Cusco

Lima domestic airport is brand new, it has only been open for 10 days. We found a place that sold tea (and we got tea!) and some fruit salad and carried our breakfast for the 15 minute walk to the terminal.  There weren't a lot of chairs so we sat on the window sill eating our paper bag breakfast supplied by the hotel - a bun with marmalade (inspired by Paddington Bear I am sure), oreo biscuits and an apple - the latter two we left for later. On arrival, someone spied my paper bag and took my apple (agricultural security exists but is a tad light as we weren't told about it during the flight).  I mentioned this to others and they took their apples from their back packs while someone else said we weren't missing much as the apples weren't very nice. 

The travel doctor told us to rest when we got to Cusco, to try and help our bodies adjust to the high altitude.  Our guide Guido said come for a short walk and lunch - "It will be a slow wander" he said "stop and take photos and I will tell you a few things".  I decided to take him at his word, even though when I got off the plane I began to feel tired and a bit headachy.  I did walk slow - much slower than the young people in our group, but some of them did slow down to our speed after the initial burst of energy.

Cusco is a lovely little place - about 500,000 live here, but most of them on the hills surrounding the historical area.  There is a lot of tooting of horns, fireworks (at all timesof the day) and people trying to sell us mementoes (some of which are great but there is too much to chose from and too early in the holiday).

"You will see woman cuddling lambs and they will ask in the local language if you would like to have a photo with the lamb for a koha.  Of course, you can if you want to, but G Adventures does not like to promote the treatment of animals outside of their normal environment" said our guide.  Later on we did see lambs sitting on laps with ribbons and bows in their wool.

We stopped at an ATM for some "soles" and wondered how long it would take for the queue to disperse (there must have been a line of 15 or so).  Not long, as there were 5 money machines.

We eventually stopped for lunch - at a lovely restaurant where the food was presented beautifully and tasted as good.  Harry and I settled for a fruity tea for a drink, but ended up with a hot mulled wine instead (what is it about us and drinks in Peru!).

We wandered a bit more and then left our guide and decided to go back to the hotel for a hot bath and relax.  On the way, we stopped for an ice cream (coconut for me and a very strong passionfruit for Harry).

No bath tonight - the water was off when we arrived back, and even though it came back on after a while it was still cold a few hours later. We soon learnt that cold water is a thing at this hotel.

Another walking tour with our guide the next morning.  Up the same roads past the ATM and grassed courtyards to the market place.  It took a while to get there as it was festival day in Cusco. Our guide had no idea what they were celebrating as he said Peruvians celebrate everything and anything. Colourful clothing, noisy instruments and lots of laughter for the participants and onlookers.  Very hard to get good photos as there was such a crowd.

We eventually found the markets. Long rows of stalls of food, trinkets, flowers, meat, manure all tightly packed into a rather large building. I often feel sorry for the owners of these stalls as hardly anyone seems to buy. But our guide did say that the rent is low in the market and some of our group did go back later to buy hats, jerseys and food. We bought two mandarins!! Maybe we went at a time when locals aren't around.  We sampled a range of fruit some that were like passionfruit, others that did not resemble anything I knew and one that was just like a juicy golden kumara.  

9.00

We then found more of the procession and our guide decided it was too hard to keep us all together (he really is quite impressive how he remains so calm) and said we were on our own.  Cusco isn't really a place you would get too lost in so we were happy to wander around.

Sad to say and definitely not keeping in with the local culture we went to the Irish Pub for some nachos and toasted sandwiches and had a great view from the window of the plaza and the procession (which did not come into the plaza but seemed to go up and down a side street, where not many people could stop and see).

On our way back we went to San Christos Church.  A rather large church standing proudly on one side of the plaza.  No photos to be taken inside, but the outside features in many of our photos so far as it dominates one side of the plaza.  It was built in the mid 1500's just after colonisation began.  Many of its carvings and statues were as impressive as those in Lima, but unfortunately it doesn't look like there is the money to maintain them - many were dark  when they should have been colourful.  We did have the opportunity to climb the steep wooden steps to the balcony and take a photo of the plaza from a slightly different perspective.

There were fireworks tonight as we walked to another outstanding restaurant for dinner and a band to accompany us back to the hotel.

A couple of interesting things:

• When we went to pay for dinner the card machine numbers were all in different places. We had heard about this new security measure but hadn't experienced it before.
• There was a bus advertising automatic doors. A person stood inside opening and closing them.  We can only assume, and hope, that the automatic bit was broken.

We are back in Cusco for two nights after our visit to Machu Picchu.  Most of the group is going for a walk up Rainbow Mountain - 6 hour round trip on a bus for a 2 hour hike up to 5000 metres to see what looks like a pretty spectacular colourful mountain.  We opted to stay in Cusco.  Guido offered to give us a personalised tour of the arty suburbs in Cusco and we accepted.  It was all up hill - I can't believe that we are still getting breathless going up hill.

While we sat on the steps waiting for Guido at least 10 peddlars came to visit - trying to sell memorabilia, tour maps, bus trips, jewellery and shoe shines - we were wearing sneakers (apparently they can work wonders with sneakers).

We climbed up many steps through an area that competes in the annual best street competition.  Lined with flowering geraniums it was very pretty.  Guido pointed out a few sights including the School of Science which has a donkey as its emblem.  Donkeys aren't really known for their IQ.  But students used to come from miles around on their donkeys and they were tethered outside the buildings. I guess it would be more comfortable than riding a bicycle along all the cobbled streets.

Above the town is a hill with Viva El Peru in stones on the hillside.  Apparently, during celebrations it is painted and fireworks are laid on the letters to be lit at night.  We saw a town on the way to Machu Picchu with many of these letters and emblems - apparently the stones were laid by school students and at the end of the year \school leavers climb the hill, paint the stones and lay the fireworks as part of their leaving celebrations.

The street art was pretty amazing and something I really loved. It is so talented to paint so big and it really gives colour to a wall and community. Some of the art was in narrow alleys and so it was hard to get a photo.  We did our best.

On the way down Guido showed us some little tableaus which were inspired by a local artist Lopez Antay. They were made from potato and plaster and were pretty interesting.  One was of skeletons getting married which didn't quite appeal.  However, later on when we visited the Inca museum we realised that the skeletons were modelled off the Inca mummies. 

The Inca museum was full of artifacts - some dating back to 1000 BC. The patterns on the pottery were still bright today - mainly deep reds and yellow.  I must admit we were both feeling a bit tired so we probably didn't give the museum justice. There was a model of Machu Picchu and we could pin point the places that we stood yesterday taking photos and soaking in the view. 

We wondered why so many street musicians and restaurants were playing an instrumental of El Condor Pasa - you know the Simon and Garfunkel song "I would rather be a hammer than a nail...".  Apparently, the two singers visited Peru and heard the music and decided to put words to it - hence the Spanish name. I had always wondered!

Cusco is a delightful place to visit - though a tad more expensive than we were expecting.  Safe, great food, lots to see and do, friendly people and of course the gate way to Machu Picchu.