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Published: December 25th 2007
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Plaza de Armas
Beautiful Cusco prioir to Christmas mayham Feliz Navidad!!! Today is Christmas in Cusco and the girls and I woke up early, opened our llama socks and tiny tourist trinkets from eachother and after a great feast of pancakes and fruit are spending time catching up and talking with family. Christmas in Cusco is very different and exciting. As with most of South America, Cusco is dominantly Catholic so the chunk of Christmas is celebrated on the 24th and not the 25th, fortunantly for us our hostel is offering a classic western Christmas Dinner with turkey and stuffing, the coy can wait for later.
Last night after a long bus trip from Aguas Calientes we headed down to the Plaza de Armas to experience a Cusco Christmas. The whole town was going crazy with fire crackers and the odd beautiful fire work but the plaza was packed shoulder to shoulder with people and stands. There were stands of all types of tourist trinkits, toy for kids, fire works, christmas cake (everywhere) but the most interesting thing was the nativity scene accessories. On the edge of the mayham were tons of indeginous people who had come to Cusco to sell their plants, mosses, home made stabels, grasses and
Chewing
Christine and I chewing on coca leaves during our hike ... they tasted awful so we really just did it for the photo trees for decoration. There were set up little tents and banos for them to use, apparently they move down for a few days prior to Christmas in order to sell their Christmas wares. In the mayham were figureins made of all sorts of materials, all types of animals, from ducks to monkeys as well as the typical donkeys and lambs, although there were very few people left for purchase. The fireworks and crackers were amazing, absolutly no control and fire and noise everywhere, at one point one missed us by about a centimeter and our ears were ringing all night but the local little kids loved it!!
Five days prior to Christmas we set out on our Machu Picchu trek, the Salkantay. After Huaraz we were a little skeptical with treks, but the end goal this time was Machu Picchu so it seemed like a great idea, we had the option to do the real Inka Trail, the one you usually have to book months in advance, but it ended on christmas night and we wanted to be in Cusco, so if its on your to do list, come during down season and book once you are in Cusco,
4600m
At the top of Salkantey pass after a slow and steady climb! its cheaper and there are tons of options. The first day of the trek was up a road for about seven hours and ended at 3800 m in a freezing cold camp site. After waking up after a no sleep freezing night to the sound of a taxi dropping off two late coming hikers, med students from texas who were a blast, we began our second day and 100 meters from where we camped we passed a beautiful lodge with bathrooms and running water, we think our guide slept there and left us in the cold. The second day was up for about four hours through the pass beside the Salkantay Glacier at 4800 m. The altitude was much worse then in Huaraz and our pace was very slow and steady, like when you watch documentaries on mountain climbers and they are walking really really slow ... that was us but not as high and not as cold just out of shape.
After that the third and fourth days were flat or down hill through mountains jungle with amazing water falls and flora. On the third night our camping situation was quite an adventure. We camped in the yard
Salkantay
The beautiful glacier we climbed up to see, this is the view from our campsite, the view also from the lodge just around the corner of a hostel that was located directly beside a butcher shop. When we pulled up to the site there were slabs of meat just hanging around and after setting up our tents we noticed a bunch of locals pulling a cow towards the shed ... we had a little culture show and were able to watch the slaughter and butcher of a cow, luckily for most of our group we had chicken that night. The fourth night was in the town Aguas Calientes and was an early night so we could wake up early and hike up thousands of stairs to Machu Picchu. We woke up at four am to see the sun rise from the ruins, but by the time we reached the gates we were too late and it was a little cloudy, however we were one of the few people at the wonder of world so early and were able to see it with no tourists around... it was breathtaking. Our guide for Machu Picchu had a great sense of humor, showing five gringos around the ruins was probably his idea of a great time. Once again the three amigas had great luck and our weather was
Inca Goddess
We made it to the top, and here we are at Machu Picchu ... another feat after was Wynna Pichhu amazing, we hiked Young Picchu (I donĀ“t know how to spell Wynna) and was leaving the site just as bus loads of tourists arrived and it started to rain.
Bolivia is next on the list, we are hoping that there are very few stairs in Bolivia after the past five days!
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