Cusco: Casa Concha, Museo Machupicchu

Yale hanger-on and self-promoter extraordinaire Hiram Bingham "discovered" Machu Picchu in 1911, and is still widely honored for his feat. Of course, he was led there by locals and employed the families living there to help clear the land and chart the "lost city of the Incas." It is all bullshit, of course, although it is what American tourists want to hear. At President Obama's urging, Yale recently returned some of the artifacts looted by Bingham and his associates, and they are housed in the Casa Concha museum. Of course, Bingham is still glorified there, but, for a variety of reasons, the museum still is eminently worth visiting. It's complicated.

The introductory film...a very bitter-sweet memory for me...

Mostly, it's about Bingham

Great historical photos

Thus

Many colorized

Today's quipu

Seriously helpful model

Maybe best ever

Incan textile

Perhaps the best reason for visiting Casa Concha is this, the interactive tour of the
Machu Picchu site, done by Yale and Cal State/Hayward; it allows you to travel
the site, enlarge pix, hear from scholars, look at historical pix--an incredible virtual
tour that would enhance any tour

Artifacts

Pretty incredible dioramae

Actual grave fnds

Not to forget, the building was once someone's palace

Incan stonework

So there we were, wandering into what might have been a gift shoppe, and there
is the guy from YouTube that Rebecca sent us a Twisted Sifter post about...of
course we bought Penelope one of the bird flutes...amazing stuff...
http://twistedsifter.com/videos/inca-whistling-water-vessels-mimic-animal-calls/

Cusco: Qorikancha

While we visited several churches and other sites in Cusco, there were only two museums that really interested us: Qorikancha, aka the Saint Dominic Priory, and the Casa Concha, the Machu Picchu museum that features the Yale University items returned to Peru from the Hiram Bingham expeditions of 1911-1912. Qorikancha is a monastery built over the foundations of a major Incan site, the temples of the sun and the moon and such. As elsewhere, the Incan building, well, the traces of it, are impressive, the stone work, the scope, etc. FWIW, this is the building whose gold-plated walls, golden sculpture, and other objects took the Spanish three months to melt down and cart away.

Approaching Qorikancha; the lower curved bit is characteristically
Incan

Closer up

Floor plan, for the greater glory, etc.

Incan remains

Trapezoidal door...the Incans loved the circus,
especially the daring young man on the flying
trapezoid

Helpful model #1,343

Cloister; interesting to see all the Spanish architecture not
overlaying the more impressive Moorish precedents

Spare parts

Holy Circumcision #1,227

Crowning Mary Queen of Heaven; note the
interesting depiction of the Holy Threesome,
all the same person, three aspects of which...
and no White Dove and no Old Guy with
White Beard...

Outside, looking at the Incan stone work; integral buttressing
writ large

Nicely landscaped, as nearly all these sites are

The famous 14-angled stone

Larger perspective

Muy interessant...The Incans saw gods and animals in the
heavens, like the Greeks and Romans and others, but they
saw them via the negative space; see illustration; better yet,
go look at the Milky Way

Inside the curvy bit

If they could do this, how come they never figured out an arch?

Cusco Scenes

WonderPeru got us to Cusco in the afternoon of the 7th--a great bus ride--and we checked into the Tierra Vita Centro, our home for the next week. Perhaps the best of our hotel stays, only a 3 star, but luxurious enough for us and with a wonderful breakfast and really nice and helpful staff. Our first evening I simply walked to the nearest IncaFarma to buy some more Diamox...of the 250mg variety. Our 125mg dosage seemed insufficient. Happily, such things are OTC in Peru, and the double dosage seemed eventually to work. Next day we were content simply to wander the centro, the cathedral complex, and to connect with Llama Path, our guides for Machu Picchu, the Inca Trail, and the Sacred Valley.

Old Inca gateway to Cusco, their capital

Pre-Inca ruins on the outskirts of the city

Another big city, half a million, I'd guess

Rebar in the sky...

Bolivar and San Martin welcome us to Cusco

Actually larger than king-size; five blocks from the Plaza de
Armas; best breakfasts of our trip

Pinata shop

Approaching the Plaza de Armas and the cathedral

Interestingly adorned fire truck; just back from the Parade of
Roses? we wondered

Interestingly, this is the pose most younger tourists seem to
favor for their pix; Crucificado?

On the Plaza, tastefully understated

Plaza

Conqueror and conquered

Another day, another parade; silly men this time

No fotos in the cathedral, but we had to get this one

And this one, off the web: the muy muy famoso guinea pig
Last Supper at the cathedral in Cusco

The cathedral; actually a three-fer with adjoining churches on
the starboard and port; apart from the Last Supper, we could
have well skipped it

Mostly what there is to look at in Cusco are the architectural
traces of the Incas, marveling at their very fine stone masonry,
grandeur, etc.

The longest of the intact walls

Archaeological sites all around; although the Spanish/Catholics
destroyed pretty much everything they could of Incan
civilization

Amuse bouche at Boca, a nice restaurant recommended by one
of Rachel's friends

Actually, a salad and this mixed grill appetizer was all we
could eat (altitude of Cusco is just over 11,000 and we were
feeling it; that and the huge breakfast)

It was International Women's Day and there was a march on the
Plaza