cusco, peru

It was supposed to be a 21.5 hour bus ride. It turned into a 23 hour jaunt to Cusco, the capital of the Incan empire, originally shaped like a puma.

The plan to take such a long bus ride was to help me acclimatize more naturally to Cusco's high altitude since I had issues before in Mexico City which isn't nearly as high. I think the bus ride helped me in the long run since I felt better when I reached higher cities later. 

The bus ride itself was really comfortable as there were reclining cama beds, meal service, personal TVs & audio, a toilet, and Wi-Fi during many parts of the journey. At 9pm our attendant began playing Bingo with any willing passenger on "este bonito viaje." He started asking over the loud speaker if anyone could remember the names of the drivers (two, as they take turns on long journeys) or his name. He sounded audibly let down when not one of 44 people could recall his name.

The first 12 hours were great, but during the night I had a piercing headache & nausea - signs of altitude sickness. Luckily, they didn't last long.

In Cusco I joined a tour which brought us to various Incan ruins: Qorikancha, Saksaywaman (sounds like 'sexy woman'), Q'enko, Pukapukara, & Tambomchay. We we also taken to the obligatory alpaca factory. Did you know baby alpaca wool is three times warmer than cashmere!

The Incans had such impeccable stone masonry that the Spanish conquistadors thought Saqsaywaman was built by aliens - man couldn't have placed stones together so perfectly. In some cases, the stones were fitted together so tightly that sliding a sheet of paper between them wouldn't be admissible.

It is believed that the Incans didn't cut stones, but fractured them and used sand, stone, and water to make things smoother. Just how they moved some of the larger stone is more of a mystery and open to theory.

Saksaywaman:

View of part of Cusco:

Bits from around Cusco, including one of my fav places to visit in a city/town - the market.

Chicha morada, a drink made from purple corn. No cup to go, in this case, I just drank it from a glass, then the woman washed it for its next use.

With today being the last day of Peruvian Carnaval, there were lots of celebrations including dancing, music, a parade, gathering in plazas, & water/spray foam fights.

This group kept egging people on to throw water balloons at them.

Chinese food break! My Japanese-Peruvian-Canadian friend told me I had to try Chinese food in Peru as it was extra flavourful.

I made it most of the day unscathed, but then there was the first waterballoon. As the day progressed it just got wilder & I got more foam & water hits, though it wasn't too bad. When I was about 3 blocks from my hostal about 12-15 young teen boys thought it'd be fun to surround me & pummel me with water ballons & buckets of water. And they did. They also seemed amused to target my ass till my green underwear was clearly visible. The pic doesn't really show how soaked me & my shoes were.