Cusco

I just loved Cusco! Anciently it was the capital of the Inca Empire so it was such a fabulous old city. We walked and walked and walked all through town.

 

Our hotel in Cusco was great, nice and clean. 

There was this quaint little outdoor courtyard inside the hotel flanked by rooms on each side. The funny thing is that we had to climb two sets of stairs to get to our room and every time we climbed those stairs we were huffing and puffing. We couldn’t believe how the high altitude effected us even with minimal effort exerted.

This was the view over the rooftop of our hotel. On our way out of town, we drove up these hillsides among the houses and it was pretty poor living conditions.

The cobblestone streets were so interesting.

Taking a small break at the main Plaza de Armas.

One of the cathedrals surrounding the Plaza.

This was one of the original Inca walls that still remains standing. It’s amazing how they could carve the stones and fit them together without any mortar.

As we walked along the alleyway we could glance into courtyards when we had the chance. I loved the brightly colored walls and clothing.

We visited the Hiram Bingham museum. He discovered Machu Picchu with the guidance of local indigenous farmers. They do not let you take pictures in any of the museums, which was too bad because there were some really interesting exhibits.

It was so interesting to see the mix of Peruvian people walking the streets of Cusco. There were so many people approaching us trying to sell us all sorts of goods. I wanted to take more pictures of some of the locals dressed in their traditional clothing, but they wanted money if they saw you taking pictures. When we saw the baby llamas, we couldn’t pass up this photo opportunity. Chuck got into a slight argument in Spanish with one of these ladies. He gave one of them the money for both of them thinking they would split it, but the one lady pocketed it all and wasn’t going to hand any over to the other lady. Chuck finally just dished out extra money.

We eventually wondered to the central market. I can’t even begin to describe the various colorful sights and mix of smells.

If you need to eat while in a foreign country, you should avoid a visit to the central market! Seeing all the meat just lying out in the heat and taking a whiff of the potent smell is quite the experience. I had to rush through this section suppressing a gag that desperately wanted to come. This is the reason I was so careful with what I ate! Four of the guys in our group got food poisoning at some point during the trip. Luckily we were all fine during the hike. Chuck actually caught a bug on the way home when he ate lettuce on his hamburger in the airport. I tried to tell him he shouldn’t eat the lettuce to which he told me we were in an international airport eating at an internationally fast food chain so it should be fine. Famous last words! Luckily we got home just as the sickness was coming on. Of course about every 4 days since being home he gets a reoccurring bought of sickness. 

The fruit section was directly adjacent to the meat section but isn’t this a beautiful sight. I loved the all the colors of the fresh fruit and there was such a sweet smell in the air. Of course, there was no way we were actually going to purchase and eat any of the beautiful fruit, but it sure was fun to wonder the aisle and take in all the sights.

The fish aisle I just stayed clear of.

In addition to rows of food, there were rows and rows and rows of all types of goods for sale.

We couldn’t resist a picture with these llama hats. They sure were soft.

After we were done with the Inca Trail we came back to Cusco. We toured the cathedrals and walked through this quaint town again.

I got another picture with the llama ladies and this time I held the baby llama. The llama was trying to eat the ladies clothes.