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Published: August 14th 2010
Alpacaburger
Manoli's Alpacaburger at a nearby restaurantCUSCO - DAY 2:
Friday , August 13th:
We woke up around 5am, not being able to sleep any longer. We were planning on a nice long hot shower, but lo and behold, no hot water! I convinced the cafeteria staff to let me take two hot coffees to our room. Ahhh... After the necessities, we went to the cafeteria and had a decent breakfast of juice, coffee, rolls with jam or butter, eggs, and yogurt with fruit. Speaking of the cafeteria, strangely enough, although it is literally next doofr to our room, we had to go to the center of the hostal, down stairs, back to the front of the hostal, then up stairs! By this time, it was well after 8am, so we decided to find the All Trek Cusco office near the Plaza de Armas to pay for our Inca Trail and Amazon tours. We had a lot of trouble finding it, since it was a tiny office with no sign out and situated in the same building as the public toilets. After several shurgs from the police and others, we found it on our own, but the restroom lady told us they didn't open until 9am.
Complejo Koricancha Wall
A closeup of the Inca Wall showing how tight there still are after 500 years... without mortar! After a stroll around the block, we returned and waited until after 9:30 and were getting ready to leave when the same lady told us the woman pulling up on a Vespa worked there. We told her wo we were and what we wanted, but she said we'd have to come back later since the lady that handles the transactions was busy with a group of tourists. So, we decided to check out one of the main markets, Mercado San Pedro. Manoli found several items she liked and was able to negotiate a better price for and I found a nice alpaca sweater and typical hat to help keep me warm on the trail. Now all I need is a pair of matching mittens. When we returned to the trekking office, the lady was there and went over the prices and details of the tours. We were rather surprised to find out we would be taking a private trek with just Manoli and I, the guide (Frank), 3 porters for the camping/cooking gear and food, plus our personal porter. This type of trek usually costs twice what we paid, so we can't help but feel fortunate. After adding everything up,
Phaqcha Pumaqchupan Fountain
The backside of the fountain on Avenida El Sol we had to make a quick run to the bank to drain our accounts a bit. I won't put the price here, but if someone really wants to know, just ask.
With our account all paid up, and having been informed that we would meet our guide tomorrow night, we headed back to the hostal. Still no hot water, so out we went again to do some more shopping, this time at the Mercado Artesanal. Some more browsing, and a couple more purchases by Manoli, and we decided to eat lunch at a little restaurant in the market. Manoli had a quinoa soup and I had a super avocado chicken salad. Both were delicious and only cost 21 Soles ($8.00) with two mango drinks. On the way back from the market, we decided to find the famous Incan wall with the puma and serpent outlined on it. After going all around a large city block trying to find it, we asked a guy and he described its location, which turned out to be only a block or so from our hostal, instead of a mile or so where we were looking. The wall is pretty cool, but in a
Inca Rock
Part of the Puma made of stones on the Piedra de los 12 Angulos narrow alley, crowded with shops and vendors. After a couple of photos, we returned to our room, but still no hot water, so we chilled out (Manoli chilled, I wrote) for a while and took a bag of dirty clothes down to be washed before going out for dinner. Tonight is the night Manoli plans on eating cuy (Guinea Pig!).
Well, I wrote the preceeding before we went to dinner, so I have to amend it. We did go to a place that served both whole guinea pig and guinea pig pizza, but they didn't have any prepared (tenderized I assume) and said it would take a long time if we ordered one, so Manoli got a repreive until tomorrow night. Instead, Manoli ordered an alpaca burger and I ordered a lomo saltado pizza (steak). I ate some of Manoli's alpaca burger and found it to be quite tasty... sort of like mild, not so gamey, buffalo. My pizza was delicious, although the meat was a bit tough. After dinner, we went for a stroll around the Plaza de Armas, but soon found it to be a bit too chilly and headed back to the room to watch TV
Lomo Asado Pizza
J.C.'s Lomo Asado Pizza and finish and post this, putting me up to date, finally. Tomorrow will be another free day and the only things on our schedule are to buy toenail clippers and mittens to match my outfit. I wore the new outfit to dinner and found it to be quite toasty, even without a jacket over the sweater. We also have to meet our guide for the Inca Trail briefing tomorrow evening and I'll do my best to get any interesting information from the meeting posted on Travel Blog. I won't be able to post another entry until the 18th, since we'll be on the Inca Trail without electricity, much less WiFi!
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serena
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Papa, We See You!
Hey Papa....I was reading this entry and looking at all the pictures and Justin came along side of me to look on. He saw the picture of you, Papa, at the bottom and shouted "papa, papa". We went back a few entries to look through all the pictures together and had fun pointing out "Mema" and "Papa". He misses you guys so much and wishes he could be there on vacation with you:) Love you all....safe trip on the trail!!!