Exploring Cusco

Friday, November 22, 2019
Cusco, Cusco, Peru
After 10-12 hours of much needed sleep (Dave at ~10 hrs and up and at around 6am and Brennan as the winner with nearly half a day of sleep!), we were ready to tackle a full day in Cusco without the fog of travel and altitude.  Headaches were history, and Dave raided the breakfast area as soon as they opened to grab some excellent coffee.  Using the word raided isn’t quite fair for the early coffee run, because the breakfast area didn’t know what hit it when Brennan walked in - ham/turkey/cheese sandwich on fresh French bread and yogurt/cereal/chocolate and a piece of breakfast cake, followed by an omelet sandwich on more fresh French bread, and he polished it off with seconds of yogurt/cereal/chocolate and some chocolate cookies for dessert - yikes!  The made-to-order omelettes were a treat, and most of us turned them into sandwiches with fresh bread and avocados.  The breakfast room offered the same great views as the patio and was a great way to start the day. 
Oswaldo, our tour guide from Andean Adventures, arrived at 10:00 for a briefing on our tour of the Sacred Valley, hiking the Inca Trail and visiting Machu Picchu.   We requested Oswaldo because he was Dave & Sue’s guide back in May of 2014 when they followed a similar itinerary.  He left us four duffel bags (which we had to start calling our porter bags to not confuse with our wheeled duffel bags that would be staying behind in Cusco) for us to pack the things we would need for the four-day Inca Trail hike. 
Porters would carry up to seven kilos for each of us. This was basically all the clothes we would not be wearing and our sleeping bags. That meant our backpacks would only need a rain coat, gloves, warm hat, a jacket and enough water for the day.
Government regulations limit the porter’s load limit to 25 kilos (about 55 lbs). This weight would be checked at the trailhead as well as several checkpoints along the trail. We were assigned eight porters, a cook and Oswaldo. The porters would be carrying: two 6x8 tents, two two-person tents, a single tent for Oswaldo, food for 14 people (three meals a day), cooking equipment, two propane tanks and untold miscellaneous stuff.
It was great seeing Oswaldo again. He told us that Valeria would be our cook (also Dave & Sue’s cook in 2014). We were thrilled! Oswaldo said to be ready with our bags packed the following morning. He was dressed in his soccer uniform and was off to a match.
Off for the day.  We started at Plazoleta de San Blas Market where Brennan found a bracelet he really liked and got a few extra for friends.  He decided he was going to get 8 for friends.  3 down, 5 to go.   The woman who he bought from was weaving at her stand and we did grab a picture with her before we were on our way.
We were headed to the big central market beyond San Francisco Square but took a long round about way to get there. We kept heading up or down streets where we had never been, most of which were packed with “local” shoppers - can’t remember seeing other gringos. One highlight was watching a street hawker demonstrating his miracle glass cutter. He cut circles, waves, and every shape imaginable, in rapid succession. 
Needing to build up cash for the tip that would go to the Inca Trail crew, we also hit a bank ATM.
Finally making it to the Market, it was shoulder to shoulder. It had every kind of ware, textiles galore, flowers, fruits, vegetables, grains (dozens of varieties of quinoa), meats, fish, cheese, restaurant counters that offered local favorites, and chocolate. Yes, we bought chocolate! We also had to buy some of the famous altitude antidote coca candy. 
Leaving the Market, Bligh spotted a street vendor selling fresh pineapple slices. She chased her down.  They tasted as good as they looked and at one Sol each, we should have had one each, but settled with sharing two. 
Speaking of street vendors, Cusco must have hundreds, and when you count the little one room, Mom & Pop gift shops there must be thousands of these small businesses. In addition, almost every street corner in the central tourist area has traditionally dressed women and children, carrying or walking a young alpaca - a way to earn a living by getting a few Soles from the tourists for a picture with them.
The restaurant Yaku Cocina de Altura, highly touted on TripAdvisor was our destination for lunch.  Uphill from Plaza Armas. In Cusco, everything is either up or down hill, great training for the Inca Trail. It is no exaggeration that we did a thousand steps during our two days in Cusco. 
Therefore, we certainly earned our lunch, should say burned our lunch of two alpaca burgers, quinoa salad and an alpaca steak. We shared all around and all was delicious, not a clear winner. It was kinda cool how our server described in detail each of the dish's ingredients. All farm (their farm) to table.  Knowing we weren’t to have alcohol because of the altitude, we held back and shared one beer between us, make that three of us. 
From Yaku Cocina, because we had only been in dozens of shops, we headed for more. However, we concentrated on the higher-end ones. We don’t think it totally coincidence that many of these shops are located within feet of the upper-end hotels. Sweaters, hats and shawls jumped from double to triple digits, though all were described as “baby alpaca”, rather than just alpaca.  As Oswaldo would later extol, “maybe” alpaca!  By the end of our trip, we could all feel the significant quality difference in the baby alpaca. 
Weaving is a centuries old tradition and craft in Peru.  At our meeting earlier with Oswaldo, he mentioned that THE place to see weaving was at Laura, which was our next quest. Laura is more a museum than shop. The pieces, mostly tapestries are truly works of art - color, design and complexity, really amazing. The government of Peru has literally named Laura, the person, a National Treasure. No we couldn’t afford a tapestry, but we did get a coffee mug!
When Dave and Sue visited in 2014, they had dinner at a place that had traditional folk dancing and music. Sue’s research found something even better, the Centro Q’osqo de Arte Nativo,  Oswaldo and our hotel sang its praise and told us to arrive early and get in the queue for the 7:00 performance. 
We arrived at about 5:00 and no one was lined up so we headed to a market right next door with several dozen stalls. Brennan found a few more bracelets and Bligh ALMOST found a shawl.  By 5:30, there were a 1/2 dozen people in the queue on the sidewalk, the door was still locked, so we hopped in line.  
It started to sprinkle but the sky was black and streaks of ground lighting were not too far off.  By 5:40 torrents of rain turned to pea-sized hail. The Centro let everyone into the lobby to escape the storm.  We all packed in and waited until after 6:00 when they let us into the theater. While waiting, we visited the Center's museum featuring the costumes of the various regional costumes. Locals would be able to tell where someone was from by the design and color of the wardrobe (including one's hat).  Also, couldn't resist a bag of popcorn while we waited the start fo the performance. 
By showtime at 7:00 every seat was taken, probably a capacity of several hundred. The show was fantastic. There must have been a dozen different dances, all in different costumes and always the same 12 performers, six women and six men. In the back of the stage was a 15 person “orchestra” all on traditional instruments, except the piano!
We all agreed on pizza for dinner. When we left the theater, La Bodega was right on our walking route toward the hotel, what else, all uphill.  It was a great little place with a cool casual atmosphere. We ordered two medium pizzas, Brennan ate one of them! One had gooseberries, a first for all of us. For the second time in a day, we violated the altitude sickness no-no and split a beer, a very good porter. The pizza and bill came quickly, 104 Soles. We were lucky for that because it was getting late and we had some major repacking to do.
Back at the hotel, we spent about an hour repacking. We would be leaving our duffle bags at the hotel with dirty clothes and anything we thought wouldn’t be needed on the Inca Trail. We got everything repacked into the porter duffles Oswaldo left us and our individual knapsacks. Off to bed.

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