from Lima to Cusco

August 29th, 2006 (by Andrew)

We woke up early in the AM and grabbed a cab to the airport. 15 Soles (or about US $4.50) Cabs here are generally very cheap when you remember to haggle. . . anyway, the flight from Lima to Cusco (or Cuzco) (or Cusqo) (or Qusqo) (or Qosqo) was absolutely gorgeous. There is a dense fog bank that permeates inland from the coast of Peru about 15 miles (think Seattle) for 9 months of the year. This is why Lima is such a foggy-smoggy place most of the time. Anyway, this fog bank makes for pretty incredible scenery once you climb up out of it in an airplane and start banking inland towards the mountains, some of which are snow-capped peaks. We flew through them (actually above them, but many of them were so big it felt as though we were down in among them). After some pretty tricky banking and swooping into an amazing mountain valley the plane came to rest safely on the tarmac in Cusco.

Leigh and I exited the plane, and were promptly winded from the climb up the exit ramp. Cusco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cusco is at the insane altitude of over 11,000 feet, and you feel it IMMEDIATELY! At least when you have been living in Rhode Island for the last 6 years. There are a variety of different remedies that are suggested to deal with the altitude. Altitude sickness is called soroche and you can walk into just about any little store and buy pills called soroche which claim to treat it. In fact there are incredible looking ads for the pills showing someone puking while his (smarter because they took soroche pills) friends look on with a combination of amusement and disgust. If you do choose to take the pills. . . you just can´t be entirely sure what is in them. . . Mate de Coca http://static.flickr.com/25/48920585_17e5aaa6a1_m.jpg or tea made with Coca leaves is ubiquitously served and drunk everywhere. As you wander around you see many "coca shops" and in most restaurants you can order mate de coca with whole leaves. http://i6.ebayimg.com/01/i/06/bb/7a/b4_10.JPG In addition people wander the streets selling small bags of coca leaves. It seems that it is all a matter of dosage, I avoid all stimulants anyway (especially caffeine) so I wasn´t too excited to see what cocaine would do to me. We haven´t seen anyone walk up to us and try to sell refined cocaine, but then that only happens in certain neighborhoods in the US as well. . .

Anyway, we spent most of the day walking v...e...r...y s...l...o...w...l...y becuase any quick movements resulted in a racign heart, gasping for breath, and spinning/headrush sensations. (good times!) However, in order to avoid the altitude sickness, we have employed a variety of tactics - hydration, tylenol/ibuprofren, gatorade, and walking slowly. It took a few days, but has gradually proven effective. Running up stairs, even a few steps, is certainly not yet a possibility but we were able slowly and steadily make progress and have done some pretty ambitious day hikes.

ok. so we made it to Cusco and arrived at our "hostal" basically a good sized bed and breakfast. For 50 soles (about $15) we get a prvate room with double bed, private bath, and access to the kitchen. Its about a 4 minute walk to the center of Cusco, not a bad deal.

We settled in and decided to eat the last of the food that we had bought in Lima. A couple different sized and shaped bananas and a "grenadilla" which we had no idea how to eat and probably ate well before it was ripe. . . still delicious if a bit sour.

After a nap/head-swirling lie down on the bed, we drifted out into Cusco and found a restaurant where we grabbed a lunch and then wandered down to the Plaza de Armas (the center of the city) where Leigh napped in between the unending approaches by people trying to sell postcards, watercolors, coca leaves, shoeshines, etc. Quite by accident we wandered by the famous 12 sided stone (nearly 6 feet tall) and part of the foundation of a building, original Inca stonework that is pretty damn amazing. We then went into La Catedral where you can see inordinate quantities of gold and silver and carved wood. Crazy stuff.

Anyway, there I blow,
Andrew