I decided to dedicate this day to some of Cusco's museums. My first stop: the Inca museum. Sadly, the museum isn't all that great. In some sections, there are too many exhibits, in others too few, and in general there were never enough in-depth explanations given. Especially the last part makes a little bit of sense once you know that they are trying get people to do a nominally-free-but-tip-expected guided tour. Well, not all museums can be top notch.
The next museum, however, definitely was. The museum of pre-Colombian art has a range of exhibits grouped by culture, mostly pre-inca, some going back about 3000 years. I liked pretty much everything about the museum: the rooms, the presentation of the exhibits, the detailed explanations given, and of course the wonderful exhibits themselves.
Most of the pieces in the museum were ceramics - but not the crude kind you often get to see in archeological museums. Instead, these were elegant bottles, vases and plates, tastefully adorned, and definitely deserving their place in an art museum. For example, look at this vase with colorful birds painted all around:
The perfectly round shapes were achieved without any help from a rotating plate. Amazing, isn't it?
Two of my favorite pieces in the museum were these bottles in the form of ducks:
From their appearance, I wouldn't have guessed that they are hundreds of years old - they could just as well have been designed only yesterday.
On my way to the next place, I found an excellent example of how many of Cusco's modern buildings rest on Inca foundations:
Santo Domingo church is another place where the Spanish tore down an Inca palace and built a church on top to demonstrate their domination. Interestingly enough, the church itself has been damaged by earthquakes several times, but the Inca foundations never showed any sign of damage. The reason for this is probably the anti-seismic manner of construction the Inca employed: blocks of stone fit on each other perfectly, and all the walls are slanted inwards slightly.
My final stop for the day was the chocolate museum. The smell alone in the museum was incredibly irresistible, inviting to an extended stay ;-) I learned that the Maya in central America discovered the process of how to produce chocolate from cocoa fruits. The process is quite involved: you have to ferment the seeds, dry them, peel away the shells, roast the nibs inside and finally grind them and add hot water and spices to obtain a delicious chocolate drink.
Peru is relatively new to large-scale cocoa export, but growing rapidly. To get farmers away from cocaine production, the government set up an interesting initiative: it encourages farmers to replace coca plantations with cocoa plantations. The museum reported good initial success - but I guess only time will tell if chocolate is as appealing as cocaine ;-)
The next museum, however, definitely was. The museum of pre-Colombian art has a range of exhibits grouped by culture, mostly pre-inca, some going back about 3000 years. I liked pretty much everything about the museum: the rooms, the presentation of the exhibits, the detailed explanations given, and of course the wonderful exhibits themselves.
Most of the pieces in the museum were ceramics - but not the crude kind you often get to see in archeological museums. Instead, these were elegant bottles, vases and plates, tastefully adorned, and definitely deserving their place in an art museum. For example, look at this vase with colorful birds painted all around:
The perfectly round shapes were achieved without any help from a rotating plate. Amazing, isn't it?
Two of my favorite pieces in the museum were these bottles in the form of ducks:
From their appearance, I wouldn't have guessed that they are hundreds of years old - they could just as well have been designed only yesterday.
On my way to the next place, I found an excellent example of how many of Cusco's modern buildings rest on Inca foundations:
Santo Domingo church is another place where the Spanish tore down an Inca palace and built a church on top to demonstrate their domination. Interestingly enough, the church itself has been damaged by earthquakes several times, but the Inca foundations never showed any sign of damage. The reason for this is probably the anti-seismic manner of construction the Inca employed: blocks of stone fit on each other perfectly, and all the walls are slanted inwards slightly.
My final stop for the day was the chocolate museum. The smell alone in the museum was incredibly irresistible, inviting to an extended stay ;-) I learned that the Maya in central America discovered the process of how to produce chocolate from cocoa fruits. The process is quite involved: you have to ferment the seeds, dry them, peel away the shells, roast the nibs inside and finally grind them and add hot water and spices to obtain a delicious chocolate drink.
Peru is relatively new to large-scale cocoa export, but growing rapidly. To get farmers away from cocaine production, the government set up an interesting initiative: it encourages farmers to replace coca plantations with cocoa plantations. The museum reported good initial success - but I guess only time will tell if chocolate is as appealing as cocaine ;-)
