Monday 9 April 2012

Cusco Walking Tour

After our super comfy bus ride, we arrived in Cusco at about 6am and it was bloody freezing!

The girls wanted a nice quiet hostel so that they could prepare for the Inca trail which they were booked to do the next morning. But I wanted some action and a busy hostel with lots of new people to meet. So we parted ways and I checked into Loki which was a hostel I had been told about by loads of people along the way.

I spent the morning settling in and sussing out my options for going to see Machu Picchu. The Inca trail was a no go as I couldn't be booked on it until at the earliest 10 days later, which is time I could not afford to wait as I still wanted to see Bolivia and get to Brazil to meet Anna.

The hostel offered a free walking tour of the city so I decided that would be a good way to meet some people staying with me at Loki - and it was! I ended up meeting a hilarious group of people who I spent alot of time with over the next few days while I was in Cusco.

On the tour we visited all the main spots - first we went to the plaza central and church, which were really pretty and you could clearly see the architecture difference when the Spanish invaded and took over.

We then went to some ancient and original Inca walls, which were incredible just how smooth and well fitting together they were, especially compared to the modern stonework above them. All original Inca walls were built only with stone and so the individual bricks are not held together with anything, like concrete. They are just moulded and placed in a synced pattern. Amazing that they have lasted so long and shows how right they had their building techniques as they have withheld so many earthquakes.

We then went to an outside Inca museum, but it was suddenly torrential rain meaning we couldn't see anything. We decided to try and wait out the rain meaning there was time for interaction with the pet llamas who live at the museum. The llamas were really territorial and didn't appreciate us all being there and for a prolonged period of time. On a few occasions, they even spat and kicked other people on the tour. Regardless of this though we all wanted our photo taken as close to them as possible (of course), which I why I look so petrified as I didn't want it to spit on my face!!

That night the group from the tour decided to go out for some food and we hit up a local restaurant only serving Peruvian food. We tried, llama (nice but chewy), Alpaca (delicious, just like steak), guinea pig (gross and comes still looking like it!) and loads of other bits.

Great first day in Cusco - apart from the solid rain all afternoon and evening!

xxx