Yesterday was my first day off since I got here (besides the day I arrived) and I wanted to make it memorable. And by God, it was!
I took a bus from Calca to Cusco which is about an hour or so ride (3.50 soles). The bus ride is stunning and it passes through some very cool places that I would love to check out in the future. After I got to Cusco, I took a taxi (4 soles) to the hostel that Avishai and Viviana recommended, The Milhouse. The Milhouse is a hostel meant for young backpackers who want to stay a few nights and days in Cusco as well as get to know fellow travelers (31 soles for one night, less the second night, third night ect). I was very surprised at how nice and clean all the facilities are and how friendly the staff is. They have two huge courtyards with ping pong tables, hammocks, wifi and they have a full bar on the top floor with free shots and a DJ after 9pm.
I checked my things in, made my bed and went out to explore the oh-so-famous Cusco. It is a lot more touristy here then in Calca, but it was rather comforting to meet people that spoke English and see <familiar> faces. I went to the market, and walked around the main plaza. I was so overwhelmed with things to buy because I wanted EVERYTHING ;) but I managed to walk away with two souveniers for Kiara and Nolee (15 soles). In the main plaza it was interesting because there was a Starbucks and a McDonalds. I knew that McDonalds was global, but Starbucks??
After walking around I made my way back to the hostel. I sat down at the computer for a minute to check my Facebook and email and a few minutes later a guy sat next to me. He asked me a few times how to do certain things on the keyboard (Ex. in order to get the @ sign you have to press ALTGR Q even though it shows the @ sign on the 2...) and we began talking. He then invited me to get dinner with him and his friends. We all met up and went to go find a place to eat.
They are all visiting from different parts of Canada, two of them (Marco and Ali) arrived on Saturday and the other two (Michael and Lindsay) got to Peru two weeks ago but took a bus from Lima to Cusco and stopped at all the different towns along the way, so they arrived in Cusco yesterday as well.
We decided to try a little place in an alley lined with different restaurants. We got seated upstairs and I got a 3 course meal plus a drink for 15 soles. The tomato soup I got was so disgusting I gagged whenever I took a bite, so everyone took one for the team and helped me finish it. I had phenomenal papaya juice and for my entree a dish of Alpaca meat, onions, french fries and rice (wayyyyy better then the soup). We had the cutest waiter too. He was a tiny elderly man with a hunch back. We all felt so bad for him because everytime he brought something up he had to go up a rickety spiral staircase, but he started to skip to and from the food when serving us, it was so cute I just wanted to squeeze him and never let him go.
After leaving the restaurant we stopped and got a thick tea called matte and headed back to the hostel. We went to the Canadians room, played some catch and decided to check out the bar. The bar is a long skinny room with two flat screen TVs, a fuzeball table, a pool table, a deck that overlooks Cusco and tables to sit at. The Canadians played some pool and after the most boring game I have ever had to watch, we just sat on some benches and a few of us danced a little. We aquired a few new people as well, an Austrailian (Nikolas) and a Texan (Sid). Sid was not my favorite person to be around. ALL he talked about were drugs, tattoos and the jungle. One of his many stories (which were all very hard to believe) consisted of him partying so hard one night that his friends forgot about him on the roof of the place they were staying. They couldn´t find him until the next day and he was so sunburnt he could barely walk. This little adventures of Sid´s reminded me of a movie I once saw...oh yeah, THE HANGOVER! He also lectured me about how I shouldn´t be sober anymore because drugs connect you with the earth and nature and I can´t be against certain drugs if I haven´t tried them. Oh Sid, may you find peace and prosperity with your sunburnt self, high on Peoti in the jungles of Peru.
Later, the bartender asked if we wanted to play Flip cup. Everyone said yes, so I just played with water in my cup. After the game, the bartender came around saying we all had to pay 2 soles for playing the game. I thought that was pretty lame he told everyone they had to pay after the fact we had already played the game, but, since I hadn´t dranken any of the beer (which is what he wanted money for) I refused to pay. He was not too happy with me, but what can I say, I ain´t no ordinary gringo who is going to give away all my soles because someone says too. Thats right, this little gringa shall not be messed with.
After flip cup we had recieved a flyer to go to a club\bar for its 1st anniversary. Everyone got in for free because we had Milhouse wristbands but it was so dead inside! There were tons of people and this fantastic band playing classic rock songs in English, but NO ONE was dancing! So Lindsay, Marco, Michael, Ali and I went right up to the front where the band was playing and started dancing like there was no tomorrow. People were looking at us like were crazy but we couldn´t of cared less. After the band packed up and the typical N.American pop songs came on, thats when everyone started getting down. We all danced for 2 hours straight (minus my 2.5 minute bathroom break). It was a really cool club though because they had a trapeze artist and a unicycler that was throwing people animal balloons. We were all wiped after our intense dance off of 2 hours so we decided to call it a night, although before heading back to the hostel we grabbed some fries and McFlurries at good ol´ MickeyDs.
All in all it was a great weekend, even though I got pretty grotesque food poisoning, sorry hostel roomates, I couldn´t help it...). I´m so grateful to have met Lindsay, Marco, Michael and Ali and hopefully we stay in touch. They have all the pictures from that night, but once I get them, I will post them!
Peace and love for now,
Ayla
