Cuzco

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Dana´s love for last minute spontaneity is rubbing off on me. We ignored everyone´s advice to book the Inca trail months in advance and decided to start looking into it 4 days in advance instead. In our defense, we never know where we are going to end up, and love just travelling day by day, so trying to book something so far in advance was unappealing and seemingly impossible. We thought, we will try and if not, another time. Amazingly, there were spots left for 1 day in Dec. We spent the rest of the day frantically trying to find a reliable company to book with and also how to get to Cuzco the next day so we could acclimatize before the trek. Overall, 3 days before the trek, we were booked and on a plane to Cuzco from Ecuador. Phew!

The downside was that we had to spend the night on the cold floor of the Lima airport before our 5am flight to Cuzco. The upside was that it was the coolest landing I´ve ever experienced. The plane, still quite high, took and sharp diving turn, swooping less than 100 m away from the mountains below, descending extremely rapidly and then finally a perfect, although quickly decelerating, touchdown. Also one of the most beautiful plane rides I´ve had, the huge Andean Mountains below.

In Cuzco, Dana and I had 3 days to explore and wander until this impending trek commenced! We climbed up the hill to a cool ruin called Sachywaman pronounced ¨sexy woman¨ and stocked up on llama mittens, sweaters, socks, hats to prepare for the suddenly much cooler climate. Its amazing how walking up a few stairs has you sucking in air! The altitude is 3200m

There are lots of Incan walls still standing in Cuzco, some with colonial buildings on top. These Incan walls are so amazing: they consist of irregularly shaped stones which have been fitted together so perfectly that you can´t even fit a piece of paper in between the stones. They of course used no motor, and these structures are still here surviving several earth quakes. Impressive!

Most people under 30 are wearing typical North American clothing. It is a shame that the traditional Ketuchwan culture is being lost, something the older generation is becoming concerned about. The older people have very colourful skirts and sweaters and wear a panama hat (kind of like a cow boy hat). They have large pieces of cloth tied to their backs to carry anything from food, building supplies, babies, or best of all, baby llamas.
I love llamas!!! They are so adorable. Some are left free to roam the city and mow its lawns and others are tied to their owners and will step on or sleep on their owners with neither the person nor the llama thinking twice about it. The best part is they even knit little hats or scarves for their llamas and they look so cute.

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Photos

View from our hostel
This is where we watched the Christmas Eve fireworks from.

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The churches are rediculous