Journey to the Navel of the World

Today was spent on a day-long bus ride from Puno to Cusco (or Cuzco, or Q'osqo) with several stops at tourist traps along the way. I gotta say, this is a much more enjoyable way to take a long bus trip, if for no other reason than you're never stuck longer than two hours without a chance to get up and stretch your legs.



First stop was Pukara, site of a significant archaeological discovery, and (of course) a colonial church.



Next we stopped at La Raya, the highest point between Puno and Cusco, and quite an impressive mirador of the Andes.





A couple hours later we were at Raqchi, the ruins of an Incan temple to the god Wiracocha.





It was mostly destroyed by the Spanish (of course) but the main walls were constructed so well that neither the Spanish nor hundreds of years of earthquakes could topple them.





Regular readers of this blog no doubt are bracing themselves for another tract on how terrible the conquistadors were for destroying a great civilization like the Incas, but I gotta say, the more I learn about the Inca, the less love I have for them.

I mean, after all, they were empire-builders. They subsumed, often by bloody force, all the other pre-Columbian civilizations spread all over South America in a century-long quest for power. Why do civilizations have to grow that way? I don't care if it's the Greeks, the Romans, the British, the Americans, or even the Incas, if you seek empire, it doesn't matter how "enlightened" you think you are, you're destined to fall. Why can't we learn from the past and instead of trying to conquer the world and unite under one culture, try to become a world that embraces diversity? I know, I know, I'm young, I'm naive, I'm an idealistic hippie who doesn't understand the "real world", but surely if any country in the history of the world has the ability to do it, it's us. I mean, we're the "E pluribus unum" people! Out of many, one!




Anyways, I guess it's not such a good idea to be hating on the Incas as I head into their capital city. Hopefully I'll be able to focus on their technical advancements and whatnot and avoid any more Apocalypto-style Mel Gibson rants in the coming days.



The church at Andahuaylillas (say that three times fast), known as the Sistine Chapel of the Americas. It was pretty impressive, but they wouldn't let me take any pictures. Do they let you at the real Sistine Chapel?

One thing I found interesting in there was a statue of some saint or another carrying a rainbow flag. It's the official flag of Cusco (I think actually it goes back to the Inca, evidently Manco Capác saw a rainbow when we first arrived at Cusco and decided this was the place to start the empire) but it cracks me up that it looks just like the gay pride flag. It's everywhere here in Cusco, churches, civic buildings, on taxis. Forget that this is predominately a Catholic country (and we know their position on los gays), but also it's a real macho culture so it just drives them up the wall that Americans come to Cusco and think that everything is gay-friendly. I asked Rodrigo the tour guide about it and he said that a couple years back the mayor of Cusco travelled to America to talk to leaders of the gay community (I'm not even sure who that would be. Dan Savage? George Michael? Ted Haggart?) about changing their flag. Not surprisingly, he was sent back to Peru with a friendly, "bitch, please!" (My interpretation, not Rodrigo's, for the record.)



The ancient gate that marked the entrance to the capital in Inca times.

After arriving in Cusco (and going to the wrong hostal at first. Why would you have two hostals several blocks from each other with the same exact name, except one has a II at the end of it, like some kind of 80's sequel?) I cleaned up and got dressed for my night on the town. But THAT'S another story.