We had today to roam around Cusco on our own. We decided to check out a few museums near the old town. They are all small museums and all but one prohibited pictures. I snuck some, but got caught by “hall monitors” at one of the museums trying to sneak my very first picture there. Turns out they had somewhere near a bazillion lookouts (nearly accurate count), so there was no way I was going to be successful. Anyways, we had a more leisurely day, overall.

We went to the Qorikancha museum, which had Incan artifacts and some general information about different Incan groups (I had spelled this Qurikancha in another blog post as that is a variation, but this is the spelling of the museum name). Casa Concha museum had artifacts from Machu Picchu and information, including photographs, from Hiram Bingham’s 1911 and 1912 discovery and excavations. It also has a wing of art and artifacts from the Spanish era. The Natural History Museum has local flora and fauna. The Basilica and Convent of Our Lady of Mercy has a rather disjointed museum of Incan, Spanish, and Catholic items. Nothing is labeled. Apparently there is an audio tour available, but we didn’t get it.

pottery…they look like they’re up to something

Incan silver woman statue

Tiny silver llama

Tiny silver dog

butterflies

Paradise Tanager

Random unlabeled painting

Cool wooden door

Cool bowl

Jars

More silver llamas

Hiram Bingham

We did also go by the 12 Angled Stone. This is part of an Incan stone wall that remains in Cusco, currently integrated into the wall of the Palace of the Archbishop of Cusco. One of the stones is cut to fit into a specific spot and has 12 angles to it. The entire wall itself is impressive. Despite how my pictures look, the area was crowded and we did not go and find the specific stone and were content with the wall.

We relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon and had a light dinner. We are being picked up from our hotel at 5 am, so we are turning in early.