Days 339 – 341: Cusco
Our flight from Lima to Cusco was easy and unremarkable. When we arrived, a driver from our hotel met us at the airport and brought us to the Torre Dorada – a small hotel in a very quiet residential neighborhood. Sure, it was far from all the attractions in the center of town, but we soon agreed that while it’s nice to walk around town during the day, we prefer to sleep away from the hustle and bustle.
After checking in, we called a USD $2 taxi to take us downtown where we could explore and grab dinner. We made a quick stop at the offices of our trekking agency, Alpaca Expeditions, to pay the balance of our private 4D/3N Inca Trail tour which would start in a few days. As we wandered through the streets, we decided to visit some of the local travel agencies to inquire about booking our post trek flights to the Amazon. Igor had been shopping around online, but had read that it’s possible to get better deals directly from an agency. Boy were they right! Travel agents in Peru must get some sort of special rate from the domestic carriers as the price we got from the agency was *literally half* of what we found online (even when we searched the exact same flights and carriers!). The only sketchy thing was that we paid for the airline tickets in cash, and only had two print-outs as proof of our reservations. Hopefully the guy won’t just cancel the flights tomorrow and pocket the money…
We each sip a cup of coca tea as we are welcomed into the hotel, then catch a taxi to the Plaza de Armas in the evening
As we explore the city square, we pop into a few travel agencies to inquire about cheaper flights to the Amazon
Loading up on the “free” salad buffet before ordering the most AMAZING Peruvian dish ever: Causa de pollo! Mashed potatoes? Good. Chicken salad? Good. Avocado? GOOD.
We gave ourselves 2 full days in Cusco in order to acclimatize. At 3,400M, the city is high enough to give some people altitude sickness. (Two guests in our hotel were suffering pretty bad – they were sick all night and couldn’t get out of bed for breakfast. When we were on the plane a week later, we ran into a woman who had to change her flight and leave early because she was reacting so badly to the altitude!) Luckily for us, we were totally fine – other than a little shortness of breath when climbing stairs, we didn’t feel the effect at all – not even a headache! (Igor is convinced we were somehow still acclimatized from our trips to Tibet and Nepal, but Lindsay thinks that’s impossible as 3 months have passed.)
While Cusco was the ancient capital of the Incas, sadly not much of the native architecture remains. The Spanish invaders torn down most of the palaces and temples (despite being initially impressed by their beauty and sophisticated workmanship). They left many of the walls standing and rebuilt churches and government buildings in a European Baroque-style (very evident in buildings surrounding the Plaza de Armas). Still, the city is very pretty, with cobblestone streets (some too narrow for cars – they were built for llama-drawn carts!) and modern-day tributes to the Inca culture (such as statues and street art).
Statues of mighty Inca warriors decorate the streets and plazas as we walk through town
Two grand churches flank the Plaza de Armas in Cusco – the Cathedral de Santo Domingo on the left and La Compañía de Jesús on the right
Since we didn’t have a schedule for the next two days, we decided to walk from our hotel to the Plaza de Armas, which took about 30min. When we got to the city center, we were approached by several hawkers – people selling paintings, shoe polishers, “natives” in traditional garb posing for pictures, etc. One of the shoe polishers look a look at Lindsay’s couple of boots and started harping her about the poor condition – her USD $90 boots from Indonesia were much the worse for wear: the soles were starting to get detached and the rubber at the toes was peeling. “These are not waterproof,” he claimed, “you can’t trek in them.” We rolled our eyes and asked the guy how much he would charge to fix the boot. He wanted USD $8.25; Igor agreed to pay USD $6.75, but the guy weaseled the extra dollar fifty out of us in the end. While we were waiting (barefoot) in the square for him to come back, we were prime targets for more hawkers, since we couldn’t walk away. When a pair of “native” ladies came by, offering a baby goat for pictures, Lindsay fell hook, line and sinker. I mean, how could you not? Fork over the USD $2, honey, Imma cuddle this baby goat *wearing a cute little hat.*
While waiting for a street shoe-polisher to return Lindsay’s hiking boots, she totally falls for a pair of women hustling tourists for photos with a baby goat. Sure it’s a bit of a scam…but…IT’S A BABY GOAT.
It’s the rainy season in Peru right now, and the locals warned us that the weather is pretty predictable: sunny in the morning, with rain coming in right around lunchtime. Sure enough, the skies opened up at 12:30PM and it started to *pour* – we flagged a taxi and returned to the hotel for the rest of the afternoon. At dinnertime, we did something very uncharacteristic of us: we returned to the same restaurant for the second night in a row! Lindsay had been craving another taste of that delicioso causa all day! Guys, the second time was even better – we have learned that Peruvians LOVE avocados even more than the Chileans! God Bless Peru.
Returning to the same restaurant second night in a row – tonight there’s live music and Igor even buys a CD (first new CD in, what?, 10 years?)
CHEESE-STUFFED AVOCADO. Fireworks were going off in the sky and on our taste buds. Loving Cusco cuisine!
Our second and last full day in Cusco was a bit of a repeat of the day before – we walked to the Plaza de Armas again and wandered around the city. Today was Sunday, and even though Lent had already started, it appeared that some Carnival celebrations were still going on as the streets were flooded with revelers, dressed in brightly colored, traditional garments, and kids were running around with water balloons and foam spray again. Best of all, however, was the huge street fair with food stalls selling a large array of Peruvian specialties!
Walking through the streets of Cusco, passing by the second-floor office of our trekking agency, Alpaca Expeditions
A huge procession of local dressed in traditional grab line the street outside the Plaza de Armas, waiting for their turn to enter and perform in the square for the Carnival celebrations
Performers practice their dances, as they twirl in the street
Weekend fun: an old man practices his soccer skillz, a boy and his father set off fireworks outside the church (why in the daylight tho? No one can see the sparks!), and a young boy selling Carnival foam spray eyes us as if to say, “Watch out! You’re next!”
Food fair lining the plaza – so many cakes to choose from!
It took us forever to select our flavors of cake!
Roasted guinea pig (with whiskers and teeth!) – supposedly a Peruvian delicacy, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to eat any. We did buy some mystery meat for a friendly street dog (who then followed us around town for the rest of the afternoon)
After enjoying the festivities for a few hours, we had to get down to business: after nearly a year of travelling light, it was finally time to buy some souvenirs! We’ve missed a lot of birthdays and Christmas while on the road, so we wanted to bring back some small tokens from our adventures. We’re huge fans of the Bolivian/Peruvian-style winter hats, so we stocked up. No, seriously, we *really* stocked up: the vendor had to leave the market to clear out her entire inventory. In fact, we suspected that she even “borrowed” hats from other vendors to fill our order. On the plus side, we ended up getting a great deal on all our purchases! The only problem was…where are we going to pack all of these new clothes?!? We stuffed our day bags to the brim and still couldn’t fit everything. We asked the owner of our hotel if she knew anyplace where we could buy a very cheap piece of luggage – instead, the sweet woman actually ran home and brought us a backpack that we could have for free! She shrugged it off, saying she had trekkers leaving unwanted luggage and other items in her hotel all the time.
Seriously, Cusco was the BEST.
Igor haggling with a souvenir vendor who keeps calling him, “Mi amor.”
We load up on gifts for our friends and family back home – hope US Customs believes as that this huge pile of clothes are not from commercial resale…