The bus to Cusco was a pretty smooth ride. Well, except that the kph monitor was malfunctioning and beeped periodcally throughout the night. At least Hazel got to sleep!

Cusco Cathedral

We arrived fairly early in the morning in Cusco the next day.  Of course, since we had hurried to get out of Arequipa so quickly, we had no reservations for a hostel in town.  But we wanted to make sure our upcoming tour of Manú park came off in a good fashion so we went straight to the tour office.  Well, not straight, because we stopped to have a really delicious breakfast at an Australian cafe that served home style goodies like eggs on toast, streaky bacon and black coffee.

We waited outside the door to our tour office for about 30 minutes (it was still before 9) and then were admitted and registered for the tour.  After getting that all straightened out, we decided to find a hostel.  We were pretty tired, so we didn’t look too hard — we went to the nearest hospedaje that had a decent price (under $20USD per night).  It turned out to be a great deal as we got private room and no hassle.  The owner was a really nice woman named María and she helped us get set up with where to go in town, including the best deal in lunch we’ve had in the entire trip so far.  For 5 Peruvian Nuevo Soles (approximately $1.75USD) we got a 2 course meal with vegetable soup, and either fried trout with lentils and rice or spaghetti bolognese.  We were stuffed and happy at this point, so we went around town, took care of blog and uploading, and had a decent dinner menu.  This was not quite as good a deal, being around $5USD per person for a 3 course dinner.

The next day, we decided to go see the ruins nearby to Cusco.  After a morning of Internet and chores (buying bus tickets, the annoying boleto turistico which you must buy for $50 USD each and is the only way to get admitted to any of the ruins around Cusco, and extra batteries for our head lamps) we took a taxi about 8 km outside of town and walked back, visiting the 4 ruins which are right next to the road.

Tambo Machay

The first ruin we saw is named Tambo Machay.  This was apparently a spa site for the Incan royalty to retreat to on particularly hot days.  It had a nicely preseved ruin, and water fountains that still function today.  It was interesting to see the water works but as far as construction goes it wasn’t the most compelling ruin of the bunch.

Puca Pucara

Puca Pucara was second.  This was a small fort across the road from Tambo Machay.  It is called the “Red Fort” because of the way the stones glow red at sunrise.  We only got to see a little tint but could definitely imagine the full effect.  This was the most striking of the 4 ruins, because you could really get a sense of the layout of the place, see the different rooms, and see the way their walls were constructed.  Plus it had a nice view of the countryside and a bunch of baby cameloids frolicking in the grass!

Qenko

Third we visited Qenko.  This means “zig-zag” in the native tongue and was named for the crevasse in the rock that you can walk through.  There was a neat altar within the rock and you can just imagine all the human sacrifices that were performed on it.

Sacsayhuaman

The last and largest site was Sacsayhuaman, meaning Satisfied Falcon.  It was an enormous fort overlooking the ancient version of Cusco, whose rock walls were constructed of stones sometimes 10-15 feet tall.  There were also a bunch of underground passageways that you could crawl through.  Being the closest to Cusco, it was also the most crowded.  I think that the crowds were one of the reasons that we preferred Puca Pucara – it’s just too hard to (in Hazel’s words) pretend that they’re all Inca warriors and not large tour groups.  Some of the tour groups even had guides waving flags around to direct their pasajeros.  Fortunately the site was still beautiful and afforded a great view of the city! Check out the statue of Jesus, and the overview of Cusco in that last picture!

Incan Masonry

Since we were such succesful explorers, we decided to go around and look for a happy hour to partake in.  We found a great little bar called “Km 0” that served us really brilliant papas fritas and the most delicious Pisco Sours that we have yet had!  The Peruvian version is quite a bit different from the Chilean version, because it contains egg white.  This is combined with the Pisco and lime juice (and sometimes a dash of bitters) and thrown into the blender.  The egg whites form a foam that usually fills 80% of the cup that the drink is in, and is remarkably stable for a drink.  Drinking really alcoholic, tart foam is an experience, and the whole drink has a smooth texture from the egg.  This might become our house cocktail when we finally return home!

Next: Ruins more amazing than can be believed in the town of Pisaq!