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Published: October 4th 2008
After breakfast this morning our guide took us to Piquillacta, located about 20 miles outside of Cusco (toward Puno). Piquillacta is the most important of the pre-Inca construction here in Cusco. Built by the Huari culture between A.D. 700 and 900, it is made up more than 700 adobe structures that may have housed as many as 10,000 people.
After Piquillacta we headed to the small town of Andahuaylillas to visit the Peruvian Sixtine Chapel. The chapel was quite small but very beautiful inside. This was also my first ´scary restroom´ experience in Peru. The restroom had no toilet paper, no paper towels, and even better, no toilet SEATS!!!! But hey, when you gotta go...
After visiting the church we headed back to Cusco and stopped at a local marketplace that is only open on Saturdays. There are so many places to shop here! We decided to wait until we got back to Plaza de Armas to spend any money however, and after dropping off some of our things at the hotel. we set out on foot to spend some soles. I don´t think I mentioned this before but there are SO many people that come up to wanting
to sell you something. Paintings, finger puppets, jewelry... name it. They don´t like to take no for an answer either, so you will quickly learn to be persistent or walk in another direction to get away from them.
We wandered past Plaza de Armas and around San Francisco Square and the San Blas Quarter. Because there are so many similar shops and there is so much competition, it is very easy to barter here. In many cases all you have to do is start to walk away and they will automatically lower the price of whatever you were looking at. It does get a bit tiring saying ¨No, gracias¨ every five seconds though.
We also stopped in another marketplace located just past San Francisco Square at Santa Clara. That was quite an experience as I saw food that I have certainly never seen before (and would probably not try if you paid me). There are so many strange cuts of meat just laying around on tables everywhere...it is certainly enough to turn you into a vegetarian!
We were still somehow hungry at this point so headed back through Regocuo Square toward Plaza de Armas to find something
Piquillacta
Pre-Incan archaeological site (built by the Huari culture), located about 20 miles from Cusco citythat offered vegetarian food. We ended up at the Sumac Grill where I had spinach ravioli and a chicha morada (a very good local soft drink).
Tonight we are going back out for dessert and then have to pack a bag for our trip to Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. You are not allowed to carry luggage on the train to Machu Picchu so we will be storing most of our luggage here in Cusco until we return again on the 8th. Tomorrow we head off to Pisac Market and Ollantaytambo!
P.S. I have to say... I really dislike the hotel (Casa Andina Private Collection) we are staying at. There is a bar located right in the courtyard that all the rooms surround and I was up half the night listening to drunk people yelling at the top of their lungs. On top of that, one of the computers here has a virus, so everyone hovers waiting to use the one working computer. Sigh... I suppose you shouldn´t be worrying about the internet when you´re on holiday, but such is life in the 21st century! I just hope I get a decent night´s sleep tonight!!!
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Katie
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Just Wondering...
One of my friends just left for a Peru trip a few days ago. And i'm unsure of how to get in contact with him. He doesn't even have a blog or anything letting people know what he does all day. And I don't even think he's touched a computer. So I was wondering how many people are with you in the group you're in, and what they're names are? (In hopes that atleast reading what you do all day will give me a vibe of what he's doing...) He's traveling by himself though, if that narrows it down for you.