Hola papisssss .... and mamiisssss

Hoy, we went on our first tour de la ciudad de Cuzco! I learned so much about this amazing city and the country of Peru. Did you know, Incans are not native to Peru? They came here and built their massive and impressive civilization. Quechuans are the native people of Peru. Our tour guide said never to call to call a Quechua person an Inca.

Anyway our first stop was Sacsayhuaman. Sacsayhuaman is an Incan temple built to honor the Sun god. The Incan King who built this temple believed he was the descendant of the Lightening god, so he built it in a zig zag shape. Also, these stones weigh up to 200 tons. Incans did not have cranes, and even if they did the most a crane can lift is 20 tons. Our tour guide said that they used logs but I think it was definitely aliens. (jaja....but seriously). These stones are carved perfectly to fit together. There's this thing called an Incan locking system where if you try to push the stones to the left, the grooves in the other ones will stop them. And all the stones lean inward. This is because they wanted their temples and sacred places to withstand earth quakes.

Big ass lime stones

Another interesting thing is the gods the Incas worshiped. There were several, but the most important to them was the Sun god. They also believed in three worlds. The celestial world, represented by the Condor, a bird native to Peru. The earth world, our world, represented by the Puma. And lastly, the world beneath the earth, represented by the snake. All of this was made by a god that resides in none of the three worlds. He created everything. I forget what they called him though!

It is so weird to me that people lived here hundreds of years ago and this was all just normal to them.

Tambomachay

We also went to Tambomachay which is a water temple. They still don't know where the water comes from! They just know that it's underground! Also the Incas used to mummify people just like the Egyptians. Anyway the water that trickled down from the mountain was so clear and looked so refreshing I just wanted to splash it in my face! I probs would have gotten a parasite though. I have more pix on facebook but today was so cool.

Pretty water!

We then went to a place called Q'enqo, but my camera died. Our tour guide said something about how for a long time people said the Incas didn't do human sacrifices - but they definitely have confirmed at least 22 human remains from sacrifices in temples. Incas...what bad asses!

Lastly, we went to one of the THREE ginormous cathedrals in La Plaza del Armas. By this time everyone was so hungry and tired from climbing at 14,000 feet no one could pay attention, but I wanna go back.