Life on Arbor: Peru 2: Cusco

After spending the night in Lima, we awoke the next morning (June 24) to roosters crowing! Our hostess told us a lot of the neighbors keep animals around to eat - so pigs, roosters, chickens....I was a little nervous because she had prepared a breakfast for us and I just wasn't sure what I could/couldn't eat. I had done so much research that said: no fruit unless you peel it, no dairy, no water, no lettuce, etc. So I had a lot of toast! :) I also had some te de naranja (orange tea). They drink a lot of tea and coffee in Peru! We got a few tips on taxis and money over breakfast, then headed to the airport.

The flight to Cusco was amazing! Lima is along the coast, so pretty flat. Cusco is in the mountains, so it was neat to see the landscape change as we got closer and closer. The mountains were different from what we've seen in Colorado, where they are pretty green. Here they seemed to be mostly brown.

We got a nice little snack and Brad tried Inka Cola for the first time! It's a really popular soda here (more popular than Coke) and tastes like cream soda.

In Cusco we got to our hotel via taxi (Brad negotiated the price - 10 soles, or about $3). Our hotel was nice, and had internet so we could connect with our worried families. It was also really close to the Plaza del Armas (main square), so it was prime for walking around and exploring the city. The altitude was already kind of affecting me, and I was having some trouble breathing as we walked around.

We ended up spending six days in Cusco, instead of the original 3. We had planned to take a bus to Puno and see Lake Titicaca, but there were tons of protests going on and they had just gotten violent, so the bus wasn't running. We were going to go to Colca Canyon in Arequipa instead, but I guess the bus there share some of the same roads, so that wouldn't work either. Which left us with a lot of time in Cusco.

We mostly walked around and went into lots of little shops. Two days we did Sacred Valley tours, which I'll talk about in my next post. We spent our two year anniversary in Cusco on June 26! We went out for a nice dinner at Fallen Angel around 7pm...we were the ONLY ones there. We asked our waiter and I guess in Peru people eat at like 9-10pm! Oops - guess we were the early birds that night. But the meal was AMAZING and Brad had his first Pisco Sour! Pisco is a liquor they make in Peru - tastes kind of like strong wine. And Pisco Sour is a very popular drink there.

Plaza del armas

Having some Cusquena - Peru's Miller Lite!

We spent the next two days (June 27-28) just hanging out around the city, trying some different restaurants, and getting souvenirs. Our hotels all provided breakfast, which was nice and saved us some money on meals. The breakfasts were almost always eggs, bread/butter/jam, ham/cheese, and fruit. They sometimes had yogurt, but their yogurt is really soupy, so we didn't have that much. Since we had so many days in Cusco, we were able to do some laundry, which was nice, since we only brought carry-on bags with us. Dogs are EVERYwhere here! I seriously think most of them have owners, since a lot have collars, but they just roam around freely during the day. All kinds and colors. They don't ever go by you or beg really, they just wander around doing their own thing. It's funny because walking around the square, we often had to walk around sleeping dogs!

Houses built into the mountains

June 29 was our last day in Cusco, and Brad was sick. We're still not sure what he had, since it only lasted a day, and it was kind of a headache/stomachache thing. Maybe altitude sickness? He did decide he had to shave this day, but in his life he's only used an electric razor. So it was quite an ordeal having him use my shick intuition to shave. But it went well, and I think he felt better that he didn't look like a woodsman anymore! :)

Overall we liked Cusco, but had a few too many days there. We ended up getting lots of nice souvenirs (there are shops set up EVERYwhere here on the streets). The city is quaint and has lots of nice old buildings/churches to see. And we definitely tried some great restaurants. Brad had alpaca twice! (No guinea pig though). The streets are all cobblestone and most are super narrow, making it interesting when you're walking and a car comes. Even though most locals here wear regular clothes, lots of them dress up in traditional clothes and hang out on the street and offer to take pictures with you for money (usually one sol). The women, even dressed in regular clothes, all carry babies/stuff on their backs with a traditional looking blanket type thing.