The past two days I’ve hit the Cusco museums: Regional History, Popular Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, and Qorikancha. They were all pretty pathetic–small, dingy, and with poorly presented information. Qorikancha had a few neat things, but even still some of the artifacts were being held up by what appeared to be plastic caps from pop bottles. 
I also paid a visit to Pachacuteq monument and climbed to the top of the tower for some less than spectacular views of the city.
Pachacuteq (or Pachacuti) is one of the most famous Incas and was instrumental in building up the Inca empire in Cusco. It is also believed that Machu Picchu was built during his reign.
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I also went to the Iglesia de La Compañía Catholic church at the Plaza. It was an absolutely stunning church covered in gold leafed woodwork. (Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed). I went for what I thought was a Catholic Mass, until at the very end when I saw one lady crying, another holding flowers, and bunches of people embracing each other with hugs and kisses. Ummmm……..it is quite possible I mistakenly went to a funeral instead! Whoops.
In other news Cusco has been without water for 4 days now. Apparently some “container broke” and that’s about all I know. We’ve been told it’ll be anywhere from a few days to a few months before it’s fixed.
Spaghettiodreams 