Day 5 - Cusco

Today's pace was much slower, which is a good thing because Greg is tired.  After a later start and finding a Starbucks in the Plaza de Armas, Juan took us for a walking tour of Cusco. 

On the main street are paid workers in traditional dress and a plastic carnival mask holding a sign: respect the crosswalks - their way of discouraging jaywalking. The cars have the right of way, and don't care about you. Suddenly Juan jumped into the path of an oncoming bus to swoop up a young boy ~3 who was not moving off the street quickly enough (and mama was oblivious). 

After walking passed the stone with 12 edges, and touring Qorikancha (Inca's huge gold religious center/ Temple of the Sun), we went to the San Pedro market. We saw so many strange sights!  Of course the most unusual was the llama fetus,  but they also had breads, fish (piles of fish eggs), many varieties of potatoes, fresh produce, flowers, chicha (corn beer), and fresh blended fruit smoothies. Since we couldn't barter down the price of the pig's head, our only purchase was bags of coco leaves for the trail tomorrow.  

Next Juan took us to the Handicraft Center (large souvenir market), where we bid each other our "hasta la vista" since we cannot say goodbye. It was actually a huge downer; he was just amazing these past few days!

After making more purchases than we have room for, we enjoyed a late lunch on the patio of Pachapapa on the San Blas square. Unfortunately we could not order the guinea pig, an Andean delicacy, because they need 24 hour notice.  Darn.  So we had to settle for pizza and calzone from the adobe  oven. 

It is amazing how quickly our bodies produce more red blood cells to help us acclimate to this high altitude!  Each time we climb the hill to our hotel, it is noticeably easier and easier. 

Tonight we checked into tomorrow's 4 day 3 night Inca Trail tour and found out we are the oldest ones in a group of nine. I am excluding the 59 year old as the outlier. The rest are in their 20s and from Israel, Belgium and the UK.  We will be hiking as high as 13,776 feet, and then down to Machu Picchu.  They described the 1st day as easy, the 2nd as challenging, the 3rd as unforgettable, and the last as unique.

We just spent the last hour weighing our bags, taking stuff out, and weighing them again.  We hired a porter to carry 6kg (each) for us, which turns out to be a sleeping bag and mat plus a change of clothes. The rest of or supplies we have to carry in  our daypack. Mine weighs about 12 pounds - ugh. I can't get any lighter - that is seriously all basics, except for my camera which I refuse to give up!  Greg's bag is 10 pounds. 

Tomorrow is an early morning - our bus picks us up at 5:15pm.  We "go dark" for the next three nights... The Inca didn't have wi-fi on the trail!

Hasta la vista!

Day 4 - Sacred Valley to Cusco

This morning I went out exploring the little town of Ollantaytambo at 6:00 am just after the sun came up. It was an fun adventure to wander through the maze of streets on a scavenger hunt for photographic treasures. I was surprised at the amount of cars and locals out and about in this very small town! And these people bustle around even faster than I do!

We met Juan and started with a tour of the town's ruins. We all know what incredible builders the Inca were, but when you look first-hand at the rocks they carved, it really is mind boggling! It is one thing to carve - by hand - a straight edge or a curved edge, but it is the mirrored aligning curvature, fitting multiple pieces together, that is so impressive! And something you don't see in these complete walls is the hidden parts that were cut like Lego pieces to fit together and remain intact for all these years.

The ruins are a climb up through the pyramid of terraces, and allow a great view of the town. We were looking across towards the grainery on the opposing hill, and talking about the face formation on the rock. For the life of him, Greg could not see a face. Juan joked that his coco tea hadn't kicked in, and he told us the legend of the face. Just as he was finishing, Greg's coco set in - and he interrupted excitedly, "I see it!" I couldn't stop laughing. It just seemed so child-like, which is so unlike Greg!

On our way out of town, we stopped at a small school for girls to donate a little suitcase full of supplies we brought (because it was something I felt strongly about doing). The girls could not afford to commute the long distance (from the surrounding hills) to school each day, so this was a home as well. They were ages 14-16, and quite shy and giggly.

We drove across the Valley to the town of Pisac. They are known for their large market as well as their ruins. We bought few souvenirs and a delicious lunch. I tried to haggle a little but my guilt - they need this money - always won them the higher price.

The alpaca and llama farm we stopped at was really amusing. They are so cute and I swear they posed for me, even clowning around with buck-teeth smiles. Quite the large crowd of them gathered around me. I am going to have to figure out how to sneak one home in my suitcase!

We had three more stops to see a variety of ruins (Q'enco, Tambomachay, and Sacsayhuaman) which involved more use of our imagination to see animal shapes, and even holding tight to each other to climb through a completely dark, narrow cave.

You really can feel the altitude here as you try to exert yourself. As we passed other tourists dying to catch another breath, Juan said we are doing better than most. Basically you move in slow motion here.

Our last stop before our final destination of Cusco was the gargantuan ruins of Sacsayhuaman (pronounced Sexy Woman). Their stones were quite massive, perhaps 3x taller than Greg. From here we overlooked all of Cusco, which is surprisingly quite large, and is the shape of a bowl (and a puma, if you've had some good coco leaves) instead of teetering on the side of a high mountain peak, like I had imagined.

We had a very nice dinner at Limo's on a balcony overlooking the Plaza de Armas - trying local treats like a pisco sour and lomo saltado. They are both delicious here.

Cusco is the capital of the Inca empire, and the "navel of the world". We are staying in the San Blas area - a quaint pedestrian barrio. I don't know how this is possible but Greg actually seems to know direction here where as I keep making wrong turns. Perhaps the effects of altitude.