While I was in Lima I set up a tour package with 'Lima Tours'. This is the same travel agency the US Embassy uses to plan trips, so I thought that they would be pretty good. I basically set up a deal that would fly me to Cusco from Lima. Drive me to the hotel in Cusco. Then picked me up the next day and get me on a train to Machu Picchu. A tour of Machu Picchu, the train back to Cusco, and the flight back to Lima. Plus hotels and a few meals. The price for this excursion was about $500. That was more than I had intended to spend, but what the hell, I was on vacation.
Now that I have done it, I believe that you can make this trip without any special travel agency to help you, but at the time I didn't know where I was going and I didn't speak the language well enough to deal with obstacles.
Anyway, I sleepily boarded a AeroPeru flight to Cusco at 5am. I have been told that AeroPeru pilots are some of the best in the world, because they have such tough terrain to fly over. We didn't crash. The plane was a 727 and was fairly nice. I expected that it would be filled with tourists, but it was mostly Peruvians. Cusco is the second largest city in Peru. Also, there is a lot of domestic tourism. Jessica's school had taken her to Machu Picchu years ago. I supposed that it is similar to many American schoolchildren going on a class trip to Washington DC.
It is only about an hour flight to Cusco, and it is very pretty. You go over the mountains. I expected more rainforest, but that is further to the East. Cusco is in the middle of a high desert. And I mean HIGH desert. Cusco is at 13,000 above sea level!
My hotel was a nice little building on a quiet cobblestone square. When I got to my hotel, they sat me down and gave me some coca tea. They claimed that it was good for altitude sickness. Coca tea is made from Coca leaves, which are also used to make cocaine. But before you jump to conclusions let me say that it was no stronger than caffeine. Remember, heroin comes from poppy seeds, but poppy seeds don't dope you up. It was actually pretty tasty. I took a box home with me. If you go to Cusco, every one will offer you some Coca tea.
After I got my hotel room in order I went about the town. It was only about 8 am, so much of it was not open yet. It was a nice sunny day, as opposed to the constant fog of Lima. The air was fresh and clear. I was only about two blocks from the Plaza des Armes, which is the center of town. I walked down there and watched the little Peruvian children on their way to school. It was very beautiful, but sort of colonial.
Click here to some pictures of the Plaza des Armes
The Plaza is the place to go if you want to be a tourist. It is surrounded by restaurants, and there are a lot of peasants that come here to sell their wares. They are a bit persistent, but there is an easy Spanish saying that makes them go away. If they come up to you just say, "no. no. no. gracias, No. Gracias, no. no. No. No Gracias, por favor, no. No. No. Help!, no. No!. Go away!!, No. I don't want any! No! Leave me alone!!!!" Then start running. Actually though, these vendors have the best stuff at the cheapest prices in Peru. I bought a pair of ceramic hand painted bowls from one little girl for S3 a piece. They are nice. The girl claimed that I should buy something "for my hunger mister, please". Remember, in Peru a police officer only earns S15 a day, so at S3 a pop for these bowls, this little girl was not hungry. Another girl tried to impress me by reciting the names of the American presidents. I bought a bowl from her too. But be warned, they are like pigeons. If you feed one, the rest some looking for some crumbs also. I suggest running.
I also bought some more expensive things. I got a ~200 year old stone Inca calendar. I always try to buy something nice, expensive, and authentic on my trips. If you want to buy something from these people, you have to bargain. They can smell a sucker coming. Fortunately I look Peruvian and speak Spanish (remember how I said that the numbers were good to know). I bargained the woman down from S220 to S65 for the calendar. Bargaining is fun!
One strange thing about buying things in Peru, no one has change. At first I thought that it was an extra bargaining strategy, i.e. 'I know we agreed to S9, but all you have is a S10, and I have no change, but that was not it. In many places, I would buy something for say 7 or 8 solas, and I would pay for it with a 10. The shopkeeper (yes, even in big stores), would look at me like I was trying to change a 1000. They would apologize and then run off to another store. After a few minutes they would come back with change. It was very odd.
There are also hundreds of tourists agencies in the immediate area that would all love to set up a trip to Machu Picchu for you. You don't need to set anything up in Lima. The tour guides can be almost as persistent as the peasants.
There are a lot of restaurants in the Plaza des Armes, and for a tourist spot, they are not that expensive. I had lunch at one place that consisted of a sandwich, a soda, and some tea, and it was only S9. You can easily eat well for under $5 a person in the main square.
The Plaza des Armes in at the bottom of the valley, Cusco rises on all sides of it. Rather steeply I might add. It has a lot of character and the narrow cobblestone streets are really cool. I took a lot of pictures while I was wandering the hills. There are a lot of stray dogs in Cusco (and the rest of Peru I would imagine), but they are very unobtrusive. A number of times I had to walk down a street with a raggedy looking dog on it, and they dog didn't even get up to sniff at me. The dogs will not bother you, which is a lot different from American dogs.
Click here to some pictures of the Streets of Cusco
Once I had walked high enough, I got a pretty good view of the city. People say that altitude sickness will knock you out for a few days, but I didn't have much of a problem. You can really feel it though when you walk up a steep hill. My heart was beating fast. I stopped every now and then and admired the view. I grabbed a roll and a Inca Kola in a market and I felt better. I also noticed that I did not sleep very much and that I was never very hungry. That might have been from excitement though.
Click here to some pictures of Cusco from above
I spent the rest of the day walking around and shopping. I did go to one tourist attraction, the 'Temple of the Sun', which isn't so much of a temple as it is a broken Inca foundation with a church on top. Not much to see.
Click here to some pictures the Temple of the Sun
Here are a bunch more miscellaneous pictures of Cusco.
Click here to see some miscellaneous pictures
After walking around for a long time, I went home, got changed and decided to go to dinner. I wound up at the Baghdad Café, which claimed to have the best balcony on the Plaza des Armes. Despite the name they don't have middle eastern food. I got a pizza. They sat me at a really large table even though I was by myself. Then, as the place got crowded, they sat a pair of British women at the table with me. We chatted throughout dinner. They were very nice. After dinner, we went out for a drink together. In Peru, the national drink is called the Pisco Sour, which consists of a whisky sour like drink frothed up with a raw egg white. Locals will accost you in the street and tell you to get one. It was pretty good, but nothing special. The three of us went and got a Pisco Sour together. Then I went home and went to bed. The train for Machu Picchu left at 6am the next day.
OK, on to the Inca cloud city,
Part 4: Machu Picchu
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