Peru: Day in Cusco

The next morning in Cusco we tried to sleep in. No luck - we were wide awake at 7:30. Too many early mornings on the Trail!

This was our room - see what I meant by tree house?

We had this day to ourselves to explore Cusco. (No Percy until the next day.) We started off at Qorikancha. It's an interesting mix of Inca, colonial and modern styles. The Spanish built their church on top of one of the most sacred Inca temples, of course.

Very big, very intricately carved doors.

Beautifully painted ceiling.

See what I mean by a mix of styles? Short Incan walls, colonial pillars, modern steel and windows.

The building itself used to be completely coated in gold plating. Guess who stole it? First three guesses don't count. Three of the original walls still stand, including the black one in this photo.

The museum was small, dark and dinky, but we had heard that before we went. (It was included in our tourist ticket.) There were morphed skulls, though.

Later we decided to go check out the Cusco local market. Many sights along the way. This guy was selling cheese.

We passed multiple shops selling cake by the slice and eventually broke down and bought one. It was delicious! And all for less than $1!

We were overwhelmed when we reached the market. It was huge! Whatever you wanted or needed, it was there. Meat? Got it. Cheese? Got it. Bread? That's there too. Vegetables, fruit, clothes, gifts.... it's all there.

The market also has many small counter-service restaurants. The food is incredibly cheap. They also have juice counters with the owners shouting "Sin agua!" at us. (No water!)

Get your giant bread!

Buy your dog food straight from the bag!

Cow head, anyone?

We eventually pulled ourselves away from the awesomeness of the market and headed through the city in search of a particular lunch spot.

Once we reached the neighborhood we were looking for, we started seeing snakes carved into the stones. Snakes represent the underworld.

Juanito's was our destination. We had read about their superb sandwiches, something which is hard to find in Peru. It was well worth the uphill walk! You choose your sandwich, then pick as many sauces as you'd like!

A had lechon (suckling pig).

I had pork chicharron. Yes, those are sweet potatoes on my sandwich. Both were delicious.

An interesting street find. Anything about this motorcycle strike you as potentially dangerous? 

Next we went to the best museum we had seen so far: Museo Inka. It has the most complete collection of pre-Incan and Incan artifacts. The museum had most of the finds from the Sacred Valley sites we had seen already.

Parts of the museum used to be a Spanish mansion. Some of the ceilings were beautifully painted.

This is a quipu - essentially a sort of abacus the Inca and other cultures used to keep track of the number of goods in storage.

Researchers believe these were used as levels. They would be filled with water. If the water started to spill out one side, they knew that side was too short.

The Inca carried these giant urns on their backs tied with rope. They are about 5 feet tall. They would be filled with chicha or other goods.

They had the turquoise figurines which were found at Pikillacta! Sorry for the blurry photo, but I wasn't even supposed to take it. I couldn't help it!

We had dinner at this trippy, kooky place. Stuffed animals everywhere and the servers wore crazy hats. Since we weren't very hungry, we just nibbled and played card games.

Coming Up: All the salt in South America, a really amazing crop growing site, and chicha!