¡Feliz Halloween!

One of the most fascinating achievements of the Incas is their masonry.  They created walls with rounded corners from local limestone and granite.  It´s thought that they used stone, bronze and copper tools to cut huge stones into shape which fit together perfectly with no mortar.

During the earthquakes of 1650 and 1950 many of the colonial buildings collapsed but the Inca architecture survived.  These walls were built to be earthquake proof.  Instead of collapsing the stones are allowed to ´dance´ during the shaking before settling back into position.  The most famous example of such masonry is the ´12 Angle Stone´ as seen below.

The Cusqueñans certainly know how to celebrate Halloween.  Hundreds of little goblins, skeletons and characters from Sesame Street paraded the streets with their parents.  Once they´d gone home with their booty the teenagers dominated the street corners and the adults partied in the bars.  Not wanting to let the side down I got dressed up along with my amigo peruano and we spent the evening terrifying the locals.  I´m not sure how to describe our costumes, the pictures will have to do the talking.