Historic city of Cusco

At 3400 meters above sea level, one don’t so much walk through Cusco as climb it. Lungs burning, legs whining and breath slowly deflating with every gasp of thin mountain air. It’s not just the altitude that hits hard. It’s the weight of centuries pressing down, every worn cobblestone whispering secrets in Quechua and Spanish.

As I drift through the old Inca capital of Cusco, it feels like being inside in a Tintin adventure, except that no llama has spit on me. Yet.

The main square Plaza de Armas is surrounded by beautiful colonial buildings. Towering above them all is the Cathedral, supposedly the first cathedral built in the Americas. I dodge into the nearby church Compania de Jesus, featuring the tallest altarpiece in Peru, and ascend the tower by a small staircase for a great view of the square.

View of Cusco from the hill with San Cristobal.

The large statue of Pachacuti, the great ruler of the Incas, in the middle of the square serves as a reminder that this was the center of the Inca empire long before the Spanish conquerors arrived. The square used to be called Haukaypata in Incan times, a place of great importance for ceremonies. Today people sit on the balconies around the square, munching alpaca steaks and sipping pisco sours in upscale bars.

Just coping with the altitude.

The Incas laid down powerful stone foundations so tight you couldn’t slide a sheet of paper between them. Then came the Spaniards, draping Catholic cathedrals over sacred Inca ruins like a heavy colonial quilt, trying to overwrite the past with gold and force.

After the siege of Cusco in 1537, most of the walls from nearby hilltop Saqsaywaman were removed by the Spanish for constructing their buildings, where Spanish balconies hangs over Inca stones. But the Spaniards fortunately didn’t manage to rebuild the city completely in their image. Cusco is said to be one of the oldest inhabited sites in the Americas, and there are still remnants of great walls here and there.

And yet, the old gods linger. You see it in the sun-drenched faces of street vendors, in the intricate weavings sold in the market, and in the eyes of the women selling coca tea, always watching, always knowing. Not to mention the extremely cute baby alpacas that roam the streets.