Cusco
We were really surprised at how busy Cusco is - tourists everywhere, and a corresponding number of locals trying to extract money from them - massages, restaurants, jewellery, llama/alpaca products and more. We should have expected it though, as Cusco is the gateway to Machu Picchu, so pretty much everyone that goes to MP goes through Cusco on the way there and on the way back. There was also some some sort of procession that continued for most of the morning which made it even busier.
We were finishing breakfast at a cafe when M saw Pan (the Thai lady from our Uyuni trip) walk past. It was a lovely catch up, she had been in Cusco for a week and was flying to Lima at lunchtime. Pan helped show us around the town and we bought our Machu Picchu train tickets. We had just been talking the night before about how reasonable the entry price was into Machu Picchu but we hadn't taken into consideration the expensive train fares to get you there, there are no direct roads to MP, though it is possible to get there by combining road and hiking, however 95% of people go for the easy option.
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| Grilled guinea pig .... yum! |
As it was Sunday not all sights in Cusco were open, the markets were though (plenty of freshly grilled guinea pig available), and we were also able to visit Qorikancha, which is a church built on the site of the old Inca Sun Temple, so it was an interesting mix of Inca stonework and more modern architecture. It was incredibly busy with lots of large tour groups competing for space, but as the afternoon progressed the crowds did thin a bit.
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| Qorikancha |
In the evening we walked up to the area of San Blest, to find of course that most of the shops and restaurants were closed - Sunday strikes again!
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| Cusco by night |
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