Cusco, Peru · Travel Poster

Each poster comes with a letter home. Ella writes about the place and its hidden history, and the details that never makes it into the guidebooks.

Cusco was designed as a puma. The Inca emperor Pachacutec laid out the ancient capital so that the fortress of Sacsayhuamán formed the animal's head, the rivers Tullumayo and Huatanay shaped its body, and the point where they meet, Pumaqchupan, formed its tail. The puma was sacred to the Incas, a symbol of strength and protection, and the whole city was built as a piece of cosmic order made from streets and stone. You cannot see the shape from the ground. It only reveals itself from above, a plan that was hidden in plain sight for the people who walked it every day.

This poster is an original illustration in watercolour and ink, painted exclusively for the Ella's Adventures travel poster series.

No frame included.