Cusco

Two posts in one day! Don’t get used to it. We’re not sure when we’ll be able to get internet again, so we’re going to go ahead and post about our time in Cusco. If you missed the Machu Picchu post, it’s below. We’ve spent two days in Cusco, on either side of our Machu Picchu trip, and have managed to do very little in that time. There is a lot to do actually, we’ve just been either too lazy or too cheap to take advantage. It’s a pretty town, though, with interesting enough things to see for free (or maybe one sol).

Above is the main square in Cusco, called Plaza de Armas. It used to be the center of the Incan capital city, and many of the walls of the city are Incan walls, which have been built on top of. In the plaza there’s a couple big churches, and of course tons of shops, restaurants, and tour operators everywhere you look. We spent a little time just sitting in the plaza people-watching, and would probably have spent more if it weren’t for the touts that constantly come up trying to sell you paintings, jewelry, or the little kids who try to clean your shoes. It’s certainly a tourist’s city, and the locals are happy to take advantage. Being the suckers that we are, we couldn’t help but fall for the oldest trick in the book. Locals would dress up in traditional clothing, bring along some kind of animal, then charge you to take their picture. First, Steph spotted an old lady and a little girl with a tiny little lamb wearing a hat. She took the bait, but not at first. We walked around some more, and there were lots of little girls with lambs, but none with a cute hat. The next time we passed that spot there were about 2 other little girls with their own lambs. How much? One sole (about 35 cents). Of course it wouldn’t be that easy, so after we took the picture every one of them came up asking for one sole. We negotiated them down to about 20 centimos each, though they were not happy, and we left vowing not to be suckered anymore.

Well that lasted about 10 minutes, until I saw a little boy struggling with his llama, trying to get it to lay down on the steps next to him. I was a good 60 feet away, so figured I’d be safe to take the picture from distance. These kids are good, and he spotted me right away, and was instantly in front of me with his hand out. This kid wanted 2 soles, I said no. “1 sole,” he said. I still refused, so he said “Okay, how much?” I gave him 50 centimos and he begrudging left to sucker another tourist.  Next time I’ll be extra sneaky. (If you are thinking right now that we are cheap jerks, refusing to give some poor little kid as much as a quarter, you are somewhat right. But, these kids are forced to go out all day and beg by their parents, so we don’t really want to encourage it.)

That’s really about all we have to report from Cusco. It’s a cool city, with plenty of narrow cobblestone streets to explore. There seems to be always something going on - there was a small parade today, a concert a couple days ago, or just random fireworks that are set off every 30 minutes or so. If we had more time there are tons of things to do outside the city, such as many more Incan ruins, outdoor activities like mountain biking and rafting, or big handicrafts markets.

An old Incan wall - notice how they didn't use mortar but cut the stones exactly right

Tomorrow we head back to Lima for about 10 hours before flying to Iquitos, which is set along the Amazon River and the largest city in the world that isn’t reachable by road. It’s either fly or take a boat. Since the boat takes at least 2 days we opted for the flight. We have a total of 5 nights there, with the middle 3 nights at a jungle lodge in the Amazon Basin. Apparently wildlife is pretty hard to come by, but we’re hoping to at least see pink river dolphins, monkeys, anacondas (ok, just me), and some cool birds. Hopefully we get a chance to post again before heading to Ecuador on the 9th!