Cusco

Today I said “goodbye” to Ollantaytambo. It is a very charming little town with good food and beautiful scenery, but I am looking forward to seeing more of Peru.  My taxi driver met me at the lodge at 9:00am, and we started the trek to Cusco.  This should take about two hours, but we got there in 1.5.  He was not messing around.  It was what I imagine Formula 1 road racing is like.  Everyone here drives very aggressively, horns are used constantly, and lane lines are merely a suggestion.  But, it also feels fairly safe because these guys are really good drivers.  After I got into the taxi, he asked if I wanted music.  Sure.  Then we proceed to hear the same four songs over and over.  And they are not good songs.  The only two I was able to identify (based on Google searching lyrics) were “What Makes This Heartbeat Faster” by Kilotile and “Are You With Me” by Lost Frequencies.  I think I heard both about five times, and by the end I was hoping we would get into a wreck just to make it stop.  What makes it worse is they were some sort of club dance mixes, so they went on for like 6-7 minutes each time.  Brutal.  I’ll give you a minute to pull one of them up on YouTube to give it a listen as you keep reading.

Okay, now that you’re sharing my pain from this morning, let’s continue.  Despite his best efforts, we arrived alive in Cusco, and I got checked into my new hotel.  It’s nice!  Hotel Rumi Punku is definitely a more well-oiled operation.  They offer tours, massages, and filtered water to fill up your bottle.  I sent all of my laundry down, and it was washed, dried, and delivered to my room by 4:00.

[Photos above: Photos of the hotel courtyard and the view outside my door.]

After sending my laundry down, I went for a walk to get oriented.  I’m close to the Plaza de Armas, which is the center of tourist activity, and it’s absolutely loaded with people and people trying to sell you something.  I made my way to Alpaca Expeditions first.  This is the outfitter I’m going on the Inca Trail hike with, and they want you to check in to pay your balance when you arrive.  I also inquired about something I’ve been wondering about.  Since I’m hiking solo, will I have my own tent?  No, not necessarily. They are usually two-person tents.  Okay, so how much do I have to pay to have my own tent, because it’s going to be hard enough to sleep out there without some random person a couple feet away?  The answer is $30.  Hell.  Yes.  Might the best $30 I ever spend.  With that done, I walk around for a while looking for some lunch.  There are so many options!  Finally, I walk by a little place and decide to give it a try, and it turned out to be a good decision!  Despite the language barrier (I am improving ever so slightly), I was able to order lunch from the menu del dia (menu of the day), which is much like a prix fixe menu.  In essence, you can choose one appetizer from five options and one main from five options and it comes with a non-alcoholic chicha morada (purple corn drink - it tasted like a warm, weak grape juice, more or less).  I ordered wontons with Andean cheese and guacamole for the appetizer and aji de gallina (“hen’s chili”) for the main.  It looked like chicken curry (chicken, potato, and white rice in a yellow sauce), but it also had a little boiled egg on top and was not spicy at all.  It was all delicious, and all that only cost me s/20 ($5.50)!

[Photos above: Lunch.]

After lunch, I went to a small museum, Museo Machu Picchu Casa Conch, nearby that houses some artifacts from Hiram Bingham’s expeditions (he’s the guy who “discovered” Machu Picchu in 1911).  It was not very well-done, but it was interesting enough because I’m going there soon.  After an hour there I was starting to get a little bit tired, possibly due to the altitude, so I went back to the room to relax.

[Photos above: I never would have guessed Abercrombie & Fitch provided all of Bingham’s gear for his expedition. I feel like they’ve since changed their business model; a model of Machu Picchu.]

As it started to get dark, I went out to grab a light dinner and take some evening photos in the Plaza de Armas (below).

I didn’t mention that the front desk asked if I came to Cusco today because of the strike tomorrow.  I was unaware of a strike.  Apparently, 13 miners were kidnapped and murdered by a gang up way in the northern part of the country try that’s pretty lawless, and the government could have stepped in to ransom them but didn’t.  This strike, as I understand it, is to protest the actions of the government in this ordeal.  It’s not real clear what the strike will mean for me.  He said it will go on from 8:00-4:00.  Roads will be barricaded, public transportation shut down, and museums closed.  Museums were kind of the plan tomorrow, so I’ll have to pivot to something else based on what’s open.  There aren’t many details available, so we’ll see what tomorrow looks like.  No safety concerns here, though.  Plus, I already made friends with the local policia.

Daily step count: 14,372, which is more than I expected since I’m intentionally taking it easy today and tomorrow.