Things we’ve been learned about Peru:
- No one owns a good pillow. They are called pillows, but we might as well be sleeping without one, they are so darn flat.
- Used toilet paper goes in the trash bin, not in the toilet. Apparently this is true in most places in Latin and South America, but I found it a bit odd. I never really understood how they dealt with the smell of poo-covered TP in the trash can next to the toilet. I guess that’s why everyone uses scented TP.
Good sleep has been hard to come by, on the sabbatical as a whole, but especially in Peru. First, see the pillow issue stated above. Secondly, the windows and walls here do not block out any sound. We heard traffic and conversations at seemingly all hours of the night. This night was no exception. The only difference on this morning was that we didn’t have to get up early to be somewhere in particular. So we kept rolling over and trying to grab a few more minutes of shut-eye. Finally at 830am I decided we should get up so that we’d have plenty of time to get to the free walking tour at 1030am. Since it was free, it wasn’t a big deal if we didn’t make it, but that was the only thing we had planned for the morning, so I thought we should try to make it, especially since it was at a reasonable hour.
We woke up, showered, had the typical Peruvian breakfast provided by our hosts, then walked for 20 mins to reach Plaza Recogijo. We reached about 15 mins before the tour was supposed to start, so we hopped across the street to grab some coffee.
The next 90 mins were spent with our guide walking around central Cusco. We sampled organic coffee at the coffee museum, saw some more examples of original Incan architecture, listened to some classical music from traditional instruments, and observed how to make authentic Peruvian ceviche. We didn’t enjoy this walking tour that much for a few reasons. One, we had heard much of the details of Incan architecture a few times already from our previous tours. Secondly, we thought this guide took it easy by dropping us off with other people to educate and entertain us. She dropped us off at the coffee museum, then with the musician, and finally with the chef. Thirdly, we were hoping to hear more about the sights to see and things to do in Cusco, and we got none of that. We stuck it out anyway and did some shopping each time we got dropped off. One thing that was interesting that we learned on this tour was that Cusco was originally spelled and pronounced slightly differently by the Incans: Qosco. Apparently the Spaniards had a hard time saying that, so they changed it to Cusco. In fact, I noticed other places and street names too in Peru where the Q’s had been replaced with C’s.
After the tour it was time for lunch. We went to Jacks, an Australian run restaurant. We had a cheeseburger and pancakes. Not the best of either dish we’ve ever had, but not bad either. Definitely filling. Then we went back to the house to drop off our shopping and grab our tickets that would allow us into the sights around Cusco.
Before the sightseeing though we had some gift shopping to do. We spent a couple of hours going from store to store. Eventually we made it to Qoricancha, a monastery built on an Incan temple. We were disappointed that our pre-paid tickets didn’t allow us into the monastery, but would have let us into the Qoricancha museum instead. Fortunately it was only 10 Soles each, so we paid and entered. Inside we saw some more Incan architecture, paintings, statues, and so on.
The weather had chilled significantly since the morning, and the monastery was largely open air. We were cold and tired, so we caught a taxi back to the house. Again, we dropped off all the shopping, put on some warmer clothes, and headed out to catch a folkloric show. We stood in line for about 15 minutes to get in when someone walked by at 6pm announcing that the show didn’t start until 7pm. We were highly annoyed as the guidebook said it started at 6pm, which is why we came so early. We had no desire to stand in line in the cold for an hour for a show that we didn’t know if it was any good or if we would understand any of it. Only 400 people are allowed into the show and the person estimated there were probably already 250 people in line. That meant if we left the line, we risked not getting in. Our pre-paid ticket covered this show, so it wouldn’t have been an extra cost to us, but we said F it and decided to go to the textiles museum.
That was a nice cozy, quiet atmosphere where we learned about and saw a lot of traditional woven clothes and outfits. We read that weaving is learned at a very early age and teenagers often compete with each other to see who can weave the best. Shortly thereafter they get married and get too busy with family life to continue weaving regularly.
After spending half an hour there, we still had time to kill before getting back in line. It was still really cold out and there wasn’t much else to do in the area, so we decided to skip the show, and went to dinner instead.
We had our heart and tummies set on an Indian place we read about in the guidebook. The last Indian place we tried to go to in Aguas Calientes was out of business, so we were hoping this restaurant hadn’t suffered the same fate. We tried to hail a cab, but one of them turned us down for some reason, so we jus walked instead. It wasn’t long before the cold no longer bothered us as we spent plenty of energy walking uphill.
Dinner was lovely. We haven’t gone out for Indian in a while, and the food was light, not weighed down with half and half or cream. We had chicken tikka, alu gobi, and raita with garlic naan. Portions were large, and we were blissfully overstuffed when we left.
We walked home, played the packing game again, and went to bed. Somehow we managed to fit all that shopping into the same baggage that we thought was full when we came to Peru. Not sure how that worked, but glad it did.
8 Trips in 8 Weeks 