Hi All,
Wow its been a busy few days. After the city of Puno and tours around Lake
Titicaca in southern Peru, I took a bus from Puno to Cuzco, the capital of
Peru. The bus went across the Andes Mountains and included a tour stopping at
five locations along the way, all day from 7:30AM to 6:00PM. It was a great
tour, a couple sites included museums with artifacts from the ancient peoples
in the area along the Andes Mountains.
One site was the city of Rouchi, including an amazing ancient Inca city
including large circular rock corn storage buildings, residential homes and a
large temple, all built around 1400AD.
My place in Cuzco is in San Blas, the older part of Cuzco. Up on the hill above
the city. Its age is shown by the narrow streets, barely enough room for one
car to travel down the cobblestone surface and high walls. Its fun to see the
big tour buses navigating the road. I got a taxi from the bus depot after the
tour..all he could say about my location was : "Arriba..Arriba!!" (up there
up there). My hotel, a B&B is run by a French mountain guide. Great guy, great
stories about life in Cuzco. He indicates the same problems with permits and
officials as we have in California in trying to remodel an old home into a B&B.
Everything is on "Peru time"..sounds like "Baja time" back home.
This city is remarkable. Its Plaza de Armas, or main square is very large and
bordered by two huge cathedrals. Today there was a parade for all the local
school children, all in cute costumes, parading in the main square. This was
their big day.
The Bus tour I took yesterday was in the sacred valley east of Cuzco and
included several small cities. I got to see the morning market in Pisco, and
and amazing sun temple in the city of Ollantantambo.
Tomorrow I'm off to trek the Inca trail for 4 days, so won´t be back here till
the 28th...I´ll share some pictures from the trail then if time permits.
The people here are wonderful. Restaurants are great. Local food consists of
soups with potatoe and carrots, Alpaca meat broth. Alpaca meat, chicken and
vegetables.
Will see you after the Inca Trail. Will try to upload some more pictures
Take care,
Bill
