Cusco -arriving and settling

 As became the way with these overnight bus journeys, we did sleep but the sleep hardly felt restful and we still neded to catch up a significant amount when we arrived. This despite having 2 cards of Bingo! and being fimed again in our seats. The hostel was very nicely designed and was only one year old.


Apart from a day trip of a few hours, after which we returned to much lower altitude, Cusco was the first place we had been (and more importantly stayed) above the 'magic' 3,000 metre level and we were a little concerned how our, particularly my, bodies/chests would cope. Unfortunately, not only were we in Cusco at approx 3,400 meetres but we had chosen accommodation that was uphill from the centre (and in not the best of neighbourhoods!). We discovered that it was only 7 minutes walk down to the centre. Unfortunately, it usually took us 30 minutes, with regular stops for gasps of air, to go back up. This provided us with a slight problem in that having gone back to our room in the afternoon/early evening, we often didn't fancy going back down again with the prospect of the return climb.

Anyway we arrived at 7.00a.m. to be picked up at the bus station. (it may be necessary to point out that in S.America, coach stations tend to be 'out of town'. Added to this is the fact that in many places there isn't only the one bus station but many as each route has a lot of competing companies, each of which may have their own bus terminal either instead of or in addition to the local terminal --(Ah the efficiency of the privatised system!!)--anyway, that's why we were occasionally picked up rather than making our own way.

The person picking us up was a travel/tour agent attached to the hostel. we didn't have to pay for the pickup, well not in monetary terms, but on arrival we were immediately asked about which touras the first would be a half-day trips we would like to join. We were very pleasant about it and pointed out that our first priority was, in fact, SLEEP to recover from the overnight bus ride but compromised by arranging to meet him at 12.30. At 12 we woke up, had a quick shower to get down for just after 12.30 - he wasn't there- not for another hour - alarm bells rang but we obviously didn't hear them! We explained that being as how we were knackered and it was our first time at altitude, we intended to commit to nothing for two days, just to get acclimatised. He obviously thought that would be it as he outlined a 4 day itinerary of tours all running on consecutive days with no concept of rest between. We beat him down to two (1 and a half really as the first was a half-day trip)

Anyway, it was Christmas eve and we'd made it to Cusco! So we decided to have a look around. We almost ran down into town and realised at the bottom that we couldn't do that and that up or down we would have to forget our normal 'sea level' walking pace and, at least, half it. we walked around for a while, amazed at what we were seeing but having the edge taken off it by tiredness. We also had to get our Boleto Turistico - an all-in-one ticket that you had to buy if you were visiting any monument/museum/site within the city.

Anne wasn't quite ready for guinea pig so we ended up in..... the Cross Keys!! Yep, an 'English Pub', where I had fish and chips and Anne had something similar!!!! After that we half-heartedly walked around for a short while before giving up and heading back to the hostel. We managed to sleep from about 5.00pm through to about 8.00 the next morning, missing the Christmas Eve fireworks in the process.

It was Christmas day!!!!! However, there was no present opening, no dark Toblerone, no white chocolate 'Orange' and no gimmicky small items. Christmas had been postponed for 2 months (Except see 'Christmas in Chile and Peru post later)!  Not even a christmas dinner in the offing!!!!? Actually the last was not true as we went to our 2nd English pub in 2 days ('The Real McCoy' c/w London Transport logo). We did this on spec and our timing was lucky as the place filled up soon after. So we had turkey and (the best ever tasted) home-made christmas pud! Later we also met Rob and Lisa in the pub - rob was suffering from the altitude but wasn't letting it stop his chrissie dinner!



By this time, and despite the appearance above, we felt fairly well recovered and went exploring. The weather was overcast and drizzly (just like being back home!!) so some of the places didn't show up very well despite the whole city being amazing.

Cusco/Cuzco is known as 'the navel of the earth' i.e for the Incas the centre of the world (a bit like Manchester). The name Cusco comes from the Quechua "Q'osqo Haunca" or rock of the owl and was the centre of the Inca empire. However, despite the name referring to an owl, the city was originally shaped to look like a puma's head from above. It's population is 330,000 and it lies at 3,326 metres.

Cathedral

Vicuna

Inca stonework

Plaza de Armes - Fountain in front of convent

I think Anne was supposed to hold the lamb

Inti Raymi mask

Breakfast room at the hostel