Good 'ole Pachacutec

A couple Saturdays ago I was able to visit another touristy landmark here in Cusco. Jessica and I went to visit the Pachacutec Memorial not too far from downtown. It's a monument to honor one of the great Incas (Incas were the kings...the common people were the Quechua. Funny how there are still Quechua around but no Incas), King Pachacutec. He did a lot of good for the city of Cusco: he created water systems and streets and worked for a better education system. Besides, he was the king who during his reign decided that it might be smart to worship something bigger than the sun or moon. It's too bad that his idea didn't spread!

This monument is a series of steps with different stories all leading up to the top were there is a copper statue of the king. Each floor has little windows looking out and big posters that talk about each of the Incas (I think there were something like 14-15 of them). The posters were in English and Spanish but sometimes the Spanish was translated rather badly. The funniest example of that was this one:
The guy was not bringing back his grandmother as you may surmise but the MUMMY of his father. Thankfully, the spanish was there to give us a real idea of what happened! hee hee... "Bring back, bring back, oh bring back my mommy to me, to me!!!"



Another funny moment of the day was the random llama on the lawn of the monument. Well, you may think that llamas and Cusco and not too far removed but honestly you don't see llamas too often. The only people that have llamas are people in typical costume trying to get money for photos. Besides were were downtown right in the middle of a busy intersection. Sure there was lovely green grass surrounding the monument that would tempt any typical llama. Maybe someone in costume had left their llama to rest while they went off to find lunch. Who knows? Here's some pics of our llama on the lawn:
I love this pic because it shows a taxi, a combi and a llama!!! Which one do you want to take a ride on?

The llama was none too happy about the approaching human and stood up to make good his escape. Good thing the human went away and left it alone!

Here's some views of Cusco from the top of the monument: