Before I begin with Cusco, I’d like to start with a couple of footnotes about our cruise. First of all I’ll recount a story told to us by our Lima guide, Renzo, about Peruvian cuisine. A delicacy here, saved for special occasions is guinea pig. They raise them for food, not as pets. The head is reserved for the patriarch, the children get the legs and I guess the matriarch gets the filet. Yum!
We spent the last two dinners on the ship in Polo eating with new acquaintances Karen and Joe Schultes from Colorado Springs. It’s interesting how, in a ship of 1000 people, that you know when you click with somebody.
This morning we left the ship at 6:00, met our tour company and were whisked away to the airport. When we arrived at 6:30, the place was crazy. We asked for directions, got routed to one line and after an hour in line, discovered that we were in the wrong line. We needed to find Peruvian Airlines. Fortunately the line wasn’t so long there and despite getting in yet another wrong line at security, we were at the boarding gate in tons of time. The flight was only 55 minutes and before we knew it we had met our connection in Cusco and were at our hotel, The Eco Inn Hotel.
We opted for a down day after arriving to give us a chance to deal with the altitude. Cusco is 3300 metres above sea level and it’s safe to say, we’ve never been this high, not even in the 70’s. Just kidding. Our room was right on the main street leading into the heart of Cusco, the Avenue El Sol. We had a great view up the avenue and right across the street was a Peruvian Handicraft Store - perfect
Once we lunched, after some relaxation and coca tea, we ventured over to this market. It was massive. If we want handicrafts, we won’t have to go very far.
At this point in time, we were feeling pretty good so we started up the gentle grade of Av. El Sol towards the central square of Cusco, the Plaza de Armas which was about one kilometre from our hotel. The first notable historic building we came upon was the Convent and Archaeological Museum Koricancha. Below the buildings are the Sacred Gardens.
The Plaza de Armas is something else. The Plaza is about a 300 metre square, with fabulous churches on two sides and beautiful balconied buildings with arcades on the other two sides. On the right is the principal church, simply La Catedral and on the right is Iglesia la Compania.
The balconies are a variety of colours and made from mostly wood with some metal ones.
While sitting, sucking in the thin air, an artist solicited us and took us through his entire portfolio. Some of his stuff was pretty interesting and in the end we agreed to buy a couple of pieces if he let us take a picture of him with his typical work.
During our walkabout - actually it was a saunter about - we saw many women in what you would consider was traditional dress. Some I’m guessing were authentic peasants from the countryside and some were tourist props.
Some of the more noteworthy things from today’s walk were the intricate stoplights and one very historic bank.
By the time we got back to our hotel we were pretty bushed - getting up at 5:00 didn’t help. We had a mini happy hour to toast Cusco and then promptly crashed for two hours.
We’ve eaten both lunch and dinner today in the restaurant in our hotel. It’s quite lovely with a koi stream running through it. Tonight we ate dinner to the strains of authentic Andean music - a harpist and guitar - fabulous. We bought their CD. Dawn had what she described as the best pizza she has ever had and I had alpaca - chewy and moist and tasting slightly wild - on a bed of something like quinoa. More Cusco tomorrow!
We spent the last two dinners on the ship in Polo eating with new acquaintances Karen and Joe Schultes from Colorado Springs. It’s interesting how, in a ship of 1000 people, that you know when you click with somebody.
This morning we left the ship at 6:00, met our tour company and were whisked away to the airport. When we arrived at 6:30, the place was crazy. We asked for directions, got routed to one line and after an hour in line, discovered that we were in the wrong line. We needed to find Peruvian Airlines. Fortunately the line wasn’t so long there and despite getting in yet another wrong line at security, we were at the boarding gate in tons of time. The flight was only 55 minutes and before we knew it we had met our connection in Cusco and were at our hotel, The Eco Inn Hotel.
We opted for a down day after arriving to give us a chance to deal with the altitude. Cusco is 3300 metres above sea level and it’s safe to say, we’ve never been this high, not even in the 70’s. Just kidding. Our room was right on the main street leading into the heart of Cusco, the Avenue El Sol. We had a great view up the avenue and right across the street was a Peruvian Handicraft Store - perfect
Once we lunched, after some relaxation and coca tea, we ventured over to this market. It was massive. If we want handicrafts, we won’t have to go very far.
At this point in time, we were feeling pretty good so we started up the gentle grade of Av. El Sol towards the central square of Cusco, the Plaza de Armas which was about one kilometre from our hotel. The first notable historic building we came upon was the Convent and Archaeological Museum Koricancha. Below the buildings are the Sacred Gardens.
The Plaza de Armas is something else. The Plaza is about a 300 metre square, with fabulous churches on two sides and beautiful balconied buildings with arcades on the other two sides. On the right is the principal church, simply La Catedral and on the right is Iglesia la Compania.
The balconies are a variety of colours and made from mostly wood with some metal ones.
While sitting, sucking in the thin air, an artist solicited us and took us through his entire portfolio. Some of his stuff was pretty interesting and in the end we agreed to buy a couple of pieces if he let us take a picture of him with his typical work.
During our walkabout - actually it was a saunter about - we saw many women in what you would consider was traditional dress. Some I’m guessing were authentic peasants from the countryside and some were tourist props.
Some of the more noteworthy things from today’s walk were the intricate stoplights and one very historic bank.
By the time we got back to our hotel we were pretty bushed - getting up at 5:00 didn’t help. We had a mini happy hour to toast Cusco and then promptly crashed for two hours.
We’ve eaten both lunch and dinner today in the restaurant in our hotel. It’s quite lovely with a koi stream running through it. Tonight we ate dinner to the strains of authentic Andean music - a harpist and guitar - fabulous. We bought their CD. Dawn had what she described as the best pizza she has ever had and I had alpaca - chewy and moist and tasting slightly wild - on a bed of something like quinoa. More Cusco tomorrow!
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