|
|
Cusco, Peru 2006
Cusco was once the capital, both of the Incas and for a short time of the conquering Spaniards. The conquest by Pizarro is a classic tale of bravery and treachery, in which 200 Spaniards conquered a civilization with an army of 80,000 in 1533. Because of the incredible wealth encountered by the Spaniards, they wasted little time in staking a claim. By 1534, architects, religious leaders, and other professionals were present. The construction of cathedrals commenced almost immediately.
For over 200 years, the Spaniards exploited the natives in mining for gold and silver, but converted them to Catholicism by invitation and persuasion. Much of the Inca religion was coopted into a distinctly different Peruvian style of Christianity. Among other things, Joseph is ranked equal to Mary in their church icons. In the Museum of Religious Art, paintings from the 17th century show processions of city leaders in which the current Inca chief (allowed to rule as a puppet leader) is winking out of the painting. Art historians believe that the winks are an indication of the duality of a mixed Incan-Christian religion.
Many Incan persons were sent to Spain to learn Spanish, literature, architecture, science, and art. The cathedrals of Cusco contain a mix of wood carvings, some carvings of saints in the Spanish, while elsewhere there are carvings of Incan characters.
A great irony was the sending of Incan stone workers to Spain to learn "modern" architecture and masonry. The stone work of the Incas was nearly perfect. Stones are fit together without mortar so precisely that even now a knife blade cannot be inserted between the stones. The cathedrals constructed in Cusco were built on the ruins of Incan palaces and government buildings, recycling the same stones using a much cruder building method using mortar. An earthquake in 1650 demolished much of the Spanish construction, but the Incan foundations remained intact.
Unfortunately, the suppression of a native revolt in 1781 brought to an end the period of tolerance towards the Incan culture.
Today, Cusco is the most visited city in South America. The entire city is a museum full of buildings from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The area around the Plaza de Armas is the cultural center of the city. It is full of tourists and predatory street vendors, mostly children. These kids are ruthless in their attempts to play on your guilt. If you say no thank you, they reply why not. One girl told me I was a bad man because I wouldn't buy a finger puppet from her. The next day she told me I was wonderful and would I like to buy a finger puppet?
Cusco is 10,600 ft above sea level. I had adjusted to the altitude just fine for the first four days. However, I caught a cold from one of the other guests at the bed and breakfast I was staying. That night, high altitude sleep apnea set in. Everytime I fell asleep, I would stop breathing and wake up gasping. For the rest of the night, I got no more than 30 seconds of sleep at a time. After around midnight, I would give up and stay up all night reading or watching bad Spanish television. This condition continued for the remaining four nights in Cusco.
As in Tambopata, one of the nicest parts of visiting Cusco was the people. In Cusco, I met and hung out with three other volunteers doing work through i-to-i. Simon was from Wales and is an accountant with AirBus. He took a sabbatical to teach in a school in Cusco. Gil was a student from California between his second and third year of college. He plans to be a lawyer, working in criminal law. When I met him, he was on a break from his volunteer assignment doing community development and teaching in a small, isolated community about three hours north of Cusco. I also met Kristien, a student of comparative religion, who was traveling around the world to examine different religions first hand. After Cusco, she was heading off to India.
Copyright (c) 2007 by Dick Delanoy
|
|
|
