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Cusco — Plaza de Armas
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The center of Cusco is this beautful plaza, ringed all around with impressive churches, tempting craft shops, and restaurants staffed by enthusiastic sidewalk salespeople trying to entice you to their balcony dining rooms.
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To give you an overview of the Plaza, at the left is a shot of it taken from the hillside of Sacsayhuamán... ...while the one on the right is a closer view.
The most imposing buildings on the square are the Cathedral and La Compañía de Jésus, two churches which date from the 1500's. (The church you can see the most clearly in the hillside view is La Compañía; the Cathedral is on the left in the other photo.) We didn't find the time to go on inside tours of these buildings, but their exteriors, framed by the lovely square and the blue mountain sky, inspired Henry to take many photographs. |
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Here are two shots of the Cathedral. The familiar-looking trio clustered around the streetlight in the photo at the right are Kathy, Joan and Debby.
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We had a little trouble getting oriented on our first walk up to the Plaza. I think it was trying to sort out all the churches ...
In the center below is another view of the Cathedral, flanked by close-ups of the side chapel and its sculpture...
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Moving over now to La Compañía, it certainly was lovely with all those flowers in the foreground...
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A helpful fellow tourist having lunch in the Inka Grill (squash ravioli...hmmm!) tried to take our picture, but succeeded at first only in getting a nice shot of La Compañía through the arches outside the restaurant...
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And here is La Compañía at night.
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Here was his more successful shot of the four of us, although Debby is mostly hidden:
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This final shot of the Cathedral may not look like it contains a political message, but it does! The flag flying from the pole on the left is the rainbow flag of Cusco, which represents the reverence in which the Inkas held the rainbow symbol. You see it flying at least as often in Cusco as the Peruvian flag, which is on the pole at the right.
In the middle of the Plaza is a lovely fountain, which is not just for show but, apparently, for parents to help their kids wash up....?
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This casual group shot of Debby, Joan and Kathy can give you an idea of how sides of the Plaza lined with shops appear ...
And here are two final views of this delightful urban space, by day and by night... (I think the whitewashed building in the corner in the left photo is La Papillon Restaurant, where we had our first of many scrumptious meals in Cusco.)
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All photos, unless otherwise credited, are © by Henry J. Amen III. Please do not use without permission.
