Cusco

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Okay, so I´m heading off on the Inca Trail tomorrow so I thought that I´d update the blog.

I´ve been here for almost a week now and am actually starting to know my way around. I´ve been taking language courses so my spanish is getting better, but I still battle trying to understand what´s been said to me.

Food

I´ve found the food in Cuzco to be awesome. I don´t know if it´s my attitude, but so far the most expensive meal I´ve had has been the worst meal. Each time I want to eat, and I have enough time I just wonder in a direction opposite to the Plaza de Amas as far as I can get without getting to hungry or until I see a place that looks like my sort of place.

So far in Cuzco I seem to have discovered real pizzas. They do these awesome wood fired pizzas that I seem to be having way too much of. So far the best value has been 7 soles for a perfect sized feed. This was probably the best, since I actually knew half of what I was getting, instead of just cheese...

I´m serious when I say this, but I believe that while Cuy is a traditional Peruvian dish, I think that they´re serving rats to the tourists. From what I remember, guinea pig was a lot more friendly than the screaming rat that they´re serving. Also, why are all the rats screaming? My guess is in the same way that lobster is cooked by chucking it in live into boiling water, the rats are killed by chucking them in boiling oil. That would explain the look on their face. At the moment the price of Cuy has put me off eating it since I´m looking at around 40 soles... 4 times the price I want to spend on a meal, but I´d settle for half for real Cuy.

Need to eat more soups, these seem to be the healthiest option in Peru. From my experience, it´s also one of the tastiest too. Love to be able to say what´s in it, but seriously, no idea.

People

Went for my first taxi ride around the wops today, really bought me back to reality as to how much Peru is still a third world country. Scenes that were straight out of Thailand for me.

In my encounters, the best experience I´ve had with the people was when I was eating at some back alley place (For the record, no I don´t spend all my time either looking for or eating food). I was the only gringo in a packed restaurant and a hawker came in!! It was great to know that the whole bother me while I eat isn´t soley a gringo thing.

In all seriousness though, once I try and speak spanish, they smile and help me speak. I have had many people correct my spanish which has got to be the best way to learn. Still get stuck when they ask a question the wrong way...I´m sure I´d be the worst for someone trying to learn english.

Spanish

Taking spanish lessons, I need to. I could imagine that travelling around SA for 3 months not being able to speak stuff all spanish would be both a little insulting to them, so now my learning has really begun. I´m taking 4 hour lessons a day and have had 3 lessons, so while I still don´t know much, Iñve learnt a lot quickly. I really need to get to the level where I can hold a basic conversation with people. Currently I sound like a retarted kindy kid.



I´m off to climb Machu Picchu tomorrow, I´m really looking forward to this. I wish I´d seen some of the better sites around beforehand since I think they´ll be pale in comparisson. When we get back we have the choice of heading off to Puno (please don´t strike...) or staying around for a few more days and seeing the best festival of the year. I think that the strikes are inevitable, so we´ll see how we go. But I´m signing out for a few days.

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Comments

[Gail Fletcher]

great photos
Which festival is it? If it is the one where they take the statute out of the church and around the market using that funny car it might be worth it. While we were walking the trail others in our group experienced a festival at Aqua Celentes and said it was great...lots of beer and lots of music!! When you go to Puna make sure to on the way visit the most decorated church in S. America. Its soo decorated that it is over the top.