A Cusco Week in Review

Easter week in Cusco… a time I’ve read about and looked forward to for months now. On Monday (Lunes), a jam-packed Plaza de Armas— with lots of pushing and shoving and no chance for a quick escape—was not at all what I was expecting though. In retrospect, the discomfort (even panic) was worth it for me in order to experience this very unique procession. Dating back to the 1650 earthquake, the “El Senor de los Temblores (the Lord of the Earthquakes) procession takes place every year on the Monday before Easter to remember how El Senor miraculously stopped the earthquake. The photo shows the crucifix that is paraded around the square, with people throwing nucchu flowers at him. As I said, worth it for me… but Art gave me a ‘never again’ look to indicate that maybe he didn’t feel the same way about the event.

Tuesday (Martes) was much calmer, with the main event that evening being a cooking class at FairPlay. Art and I chopped carrots, drank beer, and enjoyed the resulting ‘Escabeche de Polla’.

My Spanish class with Eliana on Wednesday (Miercoles) took us to the university and the small zoo that is housed there. While I’ve been curious about llamas and what they are like up close, I was not quite expecting to encounter one so tame that he wanted to kiss me. I chuckled to myself while I snapped the photo of Larry the llama being a little too fresh with Eliana, not realizing that it was my turn next!

After class on Thursday (Jueves), Art and I finally did the trek up the hill in the back of the Plaza de Armas to visit Sacsaywaman (you can pronounce it ‘sexy woman’ if you wish; most do). This ruin is of both religious and military significance, and what an impressive site it is! The views over the entire city of Cusco from the site are not so bad either!

I can’t believe that I managed to get Art to join me at Plaza de Armas for another Holy Week procession on Good Friday (Viernes)! This one did not involve quite the mob of Monday but I could still sense Art’s disbelief that he got himself into this, yet again. As the procession came close to us, with its many, many followers, a quick escape into the doorway of a pizza joint made everything good again. And the pizza was even quite scrumptious.

It´s now Easter Sunday and we are finally getting to an Internet cafe. We managed to make it to the beautiful Cathedral for Easter mass this morning but we were on Canadian time so we caught the final blesing of the 7am mass and the readings of the 8am mass. It had a bizarre come ´n go feeling to it.



Since my Spanish classes are finished, I can join Art on vacation now. This week holds exciting plans for visiting Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca!


A joyous Easter to all...