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Cusco was definitely my favourite town in Peru and although many snobby backpackers will say it’s ‘touristy’ (It’s so annoying listening to backpackers go on about a place being touristy when they’re sat there, in a hostel full of backpackers!) it was still full of culture and tradition and very in keeping with its ‘Inca Capital’ status. We arrived there two days before the trek to adjust to the altitude and there was certainly a difference to Arequipa as we were another 1000m higher at 3500m above sea level. The main reason you come to the town is for Machu Picchu or to do one of the many treks to get you to MP so there are tons of tour operators and also lots of places to buy the traditional alpaca jumper/socks/hat/blanket/leg warmers/gloves/scarf...you get the idea! We stayed in an average hostel called Pirwaha, just off the main square. We spent our days shopping and eating and not much else really, and we did the same when we got back from the trek as well - although this time we had some cool Aussies and Americans to hang out with. The best thing we did in Cusco was spend a few
hours in the ‘Coca Shop’ drinking coca tea. This tea is made with the leaves that cocaine are made with and in Peru and Bolivia it’s a very big tradition to not only drink the tea but also chew the leaves (which tastes disgusting and numbs your toungue!!). It’s supposed to help with the altitude sickness and there was one guy in the cafe who had been throwing up all day so he was drinking a lot!! The cafe also served cookies, chocolates and all sorts - yum!! The leaves are NOT COCAINE so doesn’t go worrying parents - 41 chemicals have to be added to make the drug including chlorine and sulphur - nice!! The owner was a very cool guy who locked us and the Americans in a one point whilst he popped out to collect his car!! Anyone going to Cusco must go to this cafe!!
Cusco is surrounded by tons of Inca sites but as with everything in SA you have to pay a fair amount to see them. We decided we didn’t want to leave having just seen Cusco and nothing else so we headed out to the traditional/local Sunday market of Pisac, about
45 minutes out the town. We caught a local minibus and on arriving in the town we were greeted by lots of bright colours from all the produce being sold by local women and also all the colours of the alpaca gifts you could buy. It was certainly a cool place and I would say to anyone going that it’s well worth a visit just to watch the local people, take some cool people pictures (although we lost all ours!!) and watch a real town in action. There were stands selling homemade cakes, weird pink drinks which looked like intestines (we didn’t try it so maybe tasted better) and local foods - here we tried alpaca burgers - very nice!
We left Cusco to head for Bolivia and the border town of Puno. My advice to anyone reading this who is planning the same route is not to bother with Puno - it was certainly to worst place we visited in all of SA!! The reason you go there is to visit the floating reed islands of the Uros people. They live out on Lake Titicaca which is the highest navigable lake in the world on little islands made
Owner of the Coca shop
The best coca tea, and the guy was so cool!! Did you know that 41 chemicals have to be added to the leaves to make cocaine and it was a German that discovered cocaine!! of reeds which they can move about and which float freely wherever they like (sounds cool huh?). In reality it’s a huge tourist attraction which seems extremely fake - they call you on to their islands, take you in to their houses, dress you up in their traditional clothes and then make you buy something from them for a ridiculous price, which they claim they have made and which you then see in every artefacts store on the main land!! Awful! It was also the place where we lost all the pictures of Pisac market and of us dressed up in stupid local clothes so it holds another bitter memory!!
From Puno we left swiftly to Bolivia and another part of Lake Titicaca, which happened to be called Copacabana!! A much cooler town, full of bohemians (hippies!) which had a much better vibe - we were liking Bolivia already! We discovered as well that it was going to live up to the hype of being the cheapest country in SA! It was also here however that I picked up my food poisoning and altitude sickness combination which was to stay with me for another 5 days but I liked
it that much that I won’t hold a grudge!
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