Cuzco - as quaint as ever. 3 Sept 09
3rd Sept was a loooong day for us. We took off from Buenos Aires quite early at 8.45am but had 2 hours check in. The flight was 4h45 which is long enough by most people´s standards but at least it had decent entertainment, a choice of 46 movies on-demand on LAN and it did help pass time. But then we had a 3 hour wait in Lima for a 1h15 flight to Cuzco. This did drag... there were 2 earlier flights to Cuzco that we could have easily made, it was so frustrating. You can tell that Cuzco is the number one destination in Peru just by the number of flights that take off every day. It must have been at least one per hour from Lima alone.
Anyway, when we did land, our guide there was really sweet (and called Mily - which is like the cat I found, Millie, so there has to be something in the name! It was also the name of ´my´ocelot in Bolivia). The light was golden when we arrived at 4.30pm but by 5.10pm, it was already too low for decent shots.
I really love Cuzco, it is a very charming Inca city (of major significance as it was the centre of the Inca empire at once point) but the number of people trying to sell you stuff can get exceedingly tiring very quickly. If you stop for 5 seconds (to tie your shoe lace, say) you will have a queue of people wanting to sell you post cards, jewellery, paintings... most of them are very beautiful as there is a lot of talent out there, but I never know what I could do with all these ´things´. I am forever aware that we cannot take material things with us when we die and really make a point to accumulate as little as I can in this life so that it´ll be easy to clear my flat when I´m gone! :) I have never liked ´stuff´.... and though craft can be exquisite sometimes I personally never find anything quite as beautiful as God´s original work of art that inspired the human artists, be it a flower, a landscape, or a portrait. It´s me... picky as ever. Sorry.
If it wasn´t for all the people begging (and lots of dogs on the streets that we were worried about too) we could have enjoyed our strolls better... at night the whole square is lit up and it is very atmospheric. The lights from the little houses on the neighbouring hills look like stars all around the city centre. Great optical illusion.
Nathalie & I were staying at Casa Andina which was great location, right at the back of the main square so we had a view over it at night. For dinner we went to Greens, just off the main square and we really loved the ambiance. Very quaint, very ´organic´ feel and fantastic food. Even a simple sandwich was truly gourmet. We will most likely go back there again before we leave Peru. We were mightily impressed and will recommend the decor and food to anyone who comes to Cuzco.
Our room was cosy, nice hot showers, great bed, lovely soft sheets... we slept quite well. It wasn´t even half as cold as we expected at night so we didn´t put the heating on. The weather forecast had predicted 1C to 3C and it must have been at least 10C. We were pleasantly surprised!
We were fast asleep by 8.30pm. I guess that coming from Buenos Aires, it was +2H in our heads. Either that, or we are turning into grannies already ! We do love our beds, boy... when I think that some people start to get ready to go out at 8.30pm, it feels seriously odd.
We need to get lots of sleep anyway as the day after we had a 4.45am wake up call for our 6.10pm pick up to go to the train station. We had to pack an overnight bag as they have now changed all the rules for the trains to Machu Picchu and people are not allowed more than 5kgs of luggage for overnight stay. We had come prepared with ruck sacks but still had to decide what to bring and what to leave behind - which, for most girls, can be a 30 min affair at least.
After that, we made a quick dash to the top floor for an even greater view of the city at sunrise and enjoyed a simple but pleasant breakfast just the two of us... I just loved the light at 5.30am, it had a pink aura to it and the square was deserted so all the stone work looked really quaint, plenty of wooden carved balconies too. Nathalie wasn´t feeling too good, had a headache and felt sick and was starting to be affected by altitude sickness it seemed. The day before she was out of breath a lot faster than I was too. She didn´t get on with the coca leaves tea at all (she hates bitter stuff, even with a ton of sugar with it).
Thankfully, she improved a bit as the day went by and another great thing about Machu Picchu, is that it is quite a bit lower than Cuzco, so the altitude sickness is usually not as bad there. Phew.
3rd Sept was a loooong day for us. We took off from Buenos Aires quite early at 8.45am but had 2 hours check in. The flight was 4h45 which is long enough by most people´s standards but at least it had decent entertainment, a choice of 46 movies on-demand on LAN and it did help pass time. But then we had a 3 hour wait in Lima for a 1h15 flight to Cuzco. This did drag... there were 2 earlier flights to Cuzco that we could have easily made, it was so frustrating. You can tell that Cuzco is the number one destination in Peru just by the number of flights that take off every day. It must have been at least one per hour from Lima alone.
Anyway, when we did land, our guide there was really sweet (and called Mily - which is like the cat I found, Millie, so there has to be something in the name! It was also the name of ´my´ocelot in Bolivia). The light was golden when we arrived at 4.30pm but by 5.10pm, it was already too low for decent shots.
I really love Cuzco, it is a very charming Inca city (of major significance as it was the centre of the Inca empire at once point) but the number of people trying to sell you stuff can get exceedingly tiring very quickly. If you stop for 5 seconds (to tie your shoe lace, say) you will have a queue of people wanting to sell you post cards, jewellery, paintings... most of them are very beautiful as there is a lot of talent out there, but I never know what I could do with all these ´things´. I am forever aware that we cannot take material things with us when we die and really make a point to accumulate as little as I can in this life so that it´ll be easy to clear my flat when I´m gone! :) I have never liked ´stuff´.... and though craft can be exquisite sometimes I personally never find anything quite as beautiful as God´s original work of art that inspired the human artists, be it a flower, a landscape, or a portrait. It´s me... picky as ever. Sorry.
If it wasn´t for all the people begging (and lots of dogs on the streets that we were worried about too) we could have enjoyed our strolls better... at night the whole square is lit up and it is very atmospheric. The lights from the little houses on the neighbouring hills look like stars all around the city centre. Great optical illusion.
Nathalie & I were staying at Casa Andina which was great location, right at the back of the main square so we had a view over it at night. For dinner we went to Greens, just off the main square and we really loved the ambiance. Very quaint, very ´organic´ feel and fantastic food. Even a simple sandwich was truly gourmet. We will most likely go back there again before we leave Peru. We were mightily impressed and will recommend the decor and food to anyone who comes to Cuzco.
Our room was cosy, nice hot showers, great bed, lovely soft sheets... we slept quite well. It wasn´t even half as cold as we expected at night so we didn´t put the heating on. The weather forecast had predicted 1C to 3C and it must have been at least 10C. We were pleasantly surprised!
We were fast asleep by 8.30pm. I guess that coming from Buenos Aires, it was +2H in our heads. Either that, or we are turning into grannies already ! We do love our beds, boy... when I think that some people start to get ready to go out at 8.30pm, it feels seriously odd.
We need to get lots of sleep anyway as the day after we had a 4.45am wake up call for our 6.10pm pick up to go to the train station. We had to pack an overnight bag as they have now changed all the rules for the trains to Machu Picchu and people are not allowed more than 5kgs of luggage for overnight stay. We had come prepared with ruck sacks but still had to decide what to bring and what to leave behind - which, for most girls, can be a 30 min affair at least.
After that, we made a quick dash to the top floor for an even greater view of the city at sunrise and enjoyed a simple but pleasant breakfast just the two of us... I just loved the light at 5.30am, it had a pink aura to it and the square was deserted so all the stone work looked really quaint, plenty of wooden carved balconies too. Nathalie wasn´t feeling too good, had a headache and felt sick and was starting to be affected by altitude sickness it seemed. The day before she was out of breath a lot faster than I was too. She didn´t get on with the coca leaves tea at all (she hates bitter stuff, even with a ton of sugar with it).
Thankfully, she improved a bit as the day went by and another great thing about Machu Picchu, is that it is quite a bit lower than Cuzco, so the altitude sickness is usually not as bad there. Phew.
posted by Sylvie at 10:51 PM
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