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The mountain pit stop was in the type of town where the children greet strangers. Amidst "hola"s and giggles, we found a nice hotel for the night and set to finding some dinner. While I had a delicious Soupa Criollia (Creole Soup), Derek had a disappointing french fry stir fry.... Yeah a little weird... After dinner, we found a friendly old gentleman selling homemade cheese on a little wooden table. I think we were his only clients that evening. The cheese totally cheered up Derek. He couldn't help nibbling the side. A little girl on the adjacent corner sold us a half dozen rolls that had a hidden pocket like pita bread for about 2 Soles (less than a dollar). In the morning, we found a tomato at another store on the street and feasted on delicious, simple sandwiches.
Our stop separated the arid area of the mountains from the rainclouds almost perfectly. Day two of riding from the coast to Cusco was wet! The road wiggled and squiggled around rivers and up and down mountains so much so that Derek was compelled to photograph the route on the GPS. In the high areas, the wet roads turned to clouds before our eyes, as if we were riding through a fog machine in a cliché horror flick.
We reached several portions of road that had been washed-out by heavy rains and swollen rivers. Rather than building a bridge or a tunnel to allow rivers to pass by the road, often a dip was built into the highway to allow the water to flow over it. Though this was sometimes a fun bit of splashing, it was occasionally a very slippery, muddy, river crossing. By the time we saw the outskirts of Cusco, our bikes and ourselves were pretty muddy.
As we pulled into Cusco, it was raining fairly hard. Cobblestones are beautiful until they are covered with wet mud! The city was the scariest bit of driving we had done all day. Luckily some other motorists had turned us on to a hostel with parking and we didn't need to search around. On our last turn, a rainbow peeked between the buildings. Rainbows are sacred to the Inca people and a Rainbow flag is the official symbol of Cusco. No doubt, this is a good omen.
Our hostel, the Casa Grande Lodge, was a nice spot. Though over our normal budget at about US$30 per night, the room was nice, huge, had about 50lbs of wool blankets on the bed (which was good because nobody has heat) and breakfast was included. After settling in, we booked our all-inclusive trip to Machu Pichu. It was really expensive, but important to both of us (more on Machu pichu in next blog). Then we ventured out to explore the city. We both agreed that Cusco is both beautiful and pleasant. The city is layered with history. Incan walls support Spanish colonial structures which occasionally hold a Starbucks. (Yeah, we had Starbucks... and it was nice! Have I mentioned that in Peru they serve coffee as a glass of hot water with a little vase of cold espresso/thick coffee to add to it?)
I've been reading a history book about the fall of the Incans that I found at a hostel book exchange. It's a great background for visiting the city where it all went down! For those of you who don't know, here's a little history:
The Incan Empire was only about a hundred years old when the Spanish stumbled upon its shore. Because the empire was engaged in a civil war in which two brothers were battling for the inherited right to be king, the Spaniards were able to ally themselves with one side and fight the other. Then, of course, they slowly turned on the side with which they had feigned allies. Cusco, originally the Incan capital, then became under Spanish control. The Incans rose up in a final great resistance, burning Cusco to the ground before it finally and permanently in the hands on the Spanish.
Today, the city is a mix of modernity, indigenous pride, and tourists. Lots of tourists. The up side of lots of tourism is that there are lots of tasty places to eat. The bad part is that they are all expensive (comparatively). We had a Guinness in Paddy's, the world's highest altitude (Irish-owned) Irish Pub. We also had delicious English breakfasts at Jack's (where our friends AT & Grace ate on their journey a few years ago). And last but not least, we sampled "cuy" (pronounced koo-ey) the local specialty. That's "guinea pig" in English. Ok, ok, Derek ordered it,I only tried a little bite. Not my thing. But it was definitely very interesting.
Next stop is one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World": Machu Pichu!