Cusco & around

Some fortuitous timing meant arriving in Cusco for the weekend of the biggest festival of the year - the festival of the sun. A first day was spent getting our bearings at this world heritage site

church - plaza del armas

Qoricanch - Sun Temple

Market day

cathedral - plaza del armas

fountain looking into plaza del armas

Inti Raymi, the sun festival - in general this seemed to involve a lot of dancing and kneeling.

crowds gather

starting proceedings at  Qoricanch

Qoricanch

Qoricanch

Inti Raymi

plaza del armas

is it real?

the main man

We met up with our fellow Inca trailers in time for lunch and to watch England lose on penalties in the quarter finals - some things never change.

The next day involved a visit to a weaving community in the sacred valley.

on the road in the sacred valley

They showed us a large number of potatoes and in turn we attempted some limited words of Quechen.

preparing potatoes

We learnt how they dyed the wool, and also an important lesson in attempting to play football at altitude.  Our US, English mix of players took to the field with confidence having elected to shoot downhill, but after an attempt at sprinting up and down the field our limitations became clear, a creditable 2-1 loss (modesty prevents naming the goal scorer) after 10 mins of play was followed by an hour of recovery.

the football squad

Colouring the wool with berries

A final stop at the pub for some local chicha (a corn brew) and a game involving metal discs and a frog.

Juego de Sapo