Language in Cusco and Machu Picchu

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Language

English speakers are more difficult to find out here than in Cusco. Only those connected with the tourist industry are likely to speak English. The majority of people here speak the indigenous Quechua as their first language, and Spanish second. The Quechua-to-Spanish-to-English transformation of place names means that spelling variations abound in this part of Peru. Pisac is sometimes written Pisaq. Machu Picchu often gets scrunched together as Machupicchu or even occasionally Machupicqho. And Inka has gained cachet in some circles as a less Spanish, more politically correct rendering of Inca.