Climbing Sexy Woman

November 4, 2008

We flew in to Cuzco and had a city tour. We were able to see many of the Catholic churches in the area as well as several ruins surrounding the area. In the churches we were able to see some of the indigenous art in the area. There were several aspects of the art that stood out to me. One was the fact the indigenous artists painted the figures with darker skin, and related the virgin mary to the Moon goddess. They did this by showing three levels in the art, heaven earth and hell. This is was done to allow the people to accept the catholic religion. Another interesting fact is that the church was built on the foundation of the Incan temples keeping several of the walls intact. This was a psychological punishment to show the defeat and eradication of the incan temple and beliefs. The most controversial painting in the church was that of the last supper. However, instead of the typical bread and wine they placed Cuy (guinea pig) the native dish of Peru and Chicha the purple drink I mentioned before on the table. They also painted the face of Judas in the likeness of the first conquistador to conquer the area. We visited Secsayhuman pronounced "Sexy Woman" much to everyone's amusement. It was part of the Incan ruins near Cuzco.

Throughout the day we all suffered from altitude sickness. They gave us some Coca Tea which is made from coca leaves which is the same thing cocaine is made from ;) No its not drug or addicting..but you can only bring 10 leaves back with you LOL. Earl was constantly stalked by little 12 year old girls who constantly wanted his picture. We called him the Jonas Brother.