Peru – July 7
Today we awaken pretty early….this town just doesn’t
sleep! Early morning sounds of the
waking up of a village lure me out of bed around 6:30. Since we need to prepare for our 10:00
departure, we get going and Paulie and I grab a cup of coffee, while the kids
keep on sleeping. They have let us know
that is just isn’t Summer Break unless they can sleep late so we are obliging
this time. Our train departs at 11:00am
for Cusco and we are supposed to check out of the hotel at 9:00, but they agree
to let us stay until 10. Paulie and I go
in search of an ATM to pay the hotel bill and to fetch the laundry we have
dropped off yesterday. We were
positively filthy after our climb and it is nice to have freshly laundered
clothing.
Pretty uneventful morning and the
train ride to Ollantaytambo is uneventful with the exception of this weird
performance onboard the train followed
by a fashion show of the baby alpaca clothing that is the exclusive
“PeruRail” fashion line. We arrive in
Ollantaytambo around 12:30 and are greeted by our pre-arranged driver to take
us back to Cusco for two nights. We are
happy to be back in Cusco and are growing fond of this little mountain
town….actually a city of around 6million people tucked into the valley of
spiraling mountains all around and surrounded by ancient architecture. As the former capital of the Inca Empire,
Cusco has been at the nexus of history for thousands of years. Just walking down the streets is a reminder
of the ancient past as the cobblestones streets covering the city are literally
in the “footsteps of the Incas”. There
are a couple of sites we have yet to see in Cusco so after lunch, Annie,
Hudson, Paulie and I head out toward the artist neighborhood of San Blas. Sam opts to chill out at the hotel. We make our way through the Plaza de Armas
and out the other side, down narrow streets that are lined on either side with
the most amazing masonry work. Barely
able to press a credit card between the cracks of the immense boulders that are
shaped into polygons, we marvel at the amazing engineering of the Inca
builders. We find a couple of street
artisans selling macramé and engage in a lively conversation about their
techniques. Annie and Paulie arrange to
meet up with one of the artists, Pacco, the following day for a tutorial. As
the sun is going down and the familiar chill is starting to cover the city, we
head back to the hotel. Having eaten a
very late lunch we are not too enthusiastic about going back out for dinner, although
Paulie and Hudson venture out around 8 and find a nice plate of spaghetti.
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