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Published: June 17th 2010
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Parades in the Street
Getting ready for the big festival of the sun, Inti Raymi Last night we had a VERY delicious Chinese food "menu" meal, meaning that you pick an appetizer, a soup, a main course and a hot beverage for only S15, which is about $5. I had wantons, miso soup, beef and vegetables with fried rice, and a chamomile tea! So much food for so cheap, and a good price. We were also happy with this place as they didn't charge us some fake tax that every other restaurant in Aguas Calientes seems to charge but no one can explain. We did argue it at one place and the lady agreed we didn't have to pay it. This is the ONLY place in Peru where we have run into this - seems like just another money maker to me.
We then walked around a bit and waited for our 9:45pm train. Luckily everything went smoothly and we were back in the hotel and heading to bed by 12:30am.
This morning Honduras was playing Chile in the World Cup. We knew the game was at 5:30am in Honduras, which meant 6:30 here. I woke up at about 7:30 and was able to catch the last 45 mins or so of the game.
Sacsayhuaman
Setting up bleachers at this Ruins for the Inti Raymi festival where they sacrifice a live alpaca and tear out its heart! Poor Honduras lost 1-0 to Chile. They played good defense but Chile is just a better team. Very cool that Honduras is even there though - their first time in 28 years!!!
After our free bread and jam breakfast, we walked to the central plaza where we caught a collectivo taxi (taxi shared with 2 others) for S2.5 each to Urubamba. From there we each paid S5 for a collectivo busito (small bus) to Cusco.
Once in Cusco we walked towards the plaza del armas and found a CHEAP hostel. It's called Hospedaje Siesta and it's S30 TOTAL for our room each night. This means we are each paying about $5 for a room with 2 beds, private bath AND cable TV. The only thing is that it's kind of run down and the room smells a bit musty. For this price, we decided to deal with it.
We then walked around for about 10 minutes looking for a city tour that would takeus to some of the nearby ruins that are included in our tourist ticket. In the process, we found out that apparently tomorrow is some sort of protest/strike for something about water, and that
ENORMOUS Rocks!
The rocks at Sacsayhuaman were impressive. HUGE stones that they would have had to carve out of mountains and then transport them here to puzzle them together. no buses or transportation will be running. SO... we decided to save the in-city sites for tomorrow and do anything requiring transportation today.
We ended up finding a city tour for only S15 (about $5) which went to Pukapukara, Tambomachay, Qenqo, and Sacsayhuaman plus one other not listed on our ticket.
The sites were interesting but seemed like nothing now that we've seen Machu Picchu. We simply felt like we were getting our money's worth since we'd payed for the tourist ticket which included these places amongst the 16 total.
The weirdest part was a guy who was shooting our pictures walking down the street. We thought it was random and had no idea why but I gave an ugly face and Sarah blocked her face. This happened early on. Towards the end of our trips to the places, there were guys standing out front of one of the ruins and the guy holds up a postcard that has a pic of me giving a weird face in the middle. The dude was taking our photos and then selling the photo in a postcard "only S5!". Unbelievable.
One cool thing that I learned on this tour
was how much the Spaniards who came over to Peru changed the land. Many of the ruins we visited today were mostly destroyed, as the catholics thought it was the work of the devil and destroyed the Inca temples. They even used the large stones to build their own foundations for buildings in Cusco. CRAZY!
We didn't get back to the city until almost 7. We were hungry and tired so we went in search of a "menu" deal (where you chose an appetizer, main dish, etc.) all for very cheap. We ended up at a restaurant about 3 doors down from our hotel called Bullfrogs. We got amazing deals. For dinner I had a chicken soup, a giant glass of fresh pineapple juice, and chicken/vegetable curry with rice, for about $4. I also got two strawberry daquirris for the price of one (happy hour deal) and am currently feeling overstuffed. I didn't even finish the juice bcause I am THAT full. It's actually uncomfortable and as soon as I finish here at the internet place (also about 3 doors away from our hostel) I plan on putting on my comfy sweatpants and crawling into bed.
Tomorrow is
Bullfrogs
2 for 1 daquiris and pineapple juice for dinner. GREAT food and drinks! I was SOOOOO full! another day in Cusco. We're meeting up with the boys for dinner too! Friday we hope to be catching our plane to Puerto Maldonado. If the strike lasts longer than a day, we may be delayed or may have to walk to the airport! Let's hope that doesn't happen.
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Merri-beth Jelsema
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Great Blog!
Hi girls, I am having so much fun reading your blog and reliving my trip to Machu Picchu in 2002. We visited many of the same sites you have been to and had similar experiences with the food, shopping, markets, transportation, etc. I look forward to each new entry! (I am Sarah K.'s Aunt)