Saturday, March 9, 2013

Friday, June 22nd – Day 12 – Cusco


We awoke around 7:30. The night was freezing and the beds were terrible, but I slept decent. We packed our stuff and moved it to the other hostal. Piccola Laconda was recommended to me by my friend Raechel who had been in Peru the year before, so we decided to try it out. The people at the desk were super nice, the place was awesome. 3 beds, a bath with hot water, a rooftop terrace overlooking the plaza. All the rooms have names and pictures of family members on the door, our room was their son's, Matteo. Fittingly, my name en espanol. It is clean, nice, and has everything we need. It is s/90-120 per night, but after we split it, it's only about $15 each.
We took nice, long hot showers and went out to do some shopping and get lunch. I bought some carabiners, socks and more souvenirs. We found a little pizza place to eat overlooking a small square where there was dancing and music. We ate on the balcon and the food was ok. I could have eaten a guinea pig, and I wish I did. Still haven't done it yet, but definitely a goal. Probably Tuesday. After lunch we hit up 2 museums and enjoyed more festivities walking around the squares and the plaza.
The Inka Museum (s/10) was pretty neat and the Pre-Columbian art museum (s/20) was okay as well. Both had a lot of ceramics, pottery and textiles. I'm a little more into art, sculpture and photography, but it was a good time.
After regrouping at the hotel, my brother had sent me some information I needed and I used the internet for a bit back at the hotel. After that, we decided to walk to a nearby neighborhood with a reputation for artists, food etc. It was a really cool walk, uphill and through small passages with seemingly endless amounts of shops and hostals. We saw the 12 sided mother stone made by the Inca on one of the buildings, looked in a few shops and went back to the hotel to get our things and went to the travel agency to get a briefing for the trip.
We were served coca tea and there were about 16 of us. All English speaking. A few from Arizona, some from California, others from England, and some, not sure. They broke down the hike for us, gave other instructions, info on amenities and so forth. We left afterwards and found a gyro place to eat dinner. It was delicious, a huge meal, and the falafel was great. And cheap! $14 for two big meals and 3 beers.
I have to rant though...As we were eating, two sets of English speakers came in and ordered takeout, or attempted to. No Spanish skills at all, and they thought by talking louder, the woman might understand a foreign language better. I could tell they were the types of guys with the “if they're in our country, they should speak our language” douchebags, and yet the rules don't apply to them. The second one ordered, waited 15 minutes for his food, then saw the worker take money, then touch the tortilla a few minutes after, and said in English, “You can't do that, love. Disgusting!” and left, telling me, “You speak Spanish, explain it to her.” I could have punched him in the face. All I said though, was, “This isn't England, dude.” I thought it was a pretty fancy place for Peru. She was wearing gloves. And the Spanish comment...learn your own fucking Spanish asshole. The gall.
Our meal was delicious, we paid and left. We got back to the hostal and made sure we were all packed and ready, I wrote, and now bed. Macchu Picchu tomorrow!! :) 4am. :(

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