Maybe I'll Just Post Pictures Today

Don't really feel like writing today. I visited four museums (all of which prohibit photo taking) and saw a couple of other Cusco landmarks. Depending on how long it takes to upload each photo, I'll just fill this post with some of my favorite shots.

Seeing little kids makes me miss my own terribly. These two cornered me in the artisan fair asking for money. They were equally happy to just see how they looked in the photo. They ran away shortly after this.

Cusco's 12-angle rock. These rock walls are not just thrown together, they were carefully cut and fitted into their place. Archaeologists have determined that rocks with intricate fittings have special purposes, although we still don't know what most of them are.

This is a picture of a small drawing, part of an 8-piece series currently on display at the Q'orikancha art gallery.

I heard these guys chirping across the yard from the wool spinning and dyeing workshop. The habitat is really cute, the cuyes are also really cute. Then they become dinner...

At Pisac, you can find the terraces built for farming. At the top of the hill is the largest pre-Columbian burial site in the Americas. The ruins for the town are also at the top of the hill on both sides.

The holes in the hillside are all graves. Archaeologists have found the remains of over 5000 people buried in this hillside, all of them in the fetal position. The Incas believed that the way we were before we were born is the same way we should leave our bodies. Our guide told us that the Incas did believe in an afterlife, which adds a different perspective to their practice of human sacrifice. It was one thing to be sacrificed to accompany the king into the afterlife, but what does it mean to be offered in sacrifice to one of the gods? Is it an honor that people willingly accepted? Most often, the priests were able to offer plants and animal sacrifices to the gods, but in years of extreme drought or torrential rains, it was customary to offer a human sacrifice. I guess that's why the rains washed out the road and rails to Machupicchu, nobody offered a human sacrifice to stop them.
They did, however, offer a black llama this year.
Tomorrow I head out to Puno. I check out of the hostel at 6:45 am. Better get to bed early tonight.