Cuzco

After a long, 8 hour bus ride from Puno, I finally arrived in beautiful Cuzco. I checked into an adorable and cheap hostel, but unfortunately, it didn't have wifi (crazy!) so I zipped out into the town looking for a restaurant with wifi to maintain some of my sanity. Cuzco is much busier and touristic of the 3 cities I've visited thus far, and I feel safe to go out alone at night. Finally.

The next morning I switched to a hospedaje (guest house) that has wifi, because really, i can't survive without it for 6 days, and decided to just explore the town. I can't say enough times how beautiful Cuzco is. The inca capital of Peru. It's surrounded by inca ruins and is mixed in with the influences of the Spanish conquistadores. There is still a little bit of bitterness for what the spanish did to peru, but you cant help but admire the beauty anyway. When you look out onto the city, all you see are stone walls and red tile rooftops. It is just picturesque.

Everytime I walk through the plaza de armas, I literally stop and gawk at the beauty of the architecture amidst the incredible mountain backdrop. So exquisite. I will say one negative thing though. Starbucks in the plaza de armas? McDonalds? KFC? Really Cuzco? Shame on you.

I have unfortunately been dealing with daily thunderstorms here, so it has put a bit of a damper on things. Pun intended. Locals don't really seemed phased by the rain. It's part of their climate, and unlike us, they're not afraid of a little rain. Not one person carries an umbrella. They wear alpaca wool and continue doing whatever they're doing. No problemo. My jacket is nice and waterproof, but I'm left with a chill to the bone that doesn't want to go away.

While exploring the city, I wandered through the Mercado de San Pedro, where I started my day off with an energizing freshly squeezed juice, and bought souvenirs, fruit and my dearly beloved coca leaves, my new best friend. I became friends with one of the lady-vendors from whom I bought everything, and maybe she knew what she was doing by telling me how great my knowledge of Spanish is, and how great my taste (in scarves and colors, etc) is. It certainly worked. I bought it all. But she was so cute, we were hugging by the time I said goodbye.

There's not much to see in Cuzco, a lot of churches-- and i'm not religious in my own religion, so I'm sure as hell not coming here to go to church; but there's plenty to do. There are tons of museums, art galleries, great restaurants, cafes, bars, stores, etc. The food here is excellent on any budget, but that gets an entire entry on its own. All I'm going to say is that for $2 you can have a great, hearty meal. And empanadas. But don't get me started.

While sitting in a cafe warming up with a cup of my "cocaine" tea, I met a middle aged woman from the UK who had quit her teaching job to come volunteer at a school for disabled children this past year. She left her husband and college-attending kids and lives here alone. The way she described the school and the way it moved her, reminded me of The Motorcycle Diaries-- where Ernesto Guevara started to become the Che we remember him by, from the same kind of experience. She said that there was just something inside her driving her to return to Peru several times in the last couple of years until she just said, fuck it, and quit her job.

We shared our first-world-women-leave-for-third-world-countries stories over tea. It's interesting that women like us coming from arguably two of the "best" first world nations could just toss it all to come and figure it out-- minus all the comforts and luxuries of home. There's something there to it... I'm not the only crazy one.

And speaking of crazy, I have been climbing half of the mountains here in Peru and waking up, going to bed, hanging out, all while feeling so achy and sore. All over the streets of Cuzco, women are trying to sell massages, mani/pedis, etc. and I've always just walked past them. Finally yesterday I stopped to listen to one of them. Massage did you say? Yes i could absolutely use one. How much? 20 soles for an hour? That's $8. I literally ran up to the massage parlor with the girl trailing behind me, and had a pretty incredible massage. The best ones are when your body is realllllllly tense and you feel it all unraveling in her hands. Amazingggg. You also know that you had a good massage when you emerge feeling a little congested, sleepy and starving. That means she released the tension and toxins. So you must drink water and eat afterwards. Anyway, had I known they were so inexpensive I would have had them every other day. I would have even traded my meals for them.

I really love Cuzco and find it very easy to navigate. The people are a lot less friendly here, but the city is just so beautiful. I'm glad I'm staying a total of 6 nights so that I can enjoy fully.