The last time I was in Peru was about two years ago. That time I only managed to spend about a day in Cusco. Well, no, actually, I was here for about 5 days, but I spent 4 of those hiking the Inca trail. So, last time round, I didn`t get to visit the sacred valley, didn`t even see Sacsayhuaman (the fortress meant to protect cusco) and no chance to see the terraces of Morray either. 
These are all on my schedule for this trip. Cusco is an interesting city, it used to be the capital of the Inca empire, until Pizarro showed with some 160 conquistadors. Most of the Incan architecture in the city is gone. The gold plates that lined the walls of some of the temples were melted down into ingots and shipped back to Spain. The city itself was divided between the conquistadors, who tore down the palaces and temples, and built their own houses and churches on old foundations. My first stop was the Temple of the Sun, well what is left of it. The temple used to be covered in gold and its sister temple, the Temple of the Moon, in silver. None of that is left now. In fact the only thing you see now are the foundations, which support a cathedral. Now stop was Sacsayhuaman. It is a fortress overlooking Cusco, supposedly shaped in the form of a puma`s head. The eyes of the puma consisted of 2 towers about 30 meters high. It`s independence day tomorrow here in Peru, so I won`t be visiting anything, will just be looking at the parades. Morray is planned for tuesday, the sacred valley for wednesday and friday is reserved for packing my bags - flying home on saturday.
