Peru Adventure Day 3: Cusco and city tour

The next morning, we had breakfast on the terrace of the hotel. Delicious pancakes and fresh-squeezed orange juice. We had all morning to explore before a city tour that was planned that afternoon. The city was so interesting that I couldn't wait to see what was was going on. One of my favorite things about traveling is when you walk all day and figure out your way back to the hotel. It's fun to feel like you learned a new place.

This day was exciting for me because we did go into that market we saw yesterday and I purchased a knit hat with ear flaps- it's easy to spot tourists from all over because they wear them like a badge of honor. We also purchased hiking poles and a sweater from a lady- I completed the entire transaction in Spanish! Very exciting!

We never got hungry for lunch, so we grabbed some crackers and Inka Kola from a street vendor. It tastes like cream soda, or Irn Bru from Scotland. Bean really liked it, as you can see here.

We met up with the guide for our city tour. He had a speech impediment and his name was 'Roger'. The first stop on the tour was the Koricancha (Temple of the Sun) which was an Inca temple that the Spanish tore down and built a Catholic church on top of. It was only a couple of doors down from the tapas place we had dinner, and we'd walked past it several times on our way back to the hotel without knowing what it was or that it was anything significant.

The tour was funny because we had headphones that connected to a microphone Roger spoke into. He was very difficult to understand. At one point, we got caught up in another group and he said, "Oh no, we're mixing groups!" He was really worried we wouldn't stay with him. I'm generally not a big fan of stuff like this, so here are a few random pictures. I don't remember anything he said except that the window with the plexiglass in front of it has holes that they used to put jewels inside to reflect the sunlight. That was the only interesting thing. That and the illegal picture of the cool door.

I forgot there were other stops on this tour, like the cathedral in the main square. But again, I was basically just looking at the scenery and waiting until we started the hike the next day. The next 'notable' place on the tour was Sacsayhuaman, which sounds like 'Sexy Woman'. We rode the bus out of the city a little way to get to it.

It was pretty basic, some huge rocks perfectly fitted together which is pretty amazing to see in person. Great views of the city, yada yada yada.

Then we saw where they used to mummify bodies. The rocks are still cool, which is kinda like a refrigerator. Pretty gross too.

 (That's Roger- or Rayerre)

When the bus got back to Cusco, we had about an hour before we met our tour guide at the hotel to go over the details of the hike. Skipping lunch wasn't the smartest idea because I was starving by this time. Some random guy named Richard Houston Jenkins from Chicago asked us if we wanted to grab a bite to eat. He and Bean decided we would go to Paddy's Irish Pub. We found out Richard was traveling alone and had just spent a few days in the rainforest at some eco retreat. He made it sound really fun.

We mentioned that Chigaco was on our list of weekend trips we wanted to take and he immediately wanted to swap contact information and said he would take us out on his boat he keeps on Lake Michigan. And when he started discussing the particular names of the malaria pills we were taking, I figured out he must be a doctor. And then I was weirded out that he was traveling alone and wanted us to go on his boat. We are obviously in a completely different economical status than him. Nothing against either of those things!

I forgot to mention that Peruvians LOVE pizza, there was a pizza place on every corner! We had that and some average guacamole. Anything would have tasted good at that point.

We also learned from Roger that our first couple of days in Cusco we were supposed to not eat very much, skip alcohol, and sleep in separate beds so we wouldn't 'get too much exercise'. We told Richard we wished someone had told us that yesterday because we broke all the rules!

We met up with our tour guide at the hotel and he gave us the details we needed for the hike, and the early pickup time: 6am! Yikes! I was so ready for the real adventure to begin.