Altitude is Attitude – we’ll dance till we drop and sleep when we’re dead in Cusco

From the moment we stepped off the plane, Andres had us moving in an exaggerated slow motion – watching the group file out in front of me I felt like I was watching one of those the super slo-mo replays they have on the tennis (except without the tennis).  Going from sea level to 3400m is not something to be taken too lightly though, and Andres knew better than anyone that prevention was better than any cure for altitude sickness.  Altitude is attitude was our new mantra.  After we’d been allocated our rooms (Presidential suite again for Kel and I of course), the first port of call was lunch.  It was just gone 3pm and I was starvin Marvin.  Unfortunately? Cusco is a ridiculously beautiful city, so our 3 block walk to the lunch place (in slow mo as it was) took even longer with people pausing for photos.

Cool alleys on the way to lunch

After a very quick “this is the plaza” speech, it was time to file up into Greens -the organic restaurant where Andres promised we’d find super delicious salads and juices.  I had a bit of saladaphobia (to be fair it was only 2 days since the Vomizon adventure), but Andres assured us it was safe as houses so I ordered the chicken one and it was absolutely divine.  The best salad I’ve eaten in over 4 months that’s for sure!  Kel and I teamed it up with some shared starters of fried cheese topped with chili mango dressing and asparagus wrapped in prosciutto… Scumdiddilyumptious! Just documenting the memory of this almost has me salivating on the keyboard.

This is (part of) the Plaza

After lunch, our next mission was to obtain some more soles in small denominations.  This involved getting dollars out of the ATM and then managing to find a money changer who had something other than 50s and 100s on offer.  No small order on a Sunday evening!! I was certainly glad I could speak Spanish – and so were Kel, Linda and Peter who came along for the adventure.  It must have almost been an hour later by the time all 4 of us had managed to obtain sufficient amounts of the small stuff.  Just in time to mosey on back to the hotel ahead of our Inca Trail briefing and duffle bag issuance.

One of the churches in the Plaza (we were more interested in the Cambio though)

Huddled around on couches, our Inca guide Angel gave us a bit of a rundown of what to expect over the next 5 days, and then we spent the majority of the rest of the evening doing the re-pack (an overnight bag for Sacred Valley and then our Inca bags) all the while uttering several profanities about how impossible the task of packing only 3kgs of gear for the trail was going to be.  Whilst we were perfectly content to wear the same trek clothes each day, it was the weight of the required fleeces and Uggs for the potential sub-zero temperatures that had us worried.  Finally satisfied with our pack, we grabbed a quick bite of dinner in the hotel restaurant before calling it a night around midnight.  First impressions of Cusco were great and we were looking forward to returning here for a couple of nights at the end of the week.

When we did return to Cusco, we were of course fresh as daisies after completing the Inca Trail – having been up since 3am (and also having completed the 46kms without really sleeping properly at all over the 3 nights on the ground), when we got into town about 7:30, the recommended course of action sounded like a smart one.  The order of operations was as follows: Empty and return duffle bag; acquire delicious sausage for dinner; shower; set alarm; have nap; get up and get ready; meet in foyer at 10pm for a night on the town – it was a Friday after all!  We started our night out at Nortons – a nice pub which Cusco expert Linda was able to lead the way to.   Shots of pisco were prescribed for all who were feeling a bit under the weather – and we chased these with large beers to quench the thirst.   The chat was lively and we all had a great time learning a bit more about the rest of our group.  The pisco truth serum brought out all sorts of fun facts…

Next stop for those with the stamina was Mythology – it was time to get our dance on and we were also hoping for a bit of a rendezvous with some of the other sexy llamas from the Inca trail.   Unfortunately the rendezvous never occurred (apparently we should’ve got there before 1am if we wanted this to happen), but the dancing certainly did!  The music was awesome and we carved up the dance-floor like it was going out of fashion.  No sign of tight muscles or exhausted trekkers here.  After a couple of hours of fun, we moved to the next venue – the male to female ratio was about 20:1, but the 4 of us girls needn’t be intimidated – for Andres had turned into Kevin Costner from The Bodyguard.  We lasted about 30minutes but it was pretty hot and stuffy and Kel hit a wall and sensibly hauled our ar$es out of there. To be fair it was nearly 4am.  Before we could go home for the night though, one last stop was needed – Andres was still a bit thirsty and needed a roadie for the walk home.  As you do.

The following day, not surprisingly, we decided to keep a bit low key.  After a nice lie in, we booked in for a midday massage and then set off for a post office adventure.   My bag was officially bursting at the seams so it was time to send some stuff home.  I didn’t know how exactly the process was going to work, but when I walked in with a confused gringo look on my face and my sack slung over my back, a friendly man with some boxes gestured for me to come over, and before I knew it, it was all beautifully packed with bubble-wrap and paper and a box cut down to size – not a bad service for $1!   It was all going swimmingly, at least until I turned around and saw what the queue had now ballooned into.    Talk about a Far Q.  We waited and waited and waited whilst the one lady on staff took an eternity with each of the seemingly difficult customers ahead of us.   Then it was my turn!  I stepped up to the plate, she took my box, put it on the scales and the verdict came in – not a bad price all things considered, only issue was it was 5 soles more than the combined cash total that Kel and I had on us – and incredibly, it seemed this was a post office who would not accept credit cards.  What the?!  I realised with despair that I was going to have to find an ATM and come back and queue again – suddenly our relaxed paced morning was developing a bit of time pressure – we had an important massage booking to keep!

Thankfully we did manage to make it to our massage just in time, and what a sensational activity that proved to be.  Can’t remember what we paid, but it was worth every penny as the ladies worked their magic for an hour on our overworked muscles.  “Inca Trail?” she asked with a knowing giggle when she got to my quads.  Yep – she certainly had her work cut out for her there.

Feeling rejuvenated, we had just enough time for Kel to do a spot of silver shopping before catching up with a few of the gang for a farewell lunch for Honey and Moon – sadly they weren’t going to be joining us in Puno as they had a flight back to Canada that evening.  Andres kindly put the choice of lunch venue in their court – well, that was until Moon indicated he didn’t really like Sushi – as it seems we were only ever going to end up at the Japanese place anyway because Andres had a craving for Sushi.  Lunch karma came back to bite though when the waitress proceeded to explain that they pretty much weren’t serving any sushi that day.  We made some alternate selections, and after what felt like an eternity, we were served our sushi-less meals which we hungrily devoured before saying our goodbyes.

Beautiful Cusco

Next stop for Kel and I was the big market that everyone had been raving about.  We wandered about bewildered by the variety of items for sale – and the placement of said items within.  Cheese and Fish – together at last.  Llama heads anyone?  One row I couldn’t fault though was the chocolate one – mmmm chocolate.  This certainly was quite the market.  We were getting a bit tired though, so decided to head back in the direction of the hotel via the gift shop we’d been recommended and of course the ice-cream shop.  Once we’d acquired items at both these venues it was time for a power nap ahead of our 6:30 briefing.  Admittedly we might have napped/faffed about a little less had we known the briefing was intended to roll straight into our dinner outing.  Not sure how we’d managed to miss this fact, but we couldn’t possibly go out in our hotel attire of trackies and ugg boots!  All worked out in the end though, as we just met them there instead – and since we’d had the nap, were now in much better shape to have the stamina for another Cusco night out!

chocolate..

Not sure what these are for..

Strolling through the streets of Cusco

As we walked into Los Perros, we were greeted by a massive chalkboard headed “News from Australia today”…. Turns out this place had an Aussie ownership connection – the board was blank though so I guess it was a slow news day back home.   The menu had an intriguing variety of dishes and I enjoyed my Asian selection – more so than the Pisco sours which didn’t quite live up to the Lima standards.   Not to worry, we happily switched to other spirits – a few vodka sime and lodas with B52s to wash them down seemed to work a treat.  In another exciting turn of events our sexy llama friends also arrived to join the party! (No small coincidence really with the hardworking matchmakers toying behind the scenes)

Sexy llama reunion

Our expanded group of youngsters (from Australia no less) kept the bar staff busy, before we eventually moved on to Mythology again.  And again it didn’t disappoint – and neither did Kel, finding a dance partner who seemed to want to buy us drinks for the evening.  Don’t mind if I do.  It was probably around 3 when we started to fade again, and this time had to drag Kel outta there.  Tonight’s pre-home stop was at the Falafel King – best Falafel in all of Peru we were assured – and damn it tasted good – if only we didn’t then have to spend the entire next day being reminded of it!  A minor price to pay though for a great few days in an awesome city – blue skies, gorgeous buildings encased in a magnificent mountain backdrop, superb food and funtastic nightlife – hard not to be captured by its charm really.  In the words of Arnie, I reckon, “I’ll be back”

With the Falafel King!