Advertisement
Published: September 17th 2005
Edit Blog Post
So my last day in Cusco was Saturday the 10th. I slept in till 8am, lounged around the hostel drinking coffee and catching up on e-mails. My main focus for the day was to walk around exploring Cusco and buying a gift or two for my mom. I spent most of the day wandering in and out of shops in the San Blass district. I found some lovely shops; one of my favorites was a chocolate shop that made chocolate out of coca leaves.
The use of the coca leaves has been part of the Peruvian society since the beginning of time. I was surprised to learn of all the medicinal uses for coca leaves; the number one use is to alleviate symptoms of high altitude. It was also interesting to learn that the Andean Highlanders have next to no osteoporosis, especially considering there is very little dairy in their diets. Apparently there is a chemical in coca leaves that the body uses to maximize the calcium in the body.
I spent the early evening packing and getting ready for my morning flight to Lima. I went out for dinner and a couple of beers with some people from
The twelve sided stone
This is the famous 12 sided Inca stone. It still stands as part of the foundation for a church type building. my hostel. The next morning I got up and hailed a cab to the airport. Upon my arrival in Lima I put my bags in the left baggage check and headed out to explore Lima.
The first stop on my agenda was the Museum of Archeology, Anthropology, and History. When I got there my cab driver would not take my money and said that he was going to wait for me. At least that is what I deciphered from my broken Spanish. When I came out of the museum there he was. I wanted to go down to the main plaza, Plaza de Mayor, next. So what I gathered from my taxi driver was that he didn’t think it was safe for me to be walking around with out an escort. So he escorted me to a restaurant and then to my next stop at the St. Franciscan Church.
The St. Franciscan Church is home to the Monastery order of the Franciscan Monks. In addition to housing monks; it is a museum and catacombs. The old main corridors were very well worn by the countless monks who use to walk its halls. This church was not like the
other over the top Spanish Colonial churches of Peru. It was not decorated with tacky gold leafing. It was done more in the traditional Italian design, with beautiful wood carvings, moldings and frescos; keeping to its simplistic origins of St. Franciscan of Assize. I was also fortunate to have visited the original Monastery in Italy back in 1998. Under the chapel is the largest catacomb in Peru. It is said to have had over 20,000 bodies’ buried in it at one point. It was all very interesting and true to form my cab driver was waiting outside for me.
The next museum that I went to was the Museum of the Spanish Inquisition. It was kind of bad and all the explanations were all in Spanish, so it was a quick 15 minute walk through. My intentions were to go to Miliflores and hang out for the rest of the night, eat dinner and catch up on the internet. Needless to say that did not happen. My ever so loyal taxi driver explained to me just how much I owed him and I was unable explain to him that I just wanted to go to Miliflores and be left.
He also was charging me for his waiting for me. I was just really frustrated that I was unable to communicate what I wanted all day and Lima just was not what I expected. The museums were great, but everything else that I saw of Lima was disturbing. Almost all the houses have barbwire around them and bars on the windows. Beautiful old colonial buildings just lie rotting; gang symbolism on every corner. I found the poverty in Lima more disturbing then the poverty in the country. At least the people in the country were happy; they are poor, but happy. So with my taxi bill adding up, my inability to communicate and my emotional state regarding the city I decided to just go back to the airport.
So me and the Lima airport for 12 hours, thank goodness I had a great book. So my big plans to see Lima were nothing more then a waist of time. I felt safe in the airport, just like home! It kind of reminded me of the good old Horizon Air days, hanging out in airports! Like I said I had a good book! Anyways I have made it home safe
and sound. It’s good to be home……. I kind of missed the duke dog.
Well till my next Adventure (which will be in climbing in Canada next weekend), take care and It is Good to be Back in the Pacific Northwest! ~ Machelle
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0314s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb