Missive #4, Sat, Feb 17 to Wed, Feb 28th
Missive #4, Sat, Feb 17th to Wed, Feb 28th Day 21, Sat, Feb 17th Hotel José Antonio, Cusco, 0 km Today we took a tour of Cusco which is a town of 435,000. It is quite touristy as a result of it being the centre of the Inca Empire (actually the Quechua Empire, the 'Inca' name refers to their King only) before the Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro unceremoniously sacked the place in the early 1530's. He stole all the gold and precious metals returning them to Spain. He tore down most of the impressive temples. Many of the natives died of smallpox and other infectious diseases. The stones were ingeniously held together as above to protect against earthquakes Many, many tourists come here to visit but I am one tourist that was not overly impressed. You can Wikipedia the info at your leisure. The Incas ruled from the 12th to the early 16th century. There were no written records available in their culture hence there is a ton of conjecture