CUSCO (Magic City), Peru - 7th, 8th & 9th September

7th September, Thursday - Got into Cusco rather early, at around 5:30am. The bus stop we got into certainly did not prepare us for the city. This stop was more like a dreary garage yard with a high gate & fence all around. And it was so, so cold. Took a taxi to a hotel called Los Ninos (reccomended by Anniex), which helps street kids, but It was completely booked. To avoid any issues with the taxi driver, who would be happy enough just to drive us around, we asked him to take us to the narrow streets of the San Blas area where we knew of a few other hotels. It was during this drive to San Blas, around the plaza, that the true majesty of this beautiful city hit us. It was a grand but quaint old city, with narrow lanes, beautiful buildings, red tiled roofs, and a wonderful atmosphere of 1000's of years of history. The place at that time of the morning had almost no people around so the concentration of tourists did not interfere with our impression of the place.......but no amount of tourists could ever overshadow or diminish this historical city.





We found the Amaru Hostal located along a steep narrow (barely a car wide) cobbled street. It was fully booked but the young staff, were so personal and considerate, that they kept trying other options, and finally said we could have a room for just one night. We liked the hostal so decided we would take the chance and see what they could do for us for the next 2 nights.
The morning was still very cold - we went downhill for breakfast till our room would be free. We went to "Jack's" - a very smooth, trendy cafe run by an Australian lady from Sydney (the cafe named after her son- Jack) ; she had been in Cusco for 5 years. The cafe served a great breakfast with brilliant coffee and very well presented too....she was very pleasant that her staff think that all Australians are great. Dogs seemed most welcome in this restaurant, just like in all of South America - dogs seem to be everywhere, in houses, on the streets, in remote villages up in the Andes. They are all so well socialised, and well fed and do not seem to be intimidated.

When we got back to the room we were given, in our opinion one of the best rooms - a large attic room with windows all around; we could see the old cathedral and the city rising uphill beyond. Cusco was a sort of bowl shaped city with the Plaza right at the bottom and San Blas (our hotel area) on the north-eastern slope of the bowl. After settling in, we went out to the town....we had a few things to organise - like our trip to Machu Pichu, buy stuff for Letay's birthday the next day, etc. Walked down to the main plaza, which was just a few minutes downhill, from where we stayed - a huge Plaza with three churches around it.The short walk there was past the wall that was once part of the Inca Roca's Palace wall and was now the base of the Religious Arte Museum. An absolutely brilliant wall with every stone well interlocked; one stone of 12 sides, interlocked perfectly on every one of these sides. This wall would become a routine sight in our multiple walks to and from the Plaza & hotel, but it never became less inspiring or less impressive. None of these Inca walls fell during the many earthquakes that shook Cusco, most of the Spanish buildings did.

We can imagine the feeling of wonder Francisco Pizarro and his men had when they first saw this Inca capital city in November 1533 (or perthaps they were just so banal that all they could think of was getting a good drink somewhere). The city's beauty surpassed anything they had seen in the new world and the stonework (earthquake proof) was better than any in Spain. The city was full of precious metal and jewels (used only in a religious context), most of all in the Koricancha (the temple of the sun), where walls were covered in gold, and even a complete garden was made of gold, silver and precious stones from llama's and shepards, right down to snails and butterflies. Nothing of this survived the arrival of the Spanish. The city was stripped of all this. The actual city was divided among the 88 Spanish soldiers who chose to remain as settlers.

We got information we needed all at one place, at I-Peru - a very well run office with great brouchures and precise infomation. We had the seemingly very expensive train tickets (and we were travelling the cheap backpacker class) to Machu Picchu done by early afternoon. On the walk to the station down the main Avenida Sol, we bought Letay some books discretely while she was around and some Inca-Cola T.shirts.

We passed by the impressive walls of the Koricancha, on which the Spanish had built a convent and a chapel. It was certainly hard to imagine all these walls covered in gold. Also had our bus trip to Puno (our next destination after Cusco/Machu Picchu) organised and we were free to enjoy Cusco's charm for the next 3 days. Sat around at the Artisan's market at the end of the Avenida Sol and just watched and socialised with sellers, school children, families.........and dogs.

Rossini went out later that afternoon to get a cake for Letay for the next day. The girls at the hotel suggested that he look for the cake and balloons on a certain street. It certainly was THE street - it was quite common in South America to find one street selling only one kind of ware. Streets full of only opticians, or only hardware, or just hairdressers one after the next. The street Rossini went to was the "party street" - shops selling everything needed for childrens parties- balloons, confetti, costumes, plates, paper cups, pinatas - with designs from classy to the really gitchy Disney & Barbie. Rossini managed to get balloons, gitchy Barbie plates (Letay's favourite) and a great chocolate cake. The staff at the hotel were excited about the surprise and hid the cake in the kitchen to be brought out at breakfast as a surprise for Letay.

Cusco is at 3326mts and we were now quite used to the altitude and felt very comfortable with no problems - although Letay and Rossini still had permanent colds and coughs from Arequipa. In the room, once the sun set, we could see the twinkling city lights on the hill all around - it was all so beautiful. When we went down to the plaza in the evening, the place had such a super atmosphere. We just walked around to the other smaller plazas a bit away hoping to find a small local place to eat. The streets were busy and the cathedral on the smaller square looked fabulous against the moonlight. We were not so lucky finding a suitable restaurant so we went to an Italian tratorria and had great pasta and lasagne. At the restaurant we met the Australian couple again - Simon and Emma, who were off on the Inca trail the next day. Two beautiful ladies were sitting beside us, on the next table. When one of them noticed Letay, she made quick hand signals to the other that sort of said "quick !! take a look at this ". They were both very amused with Letay and her ways. They were from Lima, and also on holiday. Walked back and it was certainly cold. Letay went to bed very excited that it was her birthday the next day.

8th September, Friday - The night before we had wrapped some presents and blown balloons and scattered them all around the room. When Letay woke up she was very excited and thrilled with the small presents. Rossini went ahead to the restaurant, and got the cake ready, with candles and balloons around the seats. Emma & Paul from the UK (we met at the Colca Canyon) were in the restaurant and it happened to be Emma's birthday too.

We sang to Letay, and after the inital embarrasment of getting all the attention, basked in the fact that it was her birthday and didn't eat any breakfast, just cake. Everyone who was around in the restaurant, and the staff all got cake too. Letay was allowed to have any fizzy drink she wanted today.

The very helpful staff at the hotel moved us to another room which was larger and brighter, and more a part of the courtyard. They were quite exited to give this to us but apologised that it was only for one night and that they would have to move us the next day.

Went up to the San Blas Plaza. San Blas is the vibrant artists's quarter with narrow cobble stone roads. The plaza is small with the Chapel of San Blas. Around are few art workshops and galleries. When coming down back to the main Plaza, we passed "the Inca Wall" and Letay wanted her photo taken with the Inka king. (this very good looking Peruvian who dressed up everyday as an Inka and stood besides this wall). Passed a church where there was live music. We went in and listened to the very Andean style church music (with harp and high nasal singing) which had a great sound being in Cusco.

Letay wanted her 1st fizzy drink so we went to the balcony of the Cappucino Cafe to watch the Plaza below and to satisfy Letay's desire. We decided to visit the few significant churches around today; we started with La Compania, built over the foundations of the great Inca palace of Huayna Capac.

Walking down Loreto street, a narrow alley with inca walls on either side; some of the best and oldest Inca walls in Cusco. The wall belonged to the "Acllahuasi" or the house of the chosen women (for the Inca rulers). While walking back on the parallel road we heard someone singing beautifully - the voice coming from a cafe balcony somewhere upstairs. It turned out to be a very local lunchtime restaurant, full of locals only and we had 3 course lunch (with trout), including a drink there for $ 1.00 each - (how can do they do that ??).

After lunch we saw the main Cathedral on the Plaza - which is really three churches together; La Cathedral (1559), taking 100 years to build, El Truinfo (1536), the oldest in Cusco and Jesus Maria (1733). We spent more than an hour in here. The cathedral is more like an Art Gallery with some of the most beautiful period paintings and carvings we've seen - including the oldest painting in Peru depicting the 1650 earthquake(No Photographs allowed at all). One of the little chapels contained the crucfied "Christ of the Earthquakes" - a 26 kilo solid gold cross encrusted with jewels. Strangely christ was depicted black on this cross, which one guide book said was due to candle soot of 400years but to us it looked more like better marketing Christ to the Indians as the cross showed no sign of soot. With earthquakes so common here, all hotels, restaurants and public places had a little safety sign indicating the safest place to stand under during an earthquake. On the way out of the Cathedral, Letay had a nasty fall on the time-polished floor of the exit. She got a bit of fuss from people around - she didn't want to see the nurse who was always on the premises in the cathedral. Later Letay found it hilarious that she managed not to spill any of her fizzy drink in that very dramatic fall.

Later that afternoon we visited the residence of the "Marquis of Buenavista", built right over the Inca Roca's palace (the one with the brilliant interlocking stoned wall) - this was later the Archbishop's place and is now a museum of religious paintings. A beautiful residence indeed with paintings depicting various Spanish - Inca interaction, in a religious context.

When we went out in the evening we could hear the band music at a distance; we followed the sounds and soon discovered that there was a very lively and colourful parade leaving one of the smaller churches. Got awfully excited as we could see big bands and peolple; men, women, young and old, children all dressed in beautiful bright clothes.


We walked along and watched several groups bands and people dancing by. The parade was very lively and vibrant, with some very exotic costumns, almost like a carnival and a real experience to watch.



Women wear super short layered skirts, which are in real contrast to the everyday wear. Met Bruce, Tim and Karen (from the US) on the streets.

We decided to have dinner in San Blas. Had trouble choosing a restaurant but as Letay wanted crepes we agreed to eat crepes tonight. The staff of the restaurant were celebrating the chef's birthday in the kitchen, and when they found out that it was Letay's birthday, they brought a desert crepe with a candle in it and we all sang "Happy birthday" again.

After dinner we went to the talked about cafe - The Muse and wished we'd had dinner there. It was a very small, cosy place, with many brightly coloured nooks and corners, and with a local group performing.We had Pisco sours and coffee and stayed there till late. Letay fell asleep on the comfortable sofa and was not disturbed at all by the singing. The main singer (the man wearing the cap), with such a soulful voice was Khalil from Chile who lived in Cusco married to a Peruvain. He had travelled all around the world and had even been to University in Australia. He was very friendly and spent a lot of time chatting with us......later he sang less and talked to us more. The downside to this was that an American who had lived in Cusco for 10 years (but had never been to Machu Picchu), sang pop ballads......after Khalil's very passionate Latin music, this just did not sound good at all, in such a cosy place.

Said very warm goodbye's to Khalil ...& Rossini carried a sleeping Letay (downhill) back to the hotel.




9th September, Saturday - We had to once again move rooms, but this time to the other Amaru hostel which is in the upper San Blas area. The hotel staff were again very helpful and moved all our bags for us, including Letay's balloons; we just had to move ourselves.

We did not want to do very much today - Letay was not very well and we thought we would take it easy since we had the trip to Machu Picchu early the next morning. We just visited the Inca museum - thought it would be very good but we were disappointed - it's in a beautiful building though. Letay by now was just not feeling too well. It's quite amazing how little she complains when she's not well and yet for simple everyday things (like the colour of her socks or T.shirt) she can whine all day. We sat at the balcony of a bar/restaurant - Norton Rats, overlooking the plaza and had burgers, burritos and beer. The place has a Biker Pub feel to it, with lots of motorcycle memorabilia but it has a great balcony over the plaza and the Peruvian lads that work there are very pleasant and charming. Met Bruce and Co. again; said hello and goodbye as they were nearly on their way back home.






Spent some time back in the hotel in the afternoon. Rossini finished reading the second of the Harry Potter books (Chamber of Secrets) to Letay. The final duel with the snake was quite gripping and Letay wanted it read again to her. Letay wanted to eat Indian food at the one and only one in Cusco - Maikhana Namaskar, which was said to be good. So that's where we went for dinner; it was in San Blas so just a few steps away. Run by a very enthusiastic couple, Indian of course !! Good food & hot chapatis, though a little expensive, served with a lot on Indianess in the atmosphere and the hospitality. It seemed wierd to meet such authentic Indians (the lady was out of India for only the past 8 months) in the heart of Peru in Cusco. Letay enjoyed her meal but did not stay awake and Rossini had to carry her back once again. We were back in the hotel real early, by 8.30pm and in bed not too long after that. Had to be up at 4:30am the next morning, taking only one backpack, to get the train for Machu Picchu.