Even though we had no early morning obligations today, we still woke up around 6:30 without alarms. Guess we're used to early rises. Our hotel was comfortable to sleep in but unfortunately their breakfast left a lot to be desired. The bread was really stale. We had a few goals in what to see in Cuzco today, and we started by going to the central market. It wasn't too different from markets that we saw in Lima and Arequipa, but it was in the morning and didn't smell like offal yet. We didn't spend too much time here.
Next, we went to the cathedral. We got there just after it opened (we relaxed in the Plaza de Armas as we waited for the line to dissipate). Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside the Cathedral, which is too bad because it is magnificent. Audio tours were available at no additional cost. Some highlights were the black Christ (stained black from all the candles burning near it), a patron saint for singles looking for a spouse, and of course, the Last Supper where they are eating guinea pig. There was one in Arequipa, but this one is larger and easier to see.
We went for lunch and found a place with reasonably priced meals. I got lomo saltado and Liz got tallerines verdes with chicken. We were nearby the best place to get souvenirs, so we went in to acquire them. The souvenir market was pretty extensive. Most places had the usual fare - brightly colored textiles, a variety of things to wear. There were a few places that had Inca-style fetishes of men with enormous dongs. We decided not to buy one of those. We did, however, get a nativity, a sweater for Claire, a tie for dad, and alpaca slippers for mom, Becca and our students.
We had problems getting cash from the ATM. Apparently, US Bank did not set up our debit card properly to withdraw cash in Peru even after Liz made all the necessary phone calls in advance. We spent a frustrating amount of time trying to get our card working, but it never did work. We decided we would give it another try later. We walked to the area to hop onto a colectivo to Ollantaytambo. We sat in the back, next to a friendly lady who looked to be about my mom's age. We chatted with her during the trip. Turns out she is married to a Swiss man and lived in Bern for a very long time. She asked us a lot of questions about the church and we were happy to answer - maybe she will receive the missionaries someday.
As for the trip, it was stunning. I've never seen landscapes quite like this. Urubamba, a town about halfway through our trip, looks like a Peruvian Garmisch. We arrived in Ollantaytambo before dusk, and we found our hotel with a little help from the locals. It was right next to a river with a small balcony with a view of mountains, the river, fields, and even some ruins. We wandered out to the main plaza and got some pizza for dinner (saving the leftovers for the next day). While latino pizza isn't my favorite, this was relatively good. We had more frustration with US Bank before calling it a day.
 |
| Plaza in Ollantaytambo |
 |
| Ruins close to our hotel |
 |
| What the streets looked like in Ollantaytambo. Note the water system on the left side of the road. |
 |
| Creek by our hotel room |
 |
| Ruins, from our hotel room |
 |
| Didn't check to see if they had any Squishies |
Observations:
- In American restaurants they get your drinks right away. Not so with Peruvian restaurants. They usually come with or during your main course, and they frequently don't ask if you want drinks at all.
- Speaking of drinks, a whole row of the market is dedicated to juice bars. To get your attention, the ladies working there wave their menus at you. Since there weren't many customers at that time, we got a lot of juice menus waved at us.
No comments:
Post a Comment