Peru Pt. 3
7/19/2008
Today we headed out to the airport for our flight around noon to Cusco. We had to do a lot of waiting around for the outfitter lady, but it was generally pretty stress free. We even got an exit row on the flight. The airline, LAN Peru, was much nicer than Spirit even though they have the same kind of planes. I think there are a couple less rows of seats or something. They gave us snack boxes with cake and chocolate and crackers. Yum! We were bussed to the Hotel Prizma, where we got orientated some more and i rented a sleeping bag for 15USD because we had decided there wasn't room for mine in our checked luggage. This day started my long chain of daily headaches, probably an indicator of altitude sickness. Cusco is at 11,000 feet and we flew there from Lima, which is at Sea Level. Not the best idea, but unavoidable. We had some coca tea (yeah, that coca), and it seemed to make me feel a bit less light headed. I still got winded climbing the stairs to our room though...
After we got unpacked, we wandered around town for a while, since it's supposed to be bad for you to lay down all day (it just makes the altitude sickness worse). We went to the Plaza de Armas, which i guess you'd call the main square of the city. It had some impressive old buildings and lots of salesmen. We had lunch at a chifa (chinese/peruvian fusion) restaurant called the Dragon Dorado. We had plenty of tasty food, although it mostly just tasted like chinese food. k had a dish with alpaca in it, which was delicious. Everyone should eat alpacas all the time. After lunch, we wandered around more and purchased a few souvenirs and a sun hat for me to wear hiking. Around sunset, we climbed a hill leading out of the touristy part of the city to see what we could see and take some pictures. We got yelled at by some drunk guy, but he seemed to relax a little once we assured he we weren't taking pictures of him. We wandered back down to the main plaza and watched a bit of some sort of dance show, presumably in celebration of the approaching Independence Day, Fiestas Patrias. After we got bored of that, we wandered back toward the hotel to find food. k got some mazamorra morada and arroz sambito from a street vendor for the low, low price of S/1. It looked pretty much like unappetizing goop to me, but it tasted pretty good. Then we also had a small pizza, as it is wise to eat much when arriving at altitude... We also visited the local supermarket, which had lots of cheap booze, though we didn't purchase any of it. While i was waiting in line to check out, another lady apparently had a counterfeit bill. The clerk waved a cop over who tore it to little pieces in front of her... Drama! It seems they have a pretty big counterfeit money problem there. Fortunately, we managed to only get real money...
City of Cusco from our hotel room
Cusco from up on the hill
A Festival in the Plaza de Armas
Today we headed out to the airport for our flight around noon to Cusco. We had to do a lot of waiting around for the outfitter lady, but it was generally pretty stress free. We even got an exit row on the flight. The airline, LAN Peru, was much nicer than Spirit even though they have the same kind of planes. I think there are a couple less rows of seats or something. They gave us snack boxes with cake and chocolate and crackers. Yum! We were bussed to the Hotel Prizma, where we got orientated some more and i rented a sleeping bag for 15USD because we had decided there wasn't room for mine in our checked luggage. This day started my long chain of daily headaches, probably an indicator of altitude sickness. Cusco is at 11,000 feet and we flew there from Lima, which is at Sea Level. Not the best idea, but unavoidable. We had some coca tea (yeah, that coca), and it seemed to make me feel a bit less light headed. I still got winded climbing the stairs to our room though...
After we got unpacked, we wandered around town for a while, since it's supposed to be bad for you to lay down all day (it just makes the altitude sickness worse). We went to the Plaza de Armas, which i guess you'd call the main square of the city. It had some impressive old buildings and lots of salesmen. We had lunch at a chifa (chinese/peruvian fusion) restaurant called the Dragon Dorado. We had plenty of tasty food, although it mostly just tasted like chinese food. k had a dish with alpaca in it, which was delicious. Everyone should eat alpacas all the time. After lunch, we wandered around more and purchased a few souvenirs and a sun hat for me to wear hiking. Around sunset, we climbed a hill leading out of the touristy part of the city to see what we could see and take some pictures. We got yelled at by some drunk guy, but he seemed to relax a little once we assured he we weren't taking pictures of him. We wandered back down to the main plaza and watched a bit of some sort of dance show, presumably in celebration of the approaching Independence Day, Fiestas Patrias. After we got bored of that, we wandered back toward the hotel to find food. k got some mazamorra morada and arroz sambito from a street vendor for the low, low price of S/1. It looked pretty much like unappetizing goop to me, but it tasted pretty good. Then we also had a small pizza, as it is wise to eat much when arriving at altitude... We also visited the local supermarket, which had lots of cheap booze, though we didn't purchase any of it. While i was waiting in line to check out, another lady apparently had a counterfeit bill. The clerk waved a cop over who tore it to little pieces in front of her... Drama! It seems they have a pretty big counterfeit money problem there. Fortunately, we managed to only get real money...
City of Cusco from our hotel room
Cusco from up on the hill
A Festival in the Plaza de Armas