Could be worse than Cusco...

Talor: Yet another 10-hour bus ride, but at least this time it was a night bus. Slept through most of it and woke up to the bus arriving into Cusco. The first thing I noticed was that we were on a paved road. After over a week of traveling on bumpy roads, had no idea how luxurious that would feel.

Got really lucky and found the very first Hostal we went to, the Qorichaska, friendly and comfortable. Spent the next five days exploring the city, which is very touristy and expensive, but it was also nice to take a break from all the stares. We were just another gringo/china couple walking around the city. At the impressive Plaza de Armas, where most of the tourists tend to congregate, you can find just about any luxury you can imagine. We were constantly accosted by folks trying to sell us tours, paintings, sweaters, massages and even photo ops with children and women walking around with traditional clothes and carrying lambs or walking llamas. Little did they know, we'd seen plenty of that and had already taken tons of photos, for free!

Walked up and down the hills visiting the different neighborhoods, and found pretty colonial houses with brightly painted windows and doorways. It seemed a cross between Antigua (Guatemala) and Valparaiso (Chile). You can understand why the tourists would flock there. And despite the fact that there were tons of tourists, we found everybody pretty friendly and well-mannered, that is, except the drivers. Throughout Peru, we have found the rudest drivers in the world!

We went into sticker shock when we found the whole city was a lot pricier than what we had been used to in the small mountain villages, but we did manage to find some good cheap eateries with set menus, and the mercado (market), which is the best organized mercado I had ever seen. It had clearly marked signs hanging from the ceiling telling you where to find fruit, vegetables, bread or eateries. But we decided to splurge a little and even had pretty decent trucha (trout) sashimi one night.

Although I'm not much for outdoor activities (trekking, hiking, mountain climbing, etc.), which are all very popular here due to the terrain, thought I should at least try something so we booked a half-day white water rafting trip for the next day. Unfortunately Erik came down with one of those nasty stomach bugs. He spent the day in bed and we postponed the trip for two days later, which turned out to be perfect because it ended up raining on and off for most of the those days anyway. The rafting was fun, but it would have been better if it'd been warmer... oh well, at least there was a sauna we could warm up in afterwards. Sure felt like heaven when I could feel my hands and toes again. And they fed us well afterwards.

Overall, we thought we'd hate Cusco, but it turned out to be not so bad. The next day, we were on our way to Ollantaytambo where we would board a train for Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu... finally!

Erik: I'm glad that Talor slept so well on the bus ride - i have trouble sleeping on buses, especially bumpy ones, and that nice, paved road didn't start until far into the ride to Cusco. It was so nice to check into the hostal with firm beds and hot showers!

It was a bit odd at first being treated as rich tourists rather than curiosities as we'd become accustomed to in all the smaller villages we'd been to, but we got used to it and learned to enjoy the things Cusco had to offer, such as nice restaurants and bars. The cobblestone streets and Inka walls were beautiful, even if crowded with hordes of other tourists. Even the stomach bug didn't bother me that much as it rained those days, and I had plenty of sleep to catch up on - and we had a comfortable place to do that.

The rafting was good fun, if not too challenging. Poor Talor was shivering and numb by the time we'd finished, but still seemed upbeat on the experience.

After that we had on our eyes on Machu Picchu...

Our Cusco photos can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/erikandtalor/CuscoPeru1#