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Other entries in Cusco Puquio

Relaxing in Cusco

Hi all

We are updating this at Lima Airport on our way out of Peru and into Chile so this is all a bit in arrears. We will try catch up as soon as we can!

We arrived in Cusco after a very scenic bus ride from Puno reaching altitudes of over 4200m again. This time we felt a little better having had 3 days at 3800m. The snow peaked mountains were exquisite and we were once again impressed by the Peruvian ability to farm any hillside (no matter how steep) with pretty patchwork terraces.  Thankfully Cusco is 400m lower, but the uphill hike from the main Plaza to Plaza San Blas (where our hostal was) left us completely breathless!

Cusco is very pretty and much cleaner than many of the places we have been so far. This is probably to do with the fact that it's sole income is tourism, so they have to keep the crowds happy. Most of the streets in the area we frequented were cobbled and all the roofs are all tiled win red clay. there is an amazing conglomeration of ancient inkan stonework with newer colonial stone and plaster on top of them.

Our main aim here was to rest up as much as possible before the inka trail, so we spent our days in some fabulous coffee shops, eating meñu's for lunch (consisting of a huge soup, a huge main meal and dessert all for under R24!) and generally figuring out the lay of the land. Much of our time was also spent trying to figure out how to get to the jungle and swallowing the bitter pill of how much it was going to cost us.

The hostel we stayed in for most of the time - Casa de la Gringa- was absolutely amazing. It is run by a hippy from Plett and has all the trappings of a comfy hippy hang out complete with fairy paintings on the walls, tie dye bed covers, 2 crazy cats and a pile fo San Pedro cactus in the courtyard. It felt more like being in someone's house rather than in a hostel.

We are ashamed to say we did almost no sightseeing. We were all sight-seed out! But we soaked up the travellers vibe and had lazy evenings watching Movies at Mama Africa and cooking dinner (for ourselves!!!!) in the guesthouse.

Cusco hails itself as a new spiritual centre of the world in the heart of the Andes, so there is no shortage of Shaman healers, Reiki courses and people seeking the answers to life the universe and everything. It was good fun trawling the local Shaman shop and wathcing the dreadlocked, tiedied crowds go by.

We then went on the Inka trail (see next entry) and into Manu National Park for a jungle experience (also to follow). After all of this we returned to Cusco for 2 nights in order to get a much needed hot shower and to send all our filfthy clothes to the incinerator! We mooched around some more, found the supposed patterns of the Puma, condor and snake in the Inkan stonework around the Plaza, tried to do smoe shopping (which was difficult considering the absolute overload of knitted alpaca wear we have been bombarded with) and went on a rather rushed city tour in an attempt to absolve ourselves of the guilt of not having done any sightseeing before.

As much as we are very sad to be leaving Peru, we will be very glad to go to some warmer pastures (its is bloody cold here despite being the middle of summer) and the incessant rain (which seems to have settled in for good now) will not be missed.

We will write more soon

xxV&A

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