The all too short journey to the Land of the Incas (and the Moche, the Chavín, the Wari...) culminated in crossing the Andes on foot (hey, I am a certified pass surmounter now!) and included numberless other highlights (experiencing - surviving? - a storm on Lake Titicaca alone was worth a lot...)
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Peru II (Huayhuash, 2008)
The background image is that of Plano topografico de la Ciudad del Cuzco. Levantado en 1861 por el Ingeniero del Estado Federico Hohagen. It makes the plate XXXIII of Atlas geografico del Peru, published in 1865 in Paris on behalf of the Peruvian Government. The first atlas of Peru with wonderful maps, plans, thematic maps, views and statistical information exudes the optimism of the period.

The city centre, now UNESCO World Heritage, remained mainly the same. Plaza Mayor, the traditional Spanish description for the main place on the spot, is now Plaza de Armas, which is more Latin American, but the street where our hotel was situated is still named just as 140 years ago. Cuzco is told to be laid out by the Incas to resemble a puma, with its head being Sacsayhuamán (the hill on the upper edge, left from the middle) and its body extending to the south-east. With some imagination one can really get the idea.

Image © Cartography Associates