Day 1 in Cusco

Well, it is almost 7am here and I´m not on my trek to Macchu Pichu. Something must have gone wrong with the tour operator or something. I just hope I get it straightened out because I paid over $300 for this trek. (As you can probably tell I´m more upset then I was over the shower.) I did contact the guy I coordinated the tour through and he is working with me to try and get on a tour tomorrow, which will be nice. I will just have to spend an extra day in Cusco and cut something else from my trip or find away around it.

I think that the thing I am learning the most on this trip is patience, which for anyone who knows me is not my strong point. After a 30 hour bus ride and delay in my trek, I´m either going to be pissed off or go with the flow and I think going with the flow is a better plan.

I did wake up at 4:30am though to go with the hostal owner to try and track down the tour, but it was to no avail. Let me say something about sleeping in Cusco though. This hostal doesn´t have central heat or heat at all. Actually all the windows are open. It gets very cold here during the evening so last night I wore boxers, sweatpants, two t-shirts, a longsleeve shirt and my St. Thomas hoodie. I was under three blankets and I was still shivering. Burrrrrrr. My plan thus has changed, first I´m going to go back to sleep and get some more rest, attempt to take another shower, get in touch with the tour and get in on one for tomorrow and then explore Cusco (the longest populated city in the western hemisphere). Plan B actually sounds pretty good.

I did follow plan B. I actually went back to sleep and then I got ready for the day. After getting cleaned up, I went to explore the city of Cusco. I went to the Plaza de Armas and strolled around. It was very nice. I then took a tour of the Cathedral of Cusco, another Cathedral that John Paul II celebrated mass in. The Cathedral is very old, but not as old as many things in Peru because it has been demolished many times with many earthquakes. You can see many cracks all over the Cathedral from the movement in the Earth. The most impressive thing about the Cathedral is its altar. It is covered in 24k gold. The Cathedral was actually built on top of an Incan temple by the Spanish when they conquered the area. This was a literal way that the Spanish could squash the religious beliefs of the Incan people.

After the Cathedral, I went and walked down a small street that has two Incan walls on both sides. These walls are very old and are considered the oldest in Cusco. After I walked down this street I walked down another street that had many shops and more Incan walls. I walked past a stone in a wall that is very famous. It is a 12 sided stone that fits perfectly into the space it needs to be in. In the pictures that I put up, you will see that the stones are carefully and perfectly shaped to fit together. It is amazing because they were only using small hammers and chisels. There is rarely mortar in between the stones because they are so perfectly cut, that they have little room between them giving them stability. Many locals stand around the 12 sided stone and try to tell you about it, but they only want a tip, or so I read in my Lonely Planet Guide, so I just took a picture and kept walking. I stopped at a small market, where I bought a leather photo album and a traditional Peruvian stocking cap. It is pretty cool and has Alpaca´s on it.

After going down this street, I went back to the Plaza de Armas where I sat down and watched a demonstration parade that was going through town. I have been told numerous times that you are suppose to stay very far away from protests in foriegn countries, so I stayed away and watched from a distance. I had a long conversation about Peruvian politics with a man from Cusco, who was also watching the protests. He said that the people were angry with welfare reforms of the current government. We talked about their last President, who, here, is considered a dictator and has been in jail on fraud and money laundering charges. I was quite pleased that my spanish was good enough to hold this intelligent conversation.

After I had this conversation and the parade went away. I walked around the city for a little while longer and I went to the market. This market is where the city gets almost everything it needs. I saw meat just hanging in the stalls, tons of flowers, woven goods, leather goods, resturants, and more. Some of the most interesting things I saw was the cows mouths and noses which people bought, and were sitting right on the counter. It was really pretty disgusting and totally unsanitary, but that is the way they live.

I went back to the hostal around 4pm because the director of the Agency who was booking my trek was going to meet me to go over the information I needed. After being a half hour late --- typical in South America, she came and she said that we would leave between 10:30 and 11 that night. She said that things had been confusing because there were planned and current strikes all across the country of Peru. She said that they were blocking the roads, but I didn´t really understand what she meant. That is why we were leaving so late at night because the strikes were suppose to be in full force the next day and getting to the start of our trek would be impossible. I was still pretty excited, but I stayed in the hostal to get some rest before the big trek. Later in the evening, I got a call from the Agency director who said that the strikes were getting worse so we were going to leave between 9:30 and 10.