On Wednesday, the driver picked us up in Lima around 7:30am and drove us to the airport. I snapped some pics of the city in the daylight:
Random rickshaw car:
Masses of people waiting at the bus stop:
Yup, that's a giant Coca Cola 6-pack. Coke is big in Latin America, no Pepsi in sight.
Here's the airport:
Here's Cusco from the plane:
It's a pretty big city surrounded by mountains, some even had snow on them. Then we landed and our driver had a sign with Aaron's name this time:
The driver and our Cucso welcoming party/fantastic city guide, Winnie, pointed out the sights as we drove to the hotel (of course, I don't remember any of the names of anything):
Very commanding statue and some sort of mural.
This is an old church and the bottom layer of brown rock was placed by the Incans in ancient times (I know, really specific, Sharmeela), the middle layer of black rock was placed by another ancient group at another ancient time (wow, it's getting worse) and the rest was made more recently, but it's still old (and we've officially learned nothing, sorry).
This was like a City Hall, of sorts:
This was Ave. Principal, a main road:
Really cool cathedral in Plaza de Armas (one of the main plazas in Cucso and a couple blocks from our hotel):
The local university (on the other side of the square):
Our hotel:
Winnie had us partake in a traditional tea called mate de coca (if you're a pansy ass, you can add sugar):
It tasted like a mild green tea and it was delish! We found it in a store later:
Here's our room (OMG privacy and our own bathroom, say what??!):
Map of our journey to Machu Picchu. The red line is the Inca Trail (for the hikers) and the dotted line is our train/bus combo:
Then we napped for a few hours because we got no sleep the night before. If Lima had a soundtrack, it would be horns honking LOUDLY and CONSTANTLY. It was obnoxious! Horns honk in Central/South America to say "hi," "bye," "need a ride," "get outta my way," "hurry up," and a myriad of other messages no one else understands. All it translates to is loud noises all day and night. Therefore, we couldn't sleep and needed a nap. We woke up refreshed and ready to hit the town, Cusco style! This is our street:
We walked down and ate at a restaurant recommended by Winnie:
Yup, that's the cuy (guinea pig).
We first ordered soup. Winnie said quinoa soup is authentic, so I got that:
Super yum! Aaron got the cream of potato:
Even better! Then we ordered something very authentic in Cusco, alpaca. Yes, controversial, but they eat it regularly and they're not endangered (I looked it up!):
It tasted a lot like pork, honestly. Very yummy. It came with mixed veggies, including this giant corn and giant lima bean things:
Not yummy, very starchy and gross. Then we walked and took pictures of the sights at night:
The glowing cross at the top of that picture is actually a replica of Christ The Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. Very cool, but hard to capture.
The square is called Plaza de Armas.
We shopped a little, I got my shot glasses:
We saw some amazing shirts, they know they're known for their alpaca and cuy and they really run with it:
Then we bar-hopped. We went to an Irish Pub called Paddy's Pub (Sunny, anyone?):
We got a couple posters, of course! Then we went to another called Norton's Pub:
We played pool awhile, met an awesome couple that's been traveling around South America for 7 months so far and they gave us great tips. Thanks Chris and Lexi! Then we had to give up the table, so we played darts, which is so boring:
Then we ordered a midnight snack of beans and fries, insanely good:
Then I called it a night, while Aaron stayed out awhile longer. Keep checking back for Part III, where we spend this afternoon (Thursday) exploring the city even more!
