On to the Amazon

The last couple days in Cuzco have been pretty quiet. I have to admit, the altitude here is kicking my butt. It's actually closer to 11000 feet than 9000, which explains it a bit as that would be the highest I've been. Still, Katherine and the others seemed to adjust after a day while I seem to have mild altitude sickness the whole time. I spend most of the mornings in the bathroom and sleeping, then try to go out in the afternoon to walk around a bit, but still get very winded walking up any kind of incline. My hotel room is on the 4th floor and it takes me about 5 minutes of heavy breathing to catch my breath everytime I come up the 4 flights of stairs. I take solace in the fact that altitude sickness can affect anyone and has nothing to do with fitness level :). Anyway, this time back here it hasn't been unbearable, just annoying. But i think Tibet, kilamanjaro, and other high altitude destinations may have to be stricken from my bucket list given how my body has reacted here.

As for Cuzco itself, it's a nice enough place I guess. I've spent the afternoons strolling around and quite enjoyed the little side streets and markets. It's a shame you can't just dive into any of the local street foods, although having to go into a restaurant to get some quinoa soup is hardly punishment. I did crack yesterday and buy a bag of fresh sugar cane in a market which was delicious. Always wanted to try it. It's lick chewing on soft wood, but soft wood that squirts pure sugar water into your mouth with every bite. Delicious. Also tried some chicha morada yesterday. It's the "Peruvian soft drink", basically boiled purple corn with a bunch of spices mixed in. It's sickeningly sweet :).

The only museum I went I into here was coriancha (sp?), which was the largest Incan temple before the conquistadors showed up and tore it down to build the santo Dominigo church (the first spaniards here were accompanied by Dominicans, so they got the honor of building the first church, which is 500 years old, albeit rebuilt about 60 years ago due to earthquakes, like almost everything else in Cuzco). What's interesting about the site is the church was built on the foundations of the Incan temple, so you can still see the impressive masonry work of the incans, which survived the earthquake that destroyed the rest of the church.

So that's Cuzco. Nice little "town" (of 300,000 people). Very pretty, but I don't think you'd need more than 1 day here to see it. Although you may need to longer to get used to it :)

Today we are catching a flight to puerto Maldonado for our jungle excursion. In fact, I need to get off the pot and go pack up for that. Let's just say I'm looking forward to getting down to low altitude again. :)