Cusco

We have enjoyed what Cusco has had to offer for 10 days now broken up only for our “Inca Trail” trek. Arriving here in our regular fashion (bus, early in the morning) we checked in at a hostel with breakfast included and vistas of the city and the main “Plaza de Armas”. The city is surrounded by rolling hills with slippery, steep, one way, cobblestone avenues leading as high as they could go. We loved it! Amy´s second time to Cusco I felt like I had my own personal tour guide, best places to eat, and where the market was. This market was huge, you could buy anything! From the standard alpaca touques and gloves to horse snouts, cows stomachs and frogs…. I´ll take four of each ;) 

Cusco

Steep cobblestone hills

Plaza de Armas

Traditional clothing

San Perdro Mercado

¿ Hungry ?

We were introduced to a local mountain guide and mentioned that we wanted to get some Spanish lessons so I can stop asking someone to“cut my onion” and just get a haircut. He introduced us to an acquaintance Daniel who was willing to show us the ropes. This introduction proved invaluable. After 10 days in Cusco apart from seeing many Inca ruins and enjoying almost everything the market had to offer we got over 10 hrs of Spanish lessons. Exploring numerous ruins (Saqsayhuaman, Pisac, and Puca Pucara) near and far the Incas ability to play giant Lego still amazes. Blocks of granite as big as cars with up to 14 perfectly chiseled sides slid next to one another without even a gap for a post-it-note.

 

Stones at Saqsayhuaman

Saqsayhuaman (snake head)

Pisac - Sacred valley

 There was one tour that Amy had taken four years earlier with her friend Bri that I felt needed a closer look. Having done the tour before she was still “two feet in”. It was a horseback ride to some secret Inca tunnels and caves called "Zone X". With a name like Zone X I felt like Indiana Jones when we hoped on those lil Peruvian ponies and headed up the hill. We were given an hour to guide ourselves through the "swiss cheesed" limestone. Off we went squeezing through every gap we could on hands and knees with a head lamp lighting the way. We always seemed to exit at another location only to find another crack we could wriggle into until the light of day disappeared.

Originally there were four of us on the tour, but after exploring the caves the two Czechs never returned to our agreed meeting place. The guide searched for half an hour before he said "vamos" and we departed on horseback to another ruin. What we learned from this is that the tour WILL LEAVE WITHOUT YOU!

Zone X

Caves

Squeeze!!

Llama (Yahma in spanish)

My horse Bonito

Chris horse Kukaracha