Monday, January 16, 2006
Cusco
We arrived in Cusco on Monday the 9th and managed to get a lot done in the first evening we were there (Laundry, travel agency, photos dumped to CD, etc.). We stayed at the Hotel Picoaga which was excellent and well situated close to the centre of town.
Cusco is a tourist town and many people seem to be very poor. There are street hawkers everywhere and you have to be very careful with your stuff.
The next day we went on a bus tour to the Sacred Valley. We were a bit disappointed with this tour because it was more aimed at taking you to shops and markets rather than the Inca sights. Nevertheless it was an interesting day. The two highlights were the Inca sight at Ollayantambo and the hour that we spent walking through Urumbumba by ourselves whilst the rest of the tour ate at various restaurants. One poor guy was sick all the way home so we were glad we skipped lunch. We had an excellent steak dinner that was very inexpensive.
On Wednesday we packed for the Inca trail in the morning and then went for a walk through the centre of Cusco and watched a demonstration in front of the Palace of Justice (we think to do with the upcoming elections). In the afternoon we took a "City Tour" with a different company as we did not want the same guide again. Unfortunately we got a clone.
The "City Tour" includes the Cathedral and several Inca sights but it is run in a bizarre fashion. Every company in Cusco offers a city tour that leaves at 2PM and goes to 6PM. You cannot do it at any other time. They also go in the same order so you are constantly in a crowd. It appears to be setup like this for the convenience of the street hawkers outside each site - we couldn´t get a better rationale from anyone. The tour was well worth doing and there is certainly a lot to Inca history and culture. However, in our opinion it is being hyped too much and some of the stuff the guide was talking about wasn´t that believeable.
After the mandatory visit to an Alpaca factory we got back to Cusco just in time for our pre-trail briefing. There we met Marisol our guide for the next 4 days and our 4 travelling companions who would eventually bond into "Team Marisol". Jamie and Darryl come from New Zealand and Magnus and Beate come from Norway. They ranged in age from 25 to 29 so we were the oldies by a fair bit. Initial impressions were good and they proved to be correct. Marisol (23 going on 30) explained what we would be doing over the next 4 days and answered all our questions (we had prepared a list).
After the briefing we decided to have chinese food as it is normally very safe food to eat and we felt like it. Unfortunately, we didn´t twig that there were no chinese in the chinese restaurant. Jeanette spotted that the beef was off but by that time I had eaten a bit. I was a little sick during the night and a bit slow in the morning but nothing major. A lucky escape I think.
Bright and early (4:30 AM rise) the next morning our Inca Trail adventure began.
Cusco is a tourist town and many people seem to be very poor. There are street hawkers everywhere and you have to be very careful with your stuff.
The next day we went on a bus tour to the Sacred Valley. We were a bit disappointed with this tour because it was more aimed at taking you to shops and markets rather than the Inca sights. Nevertheless it was an interesting day. The two highlights were the Inca sight at Ollayantambo and the hour that we spent walking through Urumbumba by ourselves whilst the rest of the tour ate at various restaurants. One poor guy was sick all the way home so we were glad we skipped lunch. We had an excellent steak dinner that was very inexpensive.
On Wednesday we packed for the Inca trail in the morning and then went for a walk through the centre of Cusco and watched a demonstration in front of the Palace of Justice (we think to do with the upcoming elections). In the afternoon we took a "City Tour" with a different company as we did not want the same guide again. Unfortunately we got a clone.
The "City Tour" includes the Cathedral and several Inca sights but it is run in a bizarre fashion. Every company in Cusco offers a city tour that leaves at 2PM and goes to 6PM. You cannot do it at any other time. They also go in the same order so you are constantly in a crowd. It appears to be setup like this for the convenience of the street hawkers outside each site - we couldn´t get a better rationale from anyone. The tour was well worth doing and there is certainly a lot to Inca history and culture. However, in our opinion it is being hyped too much and some of the stuff the guide was talking about wasn´t that believeable.
After the mandatory visit to an Alpaca factory we got back to Cusco just in time for our pre-trail briefing. There we met Marisol our guide for the next 4 days and our 4 travelling companions who would eventually bond into "Team Marisol". Jamie and Darryl come from New Zealand and Magnus and Beate come from Norway. They ranged in age from 25 to 29 so we were the oldies by a fair bit. Initial impressions were good and they proved to be correct. Marisol (23 going on 30) explained what we would be doing over the next 4 days and answered all our questions (we had prepared a list).
After the briefing we decided to have chinese food as it is normally very safe food to eat and we felt like it. Unfortunately, we didn´t twig that there were no chinese in the chinese restaurant. Jeanette spotted that the beef was off but by that time I had eaten a bit. I was a little sick during the night and a bit slow in the morning but nothing major. A lucky escape I think.
Bright and early (4:30 AM rise) the next morning our Inca Trail adventure began.
