We got here really late last night after our long train ride from Machu Picchu.

This morning Marisol, our guide, basically threw out the itinerary because one of the attractions was closed. So Jorge drove us out of town to Saqsaywaman, an archeological site containing a fortress built by the Incas in the 15th century. Where Machu Picchu was about 8,000’ elevation, this site is 11,700’. We were already dealing with way less oxygen than we were used to, and this took it to another level. While there wasn’t any extreme climbing, walking up a simple set of stairs was an effort.

On top of the lack of oxygen, the thinner atmosphere makes the effect of the sun much stronger. Almost everyone outside of the cities wears a hat, and Marisol was wearing a hat, a hood and gloves to cover as much skin as possible.

Saqsaywaman was designed by the Incas to withstand any attack. And it probably did withstand direct assaults by the Spanish; but it fell after the Spanish laid siege to Cusco and continued with their conquest of the Incas. The Spanish took many of the stone blocks to rebuild Cusco after the conquest, but some of the walls are still standing. They are impressive.

We spent about an hour there, and then went back into Cusco center and visited the Cathedral. No pictures are allowed in there, so I can only show you the outside. It’s a typical European style Catholic cathedral – lots of alters, lots of gold leaf, lots of enormous paintings of religious scenes. The only part about it that was interesting to me was how the Peruvians have blended their tradition pre-Spanish beliefs and symbols with those of the Catholic Church. But we spent two hours listening to her go on and on about this painting and that one; our bad for not cutting it short. We both thought it would end very soon. But it didn’t.

Our travel agent had arranged for a lunch for us at a place that seemed too fancy, so we got them to switch the reservation to dinner and took a suggestion from Marisol for a casual Italian restaurant, which turned out to be really good. We both were able to get pizzas that we liked.

After that we walked back to the Monstario Hotel, which was only a few blocks away, and then I went out to wander around the center of Cusco. Being Sunday, it was very busy, but I had no idea of how busy it was going to become.

One interesting thing I saw was professional photographers, all waiting to take your picture with your family or friends. I haven’t seen much of this since phone cameras ate the photography business.

I wandered around for a while, first circling the main square and then branching out into side streets.

I was a few blocks away when I heard music coming down the street. I pursued it and discovered a parade carrying giant statues of Jesus and Mary. When I caught up with them, everyone was just standing around, and the group closest to me consisted mostly of boys, all dressed in white shirts and ties.

A few minutes later the parade resumed. I couldn’t see what happened to Jesus because of the crowd, but apparently the men lifted the statue off the table it was sitting on, and the boys’ job was to pick up the table and carry it to the next rest stop a couple of blocks away.

It’s hard to say how heavy the table was, but ten or so boys were struggling to carry it. It needed to be heavy, to support the weight of the Jesus statue. Sure enough, a few minutes later the young men carrying Jesus came along.

It’s clear that these men were not having “fun” in any traditional sense. But they must have volunteered for this job, and probably considered being chosen to participate an honor.

Let us not forget Mary. She was also attended to by a bunch of kids carrying the table, and young men staggering down the street carrying her.

After each of the statues were marching bands. I didn’t recognize any of the tunes they were playing, but they sounded pretty much like every marching band I’ve ever heard.

By this time the crowd had swelled so much that it filled the space from building to building across the street. I had fallen back to the end of the parade taking pictures of the band, and there was no way for me to make my way forward. So I walked a couple of blocks out of the way and found my way back to the room.

That evening, after some more conversations with our travel agent, we went to the restaurant that had originally been our lunch reservation and had dinner. We were both skeptical, as it was billed as Japanese / Peruvian – not two of our favorites. But we were pleasantly surprised with the food, which was tasty. As a bonus, we had a window table overlooking the main square, where yet another parade was happening. This one consisted of marching / dancing groups that came pretty much in front of the restaurant and then did a performance for us (and everyone else). Tres cool!

Then back to the hotel to do a some packing before our 9:00 departure to drive to our next stop at Lake TIticaca. On the way, we walked a few blocks to a convenience store to get some snack for the nine hour drive.