Peru: how is it like to visit Cusco, the Incan city?

What a history class! Walking around Cusco is like traveling back to the 1500s when Spanish conquerors invaded the city and conquered the Inca Empire. In this historic town churches, squares, museums, and other buildings mix Inca and Spanish architecture.

Coricancha, the stunning Inca Temple of the Sun, for example, can be compared to the Vatican in importance to the Incas. When the Spanish took the city, they demolished a great part of Coricancha and then built a cathedral on the site. Elements of nature, such as the sun and moon, were replaced by angels and saints. Entire rooms covered with gold were melted and sent to Spain along with statues and other objects.

Even though it isn’t all original, what remains of the Inca architecture is still impressive: no one knows how they were able to build a city using heavy blocks of stone that fit perfectly together.

What a visit! We are having a blast while learning a bit more about the Incan culture and Peru.

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Quechua: the Incan terraces at Moray

We knew that the Incas were capable of doing great things, but now that we are here, seeing everything with our own eyes, we can barely describe how amazing and ingenious they were.

We visited the Moray Agricultural Laboratory, a structure built by the Incas around 1450, abandoned during the Spanish invasion around 80 years later, and found again in 1932.

Shaped like a womb (to honor Mother Nature and fertility), each terrace has seven layers that represent the geological layers of the earth.
With great ingenuity – each level recreated a different microclimate – the laboratory was used in an experimental way for the production and storage of grains and tubers. It is believed that all Inca agricultural production was thought based on the work at that location.