Today, we left Lima at a ridiculously early hour. The hotel breakfast started at something like four, just for our group, because we had to leave at five. I get the logic, honestly, because Lima’s traffic is renowned for being absolutely awful on weekdays. The earlier we got out of there, the better. That put us on our flight to Cuzco at around eight.
Full disclosure, I was really out of sorts today. I can’t figure out why, though it may have something to do with my body’s response to malaria medicine and altitude medicine- but I didn’t sleep well last night, and I wasn’t eating well today. I am feeling significantly better, now, though. I had a very necessary nap when we arrived at our current hotel- more on that in a bit.
But because I was really not firing on all cylinders, I’m calling in a ringer. Cas was up and at ‘em while I was exhausted and nearly zombie-fied, so here’s what he says we did today, in his own words:
“When we arrived in Cuzco, it was about 10:00. Our bags left for the hotel and we would it see them again for another six hours while we took a tour of the surrounding areas. Cuzco is about 11,000 feet above sea level, so the first part of the tour was to go even higher so we could look down and get a beautiful view of the city.
The first place we went after driving across Cuzco was the Sacsayhuamán archaeological park. (Me again- when our guide said the name, I kept hearing her wrong, and I thought she was saying sexy woman) I don’t actually know if it was a town or a castle. We saw the stonework that was all geometrically arranged very cleverly. We got to learn a little bit about how they moved 200-ton boulders up to this over 12,000 foot locale in extreme altitude.
We had lunch at a that house (the restaurant was in a house). La Princesita was the name of it. On the way to Pisac, we saw the potatoes we learned about yesterday. They were still using the same technique of freeze drying them outdoors.
That’s when we drove down into the Sacred Valley, which is huge, but our first stop was Pisac. That’s where they had the parade and festival. We saw music and dancing in the town square.
After that, we came to the hotel, which is a gorgeous, sprawling place, and you took a nap.”
That covers all the stuff I was too wiped out to properly pay attention to. I did take a full hour nap, and somehow, that fixed me right up. The hotel is very fancy- perhaps too fancy- and while I dozed, Cas went and had a little exploring time. He said he saw three alpacas, four peacocks, several koi, two big rocks that were inexplicably significant, and a bird. Presumably, they’ll all be out of their enclosures tomorrow and wandering the grounds. Well, maybe the rocks will stay put. Look, it was a tough day. But I really do feel a whole lot better now. I ate most of my dinner, and I am way more full of energy than I have been all day long.
There was a particularly memorable thing we did see on the way to the hotel- apparently, people around here don’t keep Guinea Pigs as pets, but they do breed them. And apparently, they’re delicious. There were vendors at the side of the road with entire Guinea Pigs impaled on spits, trying to sell them. Our local guide assured us the little creatures are delicious. I suspect there were some mixed emotions in the tour group.
Tomorrow will be a full day exploration of the Sacred Valley, and maybe this time, I can pay attention. Fingers crossed.
Please check out Our Photo Album. Most of today’s pics are Cas’ doing. Like I said, I was not myself…
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