Early Monday afternoon, we made our way to Cusco. We had to be there 2 days before departing for the Inca Trail to pay our trek deposit and to start acclimating to the altitude. The flight was short and sweet. Our "snack" on the flight was actually a little ham sandwich and a muffin. Much more than I'm used to for such a short flight!
Our first views of the Andes! Absolutely stunning!
On the way in to Cusco, Josh and I each took a Sorojchi pill to help with altitude sickness...just in case. I had read a lot about what to do. Don't work yourself too much, hydrate, no coffee or alcohol, etc. We got checked into our hotel and went to pay for our Inca Trail balance. We walked because it wasn't very far and it just made sense. We had a short information session where we were told mostly stuff I had already read online. What we should pack, etc. This was the first time we had been given the details of each day. Roughly how far we would hike, where our camp sites would be, etc.
By the time we finished up, we were starving, so Josh took us to a place he had found. It was a nicer place with a tapas-like menu.
This was our appetizer. Mini causas. They were topped with trout, shrimp, octopus and cuy (guinea pig). They were all very tasty.
This was our first taste of alpaca! This was split between 3 of us, so we obviously didn't get much. It was all very delicious though! It had a texture similar to pork and beef combined and a similar flavor, but a little gamey.
This was the other amazing ceviche we got! It's made with Red Snapper. This was Theresa's dinner, but she was nice enough to let us try it.
Dave, Josh and I were still a little hungry, so we decided to snag some more food on the street. This lady was grilling kabobs of Alpaca, beef hearts and some other stuff that I don't even remember. I was only feeling a little adventurous, so I went for the alpaca. It was SO good! This was about a tenth of the price of the alpaca we had in the fancy restaurant. Don't worry, it's not that we spent THAT much in the restaurant, it's just that this was SO cheap. For less than 2 dollar menu items, I got a whole kabob of alpaca and half a potato. How awesome is that?!? Yea, I do miss Peru.
We were all feeling quite tired by this point, so we continued on to our hostel. We sat in the little courtyard and drank a cup of coca tea while we made plans for the following day. We retired pretty early. I think we were all quite tired and Josh and I had headaches.
Me with the hubs!
Our hostel courtyard. It was a really nice place to hang out.
Random sign we saw on a wall in our hostel.
When we checked in, I noticed that there was a sign for free earplugs. I thought, "Oh, that's nice!" when I should have thought, "Hmmm, I wonder why they're free?". Yea, it was loud. As tired as I was, I did not sleep well. The walls were very thin and we were on the same floor as the kitchen/bar. Needless to say, we heard people at all hours of the night.
We got up early to visit the plaza before it got crowded with so many people and for the guys to take some pictures. I could have kept sleeping, but I decided to get up an join. I did not feel well. I was tired, had a headache, had some vertigo going on. This is when I really realized that altitude sickness is real. I mean, I knew it was. I had read all about it. I just didn't think I would get it at all. I did and it sucked. We went from 5,080 ft. in Lima to 10,800 ft. in Cusco in a matter of like 2 hours. I wonder if we had taken the 18 hour bus ride and had a more gradual change in elevation, would we have had an easier time adjusting?
Yes - Altitude sickness, I know you are real now.
A rare - empty - view of Plaza de Armas. So nice and quiet!
Another view.
I just love the columns and the stone on the walls!
This is a more typical view of the plaza, in terms of the crowd.
We went back to the room and napped for a bit, then we got up to go shopping at the market!
Fresh fruit juice from the market! If I remember correctly, it was orange and passion fruit! YUM!
We got chicken noodle soup from the market for lunch and we shopped for some souvenirs. This is where I loaded up on some alpaca scarves and my awesome baby alpaca hat! I can't wait to rock it this winter, it's so warm!
Our last night in Cusco, before we left for the trail, we decided we wanted to try Cuy. We looked online for a good place to try and we found KusiKuy. I'm not going to lie, while we were walking there, I was starting to question it. It was in a not so nice looking area quite far from the main square. We finally got to the corner it was supposed to be on and this was it.
AMAZING tamales at KusiKuy
Our roasted cuy (guinea pig) - he was quite tasty!
After dinner, we made our way back to our room to get all packed up. We were getting picked up at 4:30 the next morning, so we had planned to get to bed before 9. That didn't happen. It was 11 before we got to bed...
No comments:
Post a Comment