Cusco 08/18/2006
Another very short night, we had to get up at 6:00 am to catch our 7:50 am flight to Cusco. Well, luckily our cab showed up on time, 6:30 am sharp. Check-in and security went smoothly and we were off to via Juliace to Cusco. After some challenges to find our hotel pick-up service (lots of folks trying to make a $ by claiming they were sent by the hotel. Finally we found the driver and were on our way to the hotel. The “Hostal Rumipunku“ is a very cute little hotel, with extremely helpful and friendly staff. After we settled in our room we went to “Jack’s“ for breakfast (“Jack’s“ is a typical American restaurant run by a Kiwi). It is a “safe“ restaurant meaning they prepare the food and clean the salads with bottled water, no experiments and taking a risk to get the runs before the Inca Trail.
We went by the office of our tour operator SAS and finished up all open items in preparation for our trip. After that we explored the city a little, walking through the little alleys and narrow cobble stone streets, climbing stairs ….. boy, suddenly being in over 10,000 feet of elevation is not that easy. I was huffing and puffing up the stairs. We went to the Cathedral on the Plaza de Armas, a magnificent church. I have never seen om many altars in one single church, each of them more beautiful than the other, all made from carved wood, some covered with gold or silver plates. On the other hand it was hard not to notice how much money must have been spent on this church, but how poor the people attending mass have been.
Next we went to SAS for our orientation session and then we went to dinner …. Yupp to “Jack’s“ again. We went back to the hotel quickly and packed our stuff since we had to get up extremely early … again …. to catch the bus at our meeting point. Unfortunately we had to get p at 4:45 am (ouch) to be ready.
Another very short night, we had to get up at 6:00 am to catch our 7:50 am flight to Cusco. Well, luckily our cab showed up on time, 6:30 am sharp. Check-in and security went smoothly and we were off to via Juliace to Cusco. After some challenges to find our hotel pick-up service (lots of folks trying to make a $ by claiming they were sent by the hotel. Finally we found the driver and were on our way to the hotel. The “Hostal Rumipunku“ is a very cute little hotel, with extremely helpful and friendly staff. After we settled in our room we went to “Jack’s“ for breakfast (“Jack’s“ is a typical American restaurant run by a Kiwi). It is a “safe“ restaurant meaning they prepare the food and clean the salads with bottled water, no experiments and taking a risk to get the runs before the Inca Trail.
We went by the office of our tour operator SAS and finished up all open items in preparation for our trip. After that we explored the city a little, walking through the little alleys and narrow cobble stone streets, climbing stairs ….. boy, suddenly being in over 10,000 feet of elevation is not that easy. I was huffing and puffing up the stairs. We went to the Cathedral on the Plaza de Armas, a magnificent church. I have never seen om many altars in one single church, each of them more beautiful than the other, all made from carved wood, some covered with gold or silver plates. On the other hand it was hard not to notice how much money must have been spent on this church, but how poor the people attending mass have been.
Next we went to SAS for our orientation session and then we went to dinner …. Yupp to “Jack’s“ again. We went back to the hotel quickly and packed our stuff since we had to get up extremely early … again …. to catch the bus at our meeting point. Unfortunately we had to get p at 4:45 am (ouch) to be ready.
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