Cusco

After a final breathless evening in Puno, we caught an early morning flight to Cusco. Here we all felt a lot better - after all, we were now at 3300 metres, so had oodles more oxygen. We could almost run up the stairs.

We made it to our hostel El Andariego, which was placed off the road in a lovely quiet courtyard. Upon arrival at the hostel we were greeted with a pot of the wonderous coca tea. At one point I decided to look up coca leaf tea on Wikipedia. This was perhaps a mistake because I found out that it is the precursor to cocaine... so essentially Mum and I had been hopped up. I may have preferred to stay blissfully unaware. I quickly decided that one cup a day was plenty (as opposed to the 4 cups I had been considering). It did help with the altitude though... I have a feeling it would help with anything. The discovery brought up thoughts about future issues, for example filling out forms (say, for customs) and going for interviews:

Q: Have you ever used alkaloid steroids? ... erm... um... define used?

Anyhow, with this internal monologue running, the first day was spent taking it easy, just a few steps around the corner to the local supermarket to get some supplies (excellent breadrolls) and then a retreat to our hostel.

In the hostel courtyard

The second day was spent looking a little bit further afield - but not too much lest we exhaust ourselves. We walked to the convent built on the ruins of the temple of the sun. The Incan walls were so strong that the Spanish simply built on top of them. We could still see wall remnants of the Incan temple which had been restored to their original quality. We also made it up to the Plaza de Armas - the popular place to hang in Cusco. We found an excellent craft market nearby, which we returned to several times.

Looking toward the convent

On our last day in Cusco we wandered up towards the White Christo (you know, the one that is on top of every tall hill in South America) and about halfway there still felt pretty good ... so in an attempt to maintain that joyous feling we turned back. We spent the afternoon sunning ourselves in the hostel courtyard while watching an emerald hummingbird meticulously scour the flowers. We wondered where he had all that energy.

l
R
x
and Judy
+ the Δ

P.S. Unfortunately, one of us (and he shall remain nameless) had not managed to dodge the bullets shot by the hacking coughers and was consequently falling ill. The perfect cure? Take 2 aspirin and hit the Inca Trail for 4 days.