It's not hard to understand why tourists tend to spend most of their time in Cusco. It's a beautiful city, teeming with history and amazing architecture representing the various occupying cultures over the centuries. The central plazas are bordered by cathedrals and Spanish-colonial archways and balconies. Walking thenarrow, hilly streets you pass Inca structures made of perfectly-joined stones. In the first picture below, you can see 3 types of walls- the pre-inca in the back (smaller smooth river stones), Inca in the center (large carved & fitted stones with no mortar), and the "in-capable" - as the locals called the Spaniards' attempts atduplicating Inca work - in the front left (hodgepodge stones w/ mortar). The llama-ladies are everywhere; they usually find you first and jump in your pictures, and then ask for a tip afterwards.
In Cusco we had to say "hasta luego" to Nakeischea. We had a blast during our week traveling together, and we and the kids would never have scaled Machu Picchu without her help and encouragement (particularly, in the form of Bahamian songs which make no sense but the girls are still singing long after she's left)!
Our final night in Cusco we visited the (free!) Choco Museo, where the girls learned the history of chocolate, and took a mini-class where they made their own chocolates from 100% Peruvian cacao. Mom and Dad we happy to help eat them!
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