Saturday, July 15, 2006

The Inka Capital

Cusco is an amazing town. The ancient capital of the Inca empire, it has beautiful ruins that were built over by the Spanish in the 1500s. When earthquakes shake the town, the Spanish architecture falls down and the Inca stuff stays.
I´m suffering a bit from the altitude, I hiked around a ruin yesterday for several hours and then drank a couple of Pisco sours last night, BIG MISTAKE. All of the warnings your guidebooks give you to take it easy when you first arrive at a place very high in the mountains (Cusco is at 11,000 feet) are absolutely right. I plan to wander around aimlessly today and eat some fruit.
Tomorrow I´m taking an unofficial tour up into the mountains--a woman approached me on the street to give me a tour of the Temple of the Moon yesterday and I took her up on the offer. Thank goodness I did because it was the best tour I´ve ever had in my life. So tomorrow we are taking the bus for an hour upwards to have lunch with some of her Quechua friends. I´m really excited to spend the afternoon with a traditional Andean family.
I had a really good meal at someone´s home in Lima but will blog about it next time as I am dizzy from computer fumes. I better be a picture of strapping mountain health when I come down out of this place. Thin air makes me feel dopey.

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