We arrived in Cuzco! After leaving Reno at 7am on Saturday, stopped in Dallas for a 4 hour layover, then went on to Miami for another 4 hour layover, and to Lima for 3 more hours of waiting, we finally arrived in Cusco at 10am (8am PST) on Sunday – a solid 24 hours of non-stop traveling.
We were greeted by our tour agency, Llama Path, who then took us to our hostel. Cusco seems like a pretty neat place so far. A lot of dogs roam the streets. I’ve even seen a boxer and a bulldog out here.
Cuzco has the Andes mountains that surrounds us, but the city itself is filled with narrow alleyways where people sell their handmade products – Alpaca wool beanies, sweaters, necklaces with a Chicana (Inca Cross) etc.. The scenery is a mix of desert and greenery landscape within the shadows of the surrounding Andes mountains.
We met up with Paul and Craig at our hotel. Craig, today was celebrating his 60rh birthday, and this is where we were greeted with our first round of coca leaf tea. It’s not too bad. Yes, the coca leaves do contain a very mild form of cocaine, but it would take a lot of these leaves for you to get high.
Today really was about exploring the town. Cuzco, pronounced Costco by locals, has some beautiful fountains and old churches. You can see the Spanish influence within the architecture and tiled roofs. The old capital city does seem relatively clean, but there are plenty of people and children either trying to sell you something, and some begging for money to go around.
One kid followed Jason around with his hand out for a good mile. He wouldn’t budge even after Jason gave him a sol, even telling Jason he should go to the bank and give him some money. He finally left, and we did see a few llamas roaming the street as well.
The food here has been pretty good. I’ve had some really good chicken already, and I even tried some alpaca meat. It’s a white meat that tastes a bit similar to a pork. The potatoes here have been delicious. And the beer is typical from what you can get in any other country (similar taste to Budweiser).
