Cusco part 1 of many

December 10-11

So we arrived in Cusco and after a taxi/Uber mixup, we headed to our hostel. That’s right. Hostel. I have never stayed in a hostel in my life and for the record, last week while planning, Michael called it a hotel. Now, here’s the important caveat: we have our own room. So it’s like a hotel after all. Plus the place is clean and close to the center of town, so I’m happy. The altitude hit us pretty hard on our first day here. We took naps almost immediately and then only left for a short walk around town and dinner before going back to bed. But in that short amount of time, we already were pumped for the city. The architecture is incredible with several town centers where people were congregating even late into the evening.

These pictures don’t do the city justice. I’ll have to take more.

Other than the beautiful architecture, there is also a huge Christ the Redeemer statue in the mountains that you can see at night (I know! Prove it! No pictures at this time), and several statues of Pachacuti who is believed to be the Inca who is responsible for much of the Incan architecture including Machu Picchu. During his reign, Cusco grew into an empire.

On our second day in town, we took a long walk to the Brazilian consulate to work on our Brazilian visas. Upon arriving, it was determined that the consulate doesn’t exist and we’ll have to try to get these visas in Santiago the week of Christmas. Who else is concerned about getting that accomplished with a holiday in the middle of the “week long process”?

We have seen a lot of the stuff you’d expect to see in Cusco, including a lot of indigenous women selling stuff. We also saw these women selling a picture of themselves with baby llamas. It worked and now Michael and (by default) I have a picture of these women in traditional garb and baby llamas.

Slightly out of order, but we also finally got to see a real market after a month and a half on the road. It was mostly normal as far as non-USA markets go. Spices, meat, cheese, grains and other random goods were sold. Plus there was an area that had women cooking and selling lunch, which we indulged in. A meal for both of us for 10 soles. That’s less than 4 bucks for a meal that included soup, chicken, rice and salad. Super pumped. But the random thing that required a picture was the chopped off heads (snouts?). Michael thinks they’re cows. I thought they were llamas. Super ick either way. The kind of thing you can’t help but stare at… and then choose to eat at the other side of the market as far away from that as possible.

So mostly in two days here we’ve slept, a ton, and tried to breathe. I think Michael wanted to be running by now, but I’m excited to be able to be able to lay down again without gasping for a breath. I think the worst of it is over and mostly I’m grateful we scheduled extra time here before hiking. I could not imagine hiking while feeling like this.