is one of my favorite pictures.  These two ladies were taking a break from selling whatever they had.  I think they were with a group around the corner letting people hold their baby llama's and taking pictures for a few soles.

These pictures are all stored over on Flickr. You can see more picture from our trip in the Peru set there. All of these pictures were shot either hand-held or sitting on whatever rock or bench that was nearby. However, I did have an image stabilizing lens.