Wednesday, May 7 – Day 141

I got away from the tourist area this morning and found the central market. When you walk in, there are about 30 ladies selling fruit drinks that they make the fresh right there in front of you. Is that kind of like Jamba Juice? Anyway, Rosaria mixed me up a mango and leche shake that filled my glass twice and cost less than US1.00. Walking through the market, you can see that these people don’t lack for anything in the way of food. It’s all here, and it’s probably fresher than anything we can buy from our grocery store in the US. I think that some of the pigs and chickens were probably alive yesterday, and I’m sure that they don’t use a lot of chemicals and pesticides on the fruits and veggies.

Outside the market (and in other places around the city), there are all these cell phone chicks. In the picture, you can see that the girls have three or four cell phones with bright green lanyards. They dial the local number for you and time your call with a stop-watch, then charge a rate that that kicks the local pay phone company’s ass. It’s nice to see a little capitalism at work here.

People have been living in the Cusco valley for some 10,000 years, and this was the center of the Incan culture. From here, the Inka ruler managed an area that included most of Peru, and some of Bolivia, Ecuador, northern Chile, and northwestern Argentina. At its peak, the civilization had around 9 million people. The culture’s most important deity was the Sun, and Qorikancha, the “Temple of the Sun” here in Cusco was the most sacred shrine. It once contained fabulous treasures, however, it was all looted by the Spaniards, melted down and shipped home.

The Spanish conquered the city in 1532, and they began construction of the city’s main church two years later in 1534. The main “cathedral” is built on the site of the last Inca king’s residence. The Spaniards demolished a number of buildings and temples in the nearby villages and brought the stones to Cusco to build the Catedral, and it took 90 years to complete.
The church is really stunning, but inside are even more amazing artifacts – like the original cross that was used in the very first mass after the conquest. There is line-up of life-sized portraits of the current, and all the former Bishops of Cusco. Since the current Bishop is alive, he’s wearing a smile in his portrait. When he dies, it will be replaced with another portrait with a more somber face. All of the dead Bishops are entombed in the church’s catacombs.

One of the most revered objects in the church is the “black Jesus”. It’s a close to life-sized crucifix that’s made of wood, but Jesus is black. There was a terrible earthquake here in 1650, and being a Spanish colony, the people of Spain prayed to the crucifix for the quakes to stop. In 1725, the crucifix was brought to Cusco and placed in one of the alcoves of the church. This is the city’s most revered religious icon, and Jesus wears a sterling silver crown of thorns and an ornate original Inka “skirt” (I don’t know what they call the thing). Every Thursday, they change all the flowers and the “skirt”. Every May 25th, crucifix it’s taken out on a procession, kind of like the Virgin del Carmen in Santiago.