January 8th and 9th - Kickin' it in Cusco

Cusco is a great city, don't let anyone tell you differently. We awake in our cute little hostal and make our way downstairs for an early light breakfast of toast and jam before heading our for a quick spin around the block. The elevation is still giving us some trouble, though, so we spend most of our time in the San Blas area close to the Hostal, which happens to be the section of town where most of the little galaries display their artwork. Since this is also the tourist section, there is a disproportionate amount of great restaurants in the vicinity of the Hostal where are staying in.

After a few hours of wondering around, we return to Jack's for our 2nd meal there within 14 hours. Luckily, they did not disapoint, as we were treated to the best breakfast of our vacation. Carrie got french toast with strawberries and bananas and cream, and Dave got a basil and tomato sramble with fried potatoes, toast, and bacon. Fantastic grub, and such a welcome change after a solid month of the typical Chilean breakfast (hockey-puck rolls, industrial cheese and ham, jam). Futhermore, the whole spread including coca tea and fresh juice set us back $15. Hard to pull that off in Portland.



With hearty fare in our bellies, we returned to our hotel room for more aclimitization (i.e. napping, watching cable t.v., etc.) as was recommended by most people we spoke with. Later that day we registered with SAS travel, the agency we that was taking us on the Inca Trail in two days time. They walked us through the procedure, and we started to get excited and apprhensive at the same time. We knew all along that the 32 miles and 6000 feet of combined elevation gain would be rough, but we had been doing a fine job of ignoring those facts so far.


We found a little internet cafe that (as we painfully discovered) had both crappy computers and a very slow internet connection (as we used to say in college, a killer combo). After spending three hours composing the Futaleufu section of the blog, we realized we didn't have the strength to look for a new restaurant (the other recommendation from Betsy had already closed for the night), so we dragged ourselves into Jack´s and had another delicious meal. Satiated, we set off for bed to get ready for our first truely productive day in Peru.

Upon waking, we head over Granja Heidi, the other restaurant recommendation from Betsy which was convientanly located directily across from our hostal. Another fine selection on her end, as we shared a bowl of fresh mango with cream, a banana and chocalate crepe, and a veggie omelet with potatoes and bacon for $14. Delicious!

After breakfast, we set off to get some serious hiking and exploration in. Our previously perpetual altitude headaches had finally disappeared, and we set off in search of the fabeled Cusco market, where legend maintains that anything can be found. Legend also warns of the many pickpickets that frequent the market in search of fat handbags held by inattentive shoppers.

After a walk through the diesel-fuel laden streets, we made it to the market. It did turn out to be pretty amazing, as there were mountains of fresh fruits, spices, vegetables, and pretty much anything else you could think off, with everything spilling out of big burlap bags. We didn't see any pickpockets, but we kept our wallets safely hidden nevertheless.


After finishing our market excursion, we hopped in a taxi to visit the four Inca ruin sites that lay just outside of town. Our taxi driver was a very nice guy, and he even complemented us on our Spanish, and asked us where we had studied it. We were sure he was being nice, but the fact remains we were able to communicate with him in Spanish only for the 2 hours he was with us. I guess we have picked up some tricks along the way. The ruins themselves were great, and we were very appreciative of the fact that we were able to get some hiking in were the air was clean (Cusco has some serious pollution issues, despite its beauty).


We originally were only going to visit two of the cites, but after learning how close they were to each other, we decided to put off lunch for awhile and hit all four consecutively.

Each one had something different to offer, while sharing some obvious similarities. We got some good hiking in as well as some good photos, and returned to town for some overdue lunch.

After lunch, we updated the blog, and waited for our 7:00pm orientation meeting with SAS travel. There we will meet the 14 people we will be trekking with, and we are hopeful that there will be some cool folks among them to share our adventure with. We will be incommunicado for the 4 days we spend on the trail, so wish us well, and we'll likely be updating this blog next during the 5 hour layover we have in Lima on the 15th.
We miss you all!