Cusco-Rain, shopping and food

Leaving Lima, we had the hotel call for a taxi for the morning since we had an early flight and figured we would leave the wedding late. Kathy had said if we left at 6:45a.m. we would be fine so that was when the taxi was to arrive. At 5:30, we got a call from the lobby that our taxi was there. Nope, couldn't be ours, we asked for one at 6:45. The hotel asked us to be ready at 6:30 so the taxi driver could pick up someone else and come back. Ok, fine. We'll be a little early. At 6:30 we went out and low and behold it was the driver that Loren's mom was yelling at the night before. He must have a chronic early bird gets the worm synrdome because he was super early for us too. Driving to the church though the night before, Kiah and I were fine. But driving to the airport, I was so scared for my life AND nothing looked familiar. I was so happy when I saw the sign for the airport. Thank goodness we would be there on time and alive. 

On our plane, we were served little tuna sandwiches....with nuts! Who puts nuts in their tuna sandwiches? No people. No. On the right of me, we met a spontaneous chap by the name of Chris. He was English and had black rimmed Harry Potter glasses. He had booked the trip 4 days before and planning on maybe meeting his brother, that is if his brother got the message that Chris was on his way. They were going to try and do the Inka Trail which is a 4 day hike but he really had no idea what he would be doing. 

We arrived in Cusco and were met again with someone who was holding a sign for us. His name was Percy and he was very chatty giving us some local history of the area. He asked us our plans and gave us his number so we could book a taxi with him directly. When it came time to call him the number didn't work and we had to call someone else. When we arrived at the hostel we had to wait for our room to be cleaned. Waiting outside we heard this man (turned out he was Colombian) snoring soooo loudly we were concerened how we would sleep. However, we met a nerdy Argentian that was sharing our room and he said the guy would probably come in at 5 which was ok with us cause we were waking up at 5:30 to catch the train. And then the best part, a little puppy that lived at the hostel came frolicking along. Her name was Miel which is Honey for you non Spanish speakers. She was cute chasing after people's shoelaces and eating the plants. While the hostel was an ok hostel, the restroom in our room smelled like mildew. It was so bad it was a mad dash to use the bathroom, shower or brush our teeth. It permeated the area. Other than that, the hostel was ok and in a good part of town. 

Cusco is something like 10,000 feet up so Kiah and I were really feeling our asthma kick in and our chest starting to restrict it's breathing. My cousin who is half Peruvian and half Ecuadorian had warned us to eat only tea and soup. And for the first day and a half we did. I had a delicious pumpkin soup while Kiah had a chicken soup. However, for dinner, we thought a won ton soup would be good. WORST decision ever. It was the grossest thing I've had. The won tons tasted like detergent to me and was super unedible. I cannot survive on soup but to avoid altitude sickness and to be light when I went to Machu Picchu, we sucked it up. 

Other than our bad luck with the rain and food, Cusco was nice. Much cleaner than Lima and we felt safer. However, when you get out of the city center, it is dirty. Dogs and trash line the streets. Piles of garbage are in corners waiting for someone who will never come to pick up the trash. The city center was a bit Americanized and Europeanized as well. There were British pubs, a Starbucks, McDonalds and more pizza places we knew what to do with. Cusco also has its own school of art that you can see when walking around and peaking in on artists work and inside churches. In Cusco, we walked around a lot but didn't go intoo the churches too much. 

When we first arrived we were lucky and it wasn't raining but we jinxed ourselves and we got caught in the rain going to the market to buy some souvenirs to take back home. Kiah and I agreed that if we were both there with a romantic interest, the moment would have been much more romantic than being with each other. We bought some good things but are going to buy the rest in Lima. Words of advice: if you are going to buy a lot of stuff, find the one shop that has all of your needs because if you buy lots of stuff, they'll knock down the price some. I recommend Cusco for a couple of days but not much longer than that.