Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [188]
If it’s a Sunday, look out for Quechua-speaking campesinos (peasants) hanging out in Plaza San Francisco (6). This is where country people who’ve come to Cuzco for work meet up in their free time. Drop in to the church and museum of San Francisco (7; Click here) if you’re so inclined – one or other is almost bound to be open, although their opening hours never seem to overlap.
Just past the colonial archway of Santa Clara is the church and convent of Santa Clara (8), which is very rarely open to the public. Head inside if you get the chance, because this is one of the more bizarre churches in Cuzco. Mirrors cover almost the entire interior; apparently, the colonial clergy used them to entice curious indigenous people into the church for worship. The nuns provide the choir during early morning Mass, sitting at the very back of the church and separated from both the priest and the rest of the congregation by an ominous grille of heavy metal bars stretching from floor to ceiling.
Just beyond the church, the bustle of activity at Mercado San Pedro (9; Click here) spills out onto the pavement. Fuel up with a huge jug of healthy jugo (fruit juice) at one of the Mercado’s many stalls. When you finish the first glass, don’t forget to ask for the yapa (leftover). It’s a good idea to share one juice between two, or you’ll be bloated by the sheer bulk of it.
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WALK FACTS
Start Plaza de Armas
Finish Sacsaywamán
Distance 4km
Duration About three hours, allowing for stops for juice, coffee and shopping
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Now, stagger out into Calle Nueva and be swept up in Cuzco’s commercial mayhem. Magic spells, electric guitars, pregnancy tests and pirate salsa DVDs jostle for space in the stalls, barrows and blankets that take up every inch of available pavement space and even some of the road.
You’ll pop out onto Avenida El Sol opposite the Palacio de Justicia (10), a big white wedding cake of a building whose back garden is home to a pair of lawn-mowing llamas – look out for them as you head up Maruri and take a left into Loreto (11), a pedestrian-only cobbled walkway with Inca walls on both sides. The west wall belongs to Amaruqancha (Courtyard of the Serpents). Its name may be derived from the pair of snakes carved on the lintel of the doorway near the end of the enclosure. Amaruqancha was the site of the palace of the 11th Inca emperor, Huayna Cápac. On the other side of Loreto is one of the best and oldest Inca walls in Cuzco, which belonged to the Acllahuasi (House of the Chosen Women). Following the conquest, the building became part of the closed convent of Santa Catalina (12; Click here) and so went from housing the Inca virgins of the sun to pious Catholic nuns.
Loreto brings you back out into the Plaza de Armas. Turn right up Triunfo (signposted as Sunturwasi) and across Palacio into Hatunrumiyoc, another walled-in pedestrian alley named after the well-known 12-sided stone (13). The stone is on the right, and can be recognized by the small children standing loudly pointing it out to tourists, and the dignified, regally clad Inca (rumored to be paid by the municipality) who poses next to it for photos. This excellently fitted stone belongs to a wall of the palace of the sixth inca, Inca Roca, which later became the Archbishop’s palace and now houses the Museo de Arte Religioso (14; Click here). The fitting of the stone is technically brilliant but is by no means an unusual example of polygonal masonry.
Hatunrumiyoc ends at Choquechaca. Several good cafes are concentrated in the block to your left and this is a good place for a break before the assault on San Blas and Sacsaywamán. You can see what’s in store straight ahead on Cuesta San Blas. Charming and cobbled is the good news. Near-vertical is the bad news. Luckily it’s only a very short puff up to Plaza San Blas (15), where the unassuming adobe Iglesia de San Blas and an incomparable view across Cuzco