Cusco, Peru, South America

I had a slow start to the day, but it was pretty nice. I got to take a hot shower at my hostel, which I wasn’t too sure was going to be possible. It’s not the nicest hostel, so I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was only cold showers, but I’m really glad it’s not. It’s pretty chilly here in the morning and the evening, so a cold shower would have been miserable. The hostel also has a strange policy of turning off the wifi between 10pm and 6am. I can’t imagine that they save much money that way, but whatever.

I went out for breakfast and had some eggs, bacon (which was pretty bad, but it was still bacon), toast and juice. It was a good start to the day. I met Karin at 11:30am, and I met Marc as well. He just got back from Machu Picchu last night and had to the full day in Cusco, so he came along for the tour with us. I had also met a South African girl named Emma last night at dinner, and then ran into her this morning, so she came along as well.

The tour started at 12:30pm, so we all went to a cafe called Pan-tastico and got some sandwiches. It was a great chicken curry sandwich that we all took to go, and it was so good that Karin and I went back tonight for a late night snack. The tour was pretty good, even though we didn’t get to see everything that had been advertised.

We met our guide, Richard, and he explained that today was a Peruvian holiday, so there was a procession going around the main square, and it also meant that we couldn’t get our bus out to a site outside the city. I might just have to go on the tour again after Machu Picchu to go see it. We took a walk up to San Cristobal church which gave a really nice view of Cusco.

We were supposed to get a bus from here, but it was cancelled so we ended up going to a musician’s shop where he makes and plays all kinds of traditional Peruvian instruments. It was pretty cool. We got to see a few different guitar-like instruments that had up to 16 strings and some were even made of armadillo shells.

We left the Luthier music shop and went to a hostel where we found out how to make a Pisco sour. This is the most famous and traditional drink in Peru. We all got a free shot, and then we took off. We split up, and I came back to the hostel to relax for a bit. I went back out and met up with Karin at 7pm and we walked around the town for a little bit. We weren’t really hungry after the huge sandwich we had, so we decided to go out for a juice. I love the juices here. They’re all so fresh, and so cheap!

We went back to Pan-tastico for an empanada, which was also delicious, and then called it a night. It started down pouring again tonight, so my ten minute walk back to my hostel had me absolutely soaked. I’m just really hoping that the weather is okay when I’m on my four day trek.