Thursday, June 21st – Day 11 – Cusco-ish to Cusco (Winter Solstice)

After a few hours of driving I think we hit an open area and began to ascend in elevation. This means switchbacks, and in a bus this size means wide turns every 30 seconds tossing you about all night. It was awful. I slept for maybe an hour, was jostled awake, and that cycle repeated for the rest of the 18 hour bus ride. The sun came up a bit and we woke up and stopped for breakfast. We had chicken soup at a restaurant on the side of the road.

After a few hours riding some more, we arrived in Cusco. A brilliant place, beautiful, full of everything. A group of us English speakers got off the bus and decided to walk into town, stretch the legs a bit. We walked into the main square, Plaza de Armas. We found a hostal called Hostal Felix and for s/20 each we got a room with 3 beds, a bathroom and a balcony overlooking the plaza. Pretty cool considering the Inti Raymi is going on this whole week, with Sunday being the climax of the party during the winter solstice. All of the festivities centered around the plaza, and we have a pretty great view. Our new Dutch friends got a room down the hall, and our French friend, Elliott, got a cheaper room upstairs.

Mark and I showered up. First problem noticed. No hot water as advertised. So I showered in the community shower anyway, even though we paid extra for the private bath. When I came back to the room, Mark pointed out that the beds were hard as rocks and the room was freezing. Oh well, we only booked for one night. We went down to the square to check it out, have lunch, and do some shopping and people watching. The music, dancing and marching are continuous and beautiful. Food, people everywhere. You are constantly offered sunglasses, hats, massages or waved in to restaurants and stores. The city itself is very hilly. Stone streets and small corridors are everywhere. When the Spanish conquered the Inca, they started tearing down the buildings, but realized their buildings were built so well, they stopped and left the foundations. So, many buildings have Inca stone foundations with Spanish style building on top. Pretty crazy looking and awesome. We walked and shopped more, got some drinks and found a place for dinner.

I had Alpaca Chateaubriand with a red red wine foam sauce, and Mark tried Alpaca as well. It was delicious, I'd say sort of a mix between pork and beef, very lean, very tasty. I heard a bar playing Tool, so I had to go in, and we had a couple of beers before calling it a night. We found another hostal to stay at for tomorrow, so we were hoping we could bear Felix for the night.