Pope Leo’s big post-cancer stamina test: Climb the Andes, then dive into the Amazon

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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 ...

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.

Sunday, Leo’s last full day in Latin America, will be the most demanding physically for the 71-year-old, as he travels between two of the most important cultural and geographic regions in Peru, his adopted homeland.

As Robert Francis Prevost, he served for almost two decades as a missionary in the South American country, and his emotionally-charged homecoming will conclude in a key centre of Catholicism.

Designed by the Incas to resemble in its layout a crouching puma, Cusco was partially destroyed during the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, but would go on to serve as a major base for the evangelisation of the Andes.

The pontiff will spend three hours in Cusco, leading prayer in front of the Cathedral, before flying to Pucallpa, one of the largest cities in the Peruvian Amazon, to meet representatives of Indigenous Amazonian peoples.

Lying on the banks of the Ucayali River deep within the rainforest, the city is home to numerous timber-harvesting businesses and an oil refinery, and serves as a gateway to the surrounding rainforest communities.

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