The Daisy List: #1. Machu Picchu (Part 1)

The Daisy List

November 1st, 2008

Central Square

Chris drinking cocoa tea Well, given we were flying between mountain peaks on the way into Cusco Aeroporto, I could see they weren’t kidding when they said Cusco was at a high altitude. Being a Leo and also an Aussie, I thought altitude schmaltitude and wasn’t that worried about altitude sickness. Perhaps I should have taken heed (or Diamox at least!). Havin Our Cusco B&B - Casona les Pleiades g altitude sickness is like having a plastic bag wrapped tightly over your head while needing to vomit but not having the energy to get to the toilet and a pounding headache thrown in for good measure. Apart from that, it’s all fine. I’m fairly confident that the sangrias we had didn’t help matters. Thankfully, I was back to normal within 24 hours.

Cusco is a great little town. Much quieter (and nicer) than Lima, the taxi drivers don’t lean on their horns so much and you can actually see the sky because there’s much less smog. We stayed at an awesome B&B in the district of San Blas known for being artsy fartsy and spo Alpaca and local family rting some of the best Cusco restaurants. It’s a great spot, although to get to our B&B, we did need to negotiate a steep set of stairs which at that altitude felt like you’re summiting Everest. Apart from the fact that I have blond hair and Chris is carrying a backpack and a camera, our having to stop (on several occasions) to have a breather on the way up the stairs was a dead giveaway that we were tourists. I’m pretty sure even the alpacas thought we were useless gringos!

The streets are all cobbled and really narrow and when you’re not dodging humans or alpacas, you’re up to your armpits in taxis. You also have to make your way through the locals trying to sell you stuff, which goes something like this; “Hey lady, massage, massage?” “No, gracias.” “OK, maybe later lady.” “Si, maybe later (much, much later especially as it’s probably less of a massage and more of a $2 sexy time).” A street in Cusco

Chris picked up Spanish really well and was even putting together sentences. The most I was able to manage was to use English but with a Spanish accent that on occasions switched into Italian, French and probably Bulgarian for all I knew. Still, apart from being a laugh for the locals, we could generally sort out what we were after fairly easily (I was particularly thankful Chris knew the Spanish word for toilet paper when we were asking for more from one of the B&B staff members as I wasn’t particularly keen to demonstrate what I was talking about).

Next stop; The lost city of the Incas, Machu Picchu.

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