ARRIVED IN CUSCO

Day 258

Cusco. Peru. South America.

We finally flew to Cusco! After staying in our accomodation, The Cabana Quinta, which was reasonable accomodation considering the remoteness and sparseness of the town. The sound of the birds was spectacular (and noisy at the same time!) we packed up in the morning and hoped the shuttle would arrive!

On check out..we were informed that yes, we did have to pay the 160 soles for the nights accomodation and the tour company would not be responsible for it. We wondered how that worked, considering it was a tour, and our accomodation in Cusco would have been cancelled for that night anyway...something we were told to work out once we were in Cusco. The other two girls seemed a bit blase about it..but the way we looked at it was, it was another night, we could have had elsewhere and why should we pick up the bill for it if they did not have to pay in Cusco..........

It did..although it left a few of the group behind! It was so crammed packed with people..and luggage..that they just took off and left 3 people in our group at the hotel!

We were still wondering whether the strike was really over or not..and once we arrived at the airport we saw that it was crowded with all the people from flights that day, as well as all the ones that were cancelled yesterday! We didn´t get any preference...but we didn´t have to pay another lot of airport tax so that was ok.

The trip to Cusco only took 30 minutes and we arrived to a voice telling us to join him. Jose was to be our tour guide for the Cusco and the trek.

He told us Cusco was not responsible for the strike. LAN, the airline was! So..there you go..different voices with different blames..some said it was the ground staff in Cusco. Some said it was coming from Lima. Who knows what happened?

As we boarded the bus hawkers with cocoa tea and lollies met us. Some bought some. We didn´t think the leaves seemed dried enough and Greg was already dubious about more medicines after the hallucinating experience i had in the Amazon!

Cusco is a gorgeous town. Just the journey to our hotel was incredible. ITs colonial yet cosmopolitan. It was old, yet had been rebuilt after the earthquake in the 1950's. The roads were cobbly, the buildings stone. So quaint and exotic at the same time. I wished we were there longer..and not just for the accliimatising of the altitude that i knew we needed. For the feel of the place. And to just be there. It just felt like a gorgoeus little spot to stay a while.

Our hotel was gorgeous. It was in the main square. The plaza de ... As we checked in we were told cocoa tea was available twenty four seven. We took advantage of this and drank about 2 litres over that night!!

After checking in, we found our room and had 50 minutes to get ready for a tour. We were supposed to be doing this later on our tour but due to the lost strike day the plans changed.

We all took off to the incredible Sacsayhuaman. And it was so incredible! To see how the inca´s built their empires was fascinating. And so much supposition and hypothesis attached to the way the stones were lifted. Jose filled us in on the history which we couldn´t get enough of. His personal stories were great! The first citadel was large with a great grassy expanse in the centre. All the walls were built in three tiers. And they were strong, sturdy, symmetrical and solid!

In one of the burial sites there we learned how the bodies are buried with their slaves, animals, gifts and ceremonial artefacts.

The people of Cusco are now are predominately catholics and also believe in their own god´s as well. Real sacredism.

Apparently the people of Cusco celebrate the ceremony of the Mother Earth every Aug 1st where they give payments to god´s. The sacrifice artefacts then burn them.

So much superstition attached to the way they think about things.

I bought a black and white 3 stepped necklace from a local girl here..for five soles. It was representative of the ´trilogy´ that the local people praise. The top was a condor, the middle represented the puma and life and the bottome represented teh snake, which to the inca´s means wisdom.

One little local handler had a condor there for us to see as well...they think of everything!

The next place we went to in Sacsayhuaman was a smaller labrinynth. And that was all built in stones in formations as well. How they mastered the building is a wonder itself. The inca´s were wondrous in their building and engineering skills that´s for sure. What they lacked in other things, not having ladders or wheels for pottery etc they certainly made up for in their stone work!

After this we went to the local cathedral which was just incredible!!! Baroque and ornate. IN a way it was embarrasingly golden...14 carat leaf statues and decorations.`JUST SO much GOLD!! And a long story attached to this as well. Basically the spanish catholics built it at the indian´s expense...and raided all the gold to use as a worship for the god´s. The artwork was amazing. And there was a statue of a black Jesus. There´s more..i could go on for hours about this!

For dinner...Greg and i went to the plaza de amores and found a gorgeous restaurant that had local inca music...

AND.....we ate guinea pig and llama steak!

The guinea pig came out on the plate looking like a large baked rat..with the head and tale..(which wasn´t a rat´s tail!) and it tasted like chicken or turkey. A bit of a cross really. Greg ate most of that..and i ate most of the llama...which was tender and succulent ande very nice!! It just sounds like you´re eating a pet!

What a day though..so much history...and being here in this precious city is just amazing......Cusco...a city of the true inca´s for sure. ALlt he people were wearing peruvian dress..it´s not just a tourist thing..that´s what they wear.

Wait till you see the photos...

They´re colourful..depict the whole story ..and are just incredible!

Tomorrow...we go to Ollanyaytambo...one step closer to the inca trail!!!!

I´m getting nervous...