CUSCO, Nov 15 — Pope Leo XIV will travel high into the Andes to Cusco on Sunday, before plunging into the Amazon basin, testing his post-cancer stamina as he wraps up his South America tour.
The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who underwent lung cancer surgery a month ago, refused to cut the visit to the Unesco World Heritage Site from his itinerary, despite Cusco’s location at over 3,400 metres (11,000 feet) of altitude.
Once in the former capital of the Inca Empire, he will climb even further to Saqsaywaman, a massive hilltop fortress overlooking the Peruvian city, where he will meet with representatives of popular Catholic devotion.
The US-born pontiff has been on an intense 12-day trip through Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, rallying a declining faith, defending the poor and marginalised, and deploring regional ills, from a rise in violence to a drop in birth rates.
