Cozy in Cuzco

Cuzco is just like I imagined it would be. Smaller and more quaint than Lima, incredibly picturesque and great for aimless wandering. It´s the former capital of the Inca empire so very rich in history and culture. We flew here bright and early this morning, met our guide and got a quick tour of the city center after dropping things off at the hotel.

Because there was only 5 of us he was able to take us through the market first which was a treat for all the senses except taste... it left me very sad I can´t sample the local cuisines and live to tell about it. I´ve realized the disadvantage to using a real camera is that I can´t upload pictures as easily as I could from my phone, so alas, I can not share anything just yet, but I promise there´ll be some good ones for y´all later. For now, just close your eyes and imagine rows upon rows of street vendor food and trinkets, fresh breads and produce, more varieties and colors of corn and potatoes than you ever knew existed (purple corn anyone?), and meats that varied from live frogs to guinea pigs to alpaca and cow heads sitting in piles. For sale. For food. As our guide said ¨we are a poor country, we cannot afford to throw out any part of the animal¨. Yum.

After a very quick stroll through the main square Katherine and I found a restaurant with a view we could eat at. Apparently she´s an even more adventurous eater than I, and she dove into the guinea pig much quicker than I did. The skin tastes very much like chicken, albeit with a different smell, and the meat is a bit unique but still tastes like meat, and not altogether unpleasant. I can cross that one off the list though and feel no desire to repeat the feat. The alpaca steak was much better, but kinda like a dry, tough, steak. The mashed yams were awesome though and we both agreed the fresh made lemonaid (made from mini green lemons) was the best we´d ever had.

Otherwise today has been a very slow day. Acclimatizing to the altitude has been more necessary than I thought. I´m extremely sluggish, a bit dehydrated, and had a pounding headache all day. Muscles are a bit achy and tummy is making some funny noises too. Hopefully I´ll sleep this off tonight and be good to go tomorrow. We´ll be back down to 8000 feet in Ollantaytambo then, where as Cuzco is 9000 and we basically went straight from sea level to here so it´s a system-shocker.

Oh, and we met our group tonight. Quite young crowd, and I´m pretty sure I´m the second oldest, behind only my roommate Lazlo from Sweden, and he´s pushing 60. Tonight´s entertainment consisted of everyone trying to pack for hike. We have a 6kg limit, which includes the 2kg sleeping bag and duffel bag, itself weighing in at 0.6kg. Add in the inflatable thermorest at 1kg I opted for and you are basically limited to 2.5kg for a 4 day hike. It was quite amusing to watch everyone packing and repacking their bags, throwing them on the weigh scale, and then repeating the process until they were under limit. Strategies varied widely, with some sacrificing the thermarest, others warm clothes for the night times, and some, like me, deciding to forgo the recommended pair of shoes for the campsite and mandatory flip-flops for the hot showers on day 3. By that time I figure I´ll stink enough it won´t matter for one more day, but at least I´ll be warm and sleep well in the meantime.

This will likely be my last post until we get back to Cuzco on Friday or maybe even Saturday. Until then, I guess I´m now off to the races...