Sacsayhuaman & Quorikancha, Cusco Peru

On Tuesday, April 19th, our last day in Cusco, we climbed up to the Sacsayhuaman (yes, pronounced Sexy Woman) fortress overlooking the town. This was a large Inca fortress and ceremonial centre but the walls are now less than 1/2 the height that they once were. The Spaniards dismantled a lot of the fortress and used the stones for their own buildings. After all the other sites that we had visited in the last week, this one wasn't too impressive except for its commanding position over Cusco.
On our way back down the stone steps and steep narrow streets, it started to rain heavily. We found shelter in the gateway to a small private museum of natural plants for food and medicine. A woman came to the door and invited us in, saying it was free and we could keep dry in there. In the end, we spent about 3/4 of an hour in the little museum, learning about lots of different plants, including all the varieties of potatoes, quinoa, coca and many others. We bought some tasty quinoa cookies. The woman at the counter gave us quite a description of some plant in which we had expressed interest. Since she spoke only Spanish, she added a lot of hand gestures so we understood most of it. It all works.
When the rain stopped, we continued down the hill to the main square where we picked up our bus tickets for our Puno bus the next day. Since we still had some time, we walked a few blocks down the Avenue El Sol to Quorikancha and the Santo Domingo cathedral. It cost 15 soles each to go into the cathedral which seemed very reasonable. The cathedral was built on the foundation of the Incan temple of Quorikancha, after the Incas were deprived of the right to their own beliefs and temples. Same old story. However, the cathedral was quite impressive.
When we left there, we walked back up near the Plaza de Armas and into a Peruvian restaurant for a late afternoon meal of roast chicken, which is very popular here. It wasn't long before we were back in our hotel and getting ready to leave for Puno the next morning.