First few days in Cusco

It has been 3 days since my dad and I left Toronto and 2 days since we arrived in Cusco! It feels like it has been longer than that already! On January 1st, after having said by to Liam, my Mum and Grandma my dad and I drove to Toronto to catch our flight to Lima. We left nice and early because we wanted to be prepared for bad weather on the road as well as line-ups in the Toronto airport. Apparently the Toronto airport was one of the worst for lineups after the attempted underwear bomb attack on Christmas day. We arrived with plenty of time to spare, which was nice since the lineup through security was very slow. On the plane I was fortunate enough to be in executive class. Our tickets were booked on points and the only way for us to be on the same flight together was for one of us to be in executive class. I guess I lucked out!! I felt sort of guilty having my dad in the back of the plane but her reassured me that he was fine with it and I was planning on trading him half way through the flight. However the flight attendant told me that he could not switch with me and he couldn´t even come and visit me. Well he did anyways…which led to a little agitation with the flight attendant. Not even a 30 seconds after my dad came to say hi, the flight attendant has already moved in to tell my dad to leave. My dad, who apparently was looking for a fight, went out of his way to find the flight attendant and ask for his name so he could complain to Air Canada about how he had been treated. All talk if you ask me, but I had a good laugh.

Once we landed in Lima at midnight we had to go through customs and get our bags. It took about an hour and half to do so but we weren´t in any rush since we had a 4 hour wait at the airport anyways. We checked in with our next flight and then went and slept/read for the remainder of the time. The flight from Lima to Cusco was gorgeous!! I was so tired but couldn´t sleep because I was so mesmerized by the view out the window. After take-off we quickly ascended over the clouds however many peaks of the Andes were still above the clouds. I took some picture and when I figure out how to get them onto one of these computers I will post a few!

Once landed in Cusco at 6am, someone from our Hostel greeted us with a sign! We loaded our bags into the car and started the drive to the hostel. No seat belts and no rules of the road. Somehow though I didn´t feel unsafe, we weren´t driving too fast though. The sights around me was slightly shocking at first. Sidewalks turned to rubble, shingles (if existent) half falling off, windows=non-existent. I wondered what I was getting myself into. It turns out the airport in a less fortunate part of town. We then arrived downtown where building weren´t luxurious however they were maintained. We were dropped off at our Hostel and right away were greeted very warmly but the hostel reception. They brought us a mug of coca tea and we sat in the common area while signing into the hostel and finishing our tea. I then went for a nap right away since I had only had 3 hours of sleep on the plane. After the nap we walked around downtown, soaking everything in.

One thing I noticed very quickly is that everyone is trying to make a penny off tourists. Children and women walk around in traditional clothes with lamas and baby goats, asking “¿fotos?” to every tourist that walks by. Children buy bulk candy and sell it to anyone willing to buy it. Women stand on the streets with pamphlets offering massages. Children run around with portable shoe shining stands and offer to shine your hiking boots! Vendors set up stands everywhere and coax you into buying their products, which coincidently are exactly the same as the vendor beside them and the one before. “No gracias” has become my most repeated word thus far.

The architecture is also very interesting here. Having a lot of Inca influence a lot of the walls were built by the Incas and are very beautiful. The Inca’s were very ingenious and the size of the boulders that were used to make some of the wall is amazing. I will post picture of this too!!
The first evening went to a rather touristy and expensive restaurant which was good to do once but my dad and I agreed didn´t need to be done again. The food, aside from being expensive, wasn´t exceptional. We were basically paying for the view, which was a patio above the Plaza de Armas (the main plaza in Cusco) and the live music. There was a Peruvian band playing traditional music and dancers wearing various costumes performing. It was a very nice atmosphere. The last song of the night the dancers were dressed head to toe in a colourful outfits and were wearing masks. They went into the crowd and chose people to dance, and lucky me was chosen. For those of you who don´t know, I’m not a dancer and therefore felt as though I was making a fool of myself.

Today, we had pre-booked a tour of the city. We were told to meet outside the tour company and arrived with 10 minutes to spare. The tour company was closed since it is Sunday but we were told that someone would meet us at the time of the tour. 10 minutes went by with nothing, but that’s ok because there is no such thing as punctuality here. Another couple arrived for the tour and waited with us. Half an hour went by and no one showed. I guess we were stood up by the tour company. We are going to go tomorrow to see if we can get our money back.
We also hit up a very traditional market, where we were two of maybe a dozen tourists in the entire building. There were rows and rows of fresh fruit, bread, nuts and handmade products. Sounds great!! Well there were also the rows of rows of raw meat (where they sell absolutely every part of the animal) and rows and rows of unrecognizable and yet to be named items. The back of the market was dedicated to prepared dishes. Peruvians would sit on a bench facing the stand where a woman was cooking something. It appears as though it is very common for Peruvians to go there for lunch. I would probably never eat half of the stuff sold in the market but it was great to look at and we will definitely be going back before we leave Cusco.
Finally I just have to talk about the altitude here. Cusco is at an altitude of 3400m and you can really feel it. I am fortunate because I have not experienced any symptoms of acute altitude sickness. However my dad has a headache but thinks it is slowly going away. Breathing is bit harder and any form of exertion is noticed. Even going up the one flight of stairs to our room I can feel my heart beating faster. My lungs feel as though I have just had a high intensity interval run and at night my breathing rate is higher.

We leave for the Inca trail on Friday and will hopefully get one more post in before hand.

Thanks for reading!