Hola Amigos,
Have arrived at Cuzco.
I have some pan pipes now and Vanessa loves them (NOT). Learning how to play el condo pasa by numbers as we travel along on the bus but it doesn`t sound to good. Vanessa says that the peruvians when they play the pipes make music that is haunting and we I play it is chilling. At least it stimulates an emotional response :-)
The drive from colca canyon was beautiful. We saw our first flamingos for the trip in a lake at about 4000m. There is a plain that runs for hundreds of kms surrounded by picture perfect mountains and running streams. So much variety. There were indigenous communities up in the 4000+ metre areas with flocks of llamas and the houses were made of stone and even the stock yards were stone walls. There always was at least one shepherd looking after the llamas and often whole families. Further along the way were indigenous communities in mud brick houses and straw roofs. there were towns with mud brick kilns and even a large man 100m+ tall carved in one of the mountains. Not too much snow around but as we got closer to cuzco there.
Saw some inca ruins as we got towards cuzco and some classic ruins above the city. Will have a better look tomorrow when we head out to the sacred valley.
Wandered around cuzco today. Day started with buscuits and a mate. Must be addicted to cocaine already. This is a city that is spoilt by tourism so the coca leaves from the mate which Vanessa and I chewed did the job. One only needs to stand in the same spot for a couple of seconds and someone is trying to sell something to you. The polite no gracius lasted for a few hours then ignoring them completely was our strategy.
Luckily there are some amazing buildings built on top of inca foundations to offset the constant buzzing of touts. Tried to slip some paper inbetween the blocks and could but only just as the stonework was so good. Suspect earthquakes gave me the advantage. Found the famous 12 pointed rock in one of the inca walls.
The city is definitely worth visiting. Seems that every big city in Peru has a plaza de armos with a lovely cathederal and other nice architecture. Started to notice that each city is logically divided into functional streets. For example on street might be full of shoe shops and another hardware stores.
Cuzco has the best markets we have found. There are so many clothes and cheap as chips. Too much choice. Vanessa and I wander around and could buy so much but in the end have bought so little.
Stumbled into another odd church today. This one as per usual was dark but the highlight was that there were mirrors everywhere. Was this so the users could take a good hard look at themselves? Maybe a bit of last minute grooming?
Got lost as per usual. Jesus saved us. Well the big jesus statue on the hills above the inca ruins. Just a matter of walking towards the statue and eventually bump into a known landmark like the city centre.
Found a lovely cafe when wandering around outside of the gringo area. Tend to find that the best spots are outside of the areas most tramped by the tourists. It had a spanish guitar player and VERY NICE looking chocolate cake (torte del chocolate) was very popular with the locals. Too popular. As we waited for a table the locals kept walking in and grabbing them before us. Damn. Our first world politeness was holding us back. Had to give up in the end. That was the final straw for me for the day. Headed back to the hotel defeated without chocolate cake. Must be time to grab some more coca leaves before taking on Cuzco tonight :-)
Good new. Have a new hat and negotiate a really good price. Walking away is always a good strategy during the negotiations to get a seemingly absurd price offer accepted. Probably still getting ripped off but at least feel good about it.
Adios,
David & Vanessa
