San Blas View Point

This guide to the San Blas viewpoint in Cusco follows a neighborhood built on craft since Inca times, when goldsmiths trained here and, after the conquest, carpenters and silversmiths carved altars for the city's churches. At its center is Hilario Mendivil, born nearby in 1927, who grew up inside that trade and began carving saints and virgins with necks stretched long, echoing the llamas paraded through Corpus Christi processions from his childhood. Stand at the viewpoint and pick out the gallery doors below as you listen, part of the same craft economy the guide traces back four centuries.