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Published: January 23rd 2007
Plaza de Armas in Cuzco
The view from our Hostel, Hotel Felix, in Cuzco. After an overnight bus from Arequipa, we arrived in Cuzco (the city closest to Maccu Pichu) on Sunday, January 14th at 5:30 in the morning. The freezing cold air helped wake us up and we located a hostel recommened to us in Lima called Hotel Felix. It was about one block off the main plaza and was a barebones hostel except that it did have hot water! Yay! Most of the other backpackers at this hostel were spanish speaking (from the accents I could tell they were mostly argentinian), so we didn´t make too many friends, but it was a bed and had a shower. Don´t get too excited though, the bathroom still lacked a toilet seat! hehe.
So, if you check out the picture of Cuzco´s main plaza, you´ll notice a cool rainbow flag that reminds you of the flag used by the gay rights movement and others to show support for diversity. Don´t get too excited friends, Cuzqueños aren´t showing their support for the movement, its just their age old flag for the city. As we realized later, the rainbow flag must come from the rainbows that appear everyday we were there since it rained while the sun
Cuzco Flag
The rainbow flag of Cuzco and the Peruvian flag in front of the Cathedral in the main Plaza. was out! The weather left much to be desired since it was REALLY cold at night and in the morning and drizzled much of the time. But we did have some sunny moments.
After a little nap, we headed out to one of the only things open on a Sunday. This was the Incan site of Coricancha, a former temple that contained a temple to the Sun and Mother Earth. However, when the spanish came, they actually built their church of Santo Domingo right on top of the ruins, even using some of the old Incan Walls. After a bad earthquake in 1950, some of the colonial walls came crumbling down revealing the sturdy and so far indestrubtible Incan walls. At this temple, they used the "Royal Style" of building that involved cutting and smoothing grooves in each rock so they fit together nicely and didn´t crumble during earthquakes. Once containing walls and walls of solid gold sheets, this temple is still impressive without it. The building itself is a mix of colonial building and the old temple... indicating the nature of Cuzco.
I spent the rest of the day just wandering around the city, getting a feel
for the people of Cuzco and the many fellow backpackers. I wrote in my journal in a dessert cafe while sipping Mate de Coca -- Coca tea that helps to alleviate altitude sickness. Hope it doesn´t show up in a drug test! hehe. Afterwards, we actually ended up eating dinner in a bar owned and run by American biker dudes. No joke. We came all the way to Cuzco, Peru to eat a burger while watching the NFL playoff games. We met a couple of cool Brits and Americans and had a blast trading traveling stories.
We had an early night since we planned to visit our first Incan ruins the next day... they were as amazing as promised. Check out pics on the next post!
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