Cusco: Part III

We got a late start Thursday, but ended up doing a lot.  It was our free day in Cusco and Winnie (our tour guide from yesterday) gave us lots of great ideas for stuff to do and see.  First up, we wanted lunch, so we headed back to Paddy's Pub.  I snapped some pics around town on the way:

Even way out here in Cusco:

I took a super short video so you could experience Plaza de Armas in Cusco.

This lady ran up on me and shoved a baby alpaca in my face, so I took a picture:

Then I made Aaron do it too:

Then they wanted money (duh), and weren't happy when we gave them $1!  They wanted $5 and it was so awkward, but we straight up told them "No Way!"  The locals here are so pushy.  Everyone's selling something and they're all in your face trying to convince you to buy.  The easiest way to get through it is not to engage and just say, "no, gracias" and walk away.  People even stand outside restaurants and try to convince you to go in and eat.  It's madness, but we have no problem firmly saying no.  Most tourists try to be nice and look interested or try to let them down gently and that's a mistake!  They play on your sympathies!  Say "NO, gracias" and walk away.

We saw more funny shirts:

We walked to Paddy's Pub and ordered wontons stuffed with caramelized onions and wings:

Deep fried goodness!

Then we went to the giant cathedral in Plaza de Armas.

It cost about $20 for the two of us and once inside we weren't allowed to take any pictures.  What can I say, I'm a rule-breaker (okay, I'm really not, but I thought this rule was stupid).  I didn't get too many pictures because the docents were everywhere (Aaron got caught taking a video with his GoPro lol), but the cathedral was beautiful and my pictures don't do it justice.  There were many paintings (some still being restored):

There were also lots of shrines like this, many were much bigger:

I snapped this shrine from a sneaky spot:

This was a crypt...creepy:

Aaron was so in love with the ceiling:

Absolutely beautiful church, I'm just bummed I couldn't get more pictures.

Then we went to the Inca Museum to learn more about the indigenous people of Macchu Picchu.  I enjoy museums, but I'll admit some stuff is straight up boring.  We both enjoyed MOST of this museum, I would say we walked through the entire thing in about an hour (we skimmed).  Half the time, I was walking into the next room and realizing Aaron wasn't behind me because he was reading about the artifacts.  It was adorable.  Here are some pictures from the museum (again, we weren't allowed to take any pictures, so these might suck because I had to sneak them):

Artifacts:

This is alpaca fur and how they weave it into rugs, clothing,

This woman was weaving outside and I snuck a picture:

Very cool!  Overall, the museum was worth a gander (even if my pictures kinda sucked). 

Then we checked out an alpaca factory near our hotel:

 They had a room with an alpaca display:

Very cool!  The alpaca fur is so soft, I wanted to lay on it and roll around...naked.   I ended up buying a couple scarves and gloves and they honestly don't look all that crazy different from scarves from Target, but they're nice and soft.

We also hit up a silver factory, but it was much smaller and still kinda pricey.  It was hard to find because from the outside it didn't look like much, but once you enter you're in a courtyard and all the rooms have different silver and gold products.

We didn't end up getting anything.

Then we caught a cab and went up to see something called "Sexy Woman," so named because the word in Spanish sounds like the words sexy woman (actual name Saksaywaman).  It was recommended to us by the people we met at the bar the night before, Chris and Lexi.  They're ancient structures (circa 1100AD) built using large stones.  

Check out Preuvian caution tape:

 Way more ominous than American caution tape.  Here are a couple pictures of the view, as the cab took us up the mountain:

There are actually alpacas and llamas roaming the streets here.  Pretty sweet.

Here we are at "Sexy Woman."  We didn't get a tour guide, so we don't exactly know what we're looking at, we just wanted to take a look and get some pictures (I know, lame).

A short video of the beginning of "Sexy Woman."

We saw a path to walk up to the replica of Christ The Redeemer, so we walked up.  I huffed and puffed the whole time (hiking up stairs is rough for me in the first place, let alone in high altitude).

This is the path we trekked up.  Here's what we saw once we got there:

There were also amazing views of Cusco below:

That tiny dot up above is the moon.  It was super bright.  Then it was getting pretty dark, so we walked back to the beginning and caught our cab back to town.

The Christ is beautiful when they turn the lights on.

We ate at another restaurant recommended by our lovely tour guide, Winnie.  We wanted to try cuy (guinea pig) and she said this place makes it the best in town.

Cuy is at the bottom:

The place was very nice and all they food they brought other people looked delicious (everyone knows they look at other people's food at a restaurant).  The bathroom had hay on the ground (kinda unorthodox for a restaurant NOT in a barn):

They brought us out some homemade chips:

Yum!  Once we ordered the cuy, they set up our table with lots of napkins and a tub of hand sanitizer.  They take this shit seriously:

OMG here we go!

It was much bigger than I thought it would be, but they roasted it whole and it looked intimidating.  Luckily they said they just bring it out for pictures and then they take it in the back and cut it up for us.  They also informed us his name was Juanito (great, I really needed to know it's name...NOT!).  How can I eat Juanito, now that I've seen it's face and learned it's name?  Somehow I pushed through the feelings:

So, they cut it up and roasted or fried it again to crisp the skin.  They also included potatoes and this insanely good stuffed pepper.

The flavor of Juanito was like nothing I've ever had.  It wasn't really seasoned too much, so you could really get a taste of the meat and some bites actually tasted a little like black licorice.  So weird!  It's pretty indescribable.  Neither of us could decided whether we liked it, but we still ate it.  Aaron gave it a 7 out of 10 and I think I'd agree.  I don't think I'd order it again, but I could eat it if it was in front of me.  It's got kind of a weird spice flavor embedded in the meat, but it's mild and hard to pinpoint.  It's unique, that's for sure.  We officially ate a guinea pig and his name was Juanito.

The waiters at the restaurant wore these shirts:

Well two out of three ain't bad, I suppose.  Then we got these candies:

Also a uniquely strange flavor, kinda got some spice to it, but also sweet like maybe a fruit mixed in.  Turns out it's purple corn flavored.  It wasn't bad, but I'm not sure I'd eat it again.  I'm just trying all kinds of interesting stuff today!

Speaking of trying interesting stuff, we went back to the hotel and were drinking more coca tea (they offer it for free) and I got curious about the properties of coca tea, since we both really like the mild flavor and have been drinking it pretty regularly.  We've even seen bags of dried leaves at the store and thought they'd make nice gifts.  Turns out coca tea is exactly what it sounds like, the leaves of the coca plant, which when processed correctly makes cocaine.  The actual leaves don't contain a ton of cocaine, but if you use a teabag's worth in a cup of water, you're doing about 1/5 of a line of cocaine.  Since Aaron had about 6 cups in a row, it's safe to say he did a nice, thick line of cocaine (I did about half).  We also found out there's no proof it helps with altitude sickness (it didn't help mine at all) and it's illegal in America, unless it's "decocanized," meaning the part that makes cocaine is removed (which I'm pretty confident in saying they don't decocanize).  After just one cup of coca tea, you would test positive for cocaine in a drug test, so we're both screwed if that happens.  I'm not sure how many people know these facts (especially tourists), but coca tea is EVERYWHERE in Cusco.  It's offered for free in lots of places, offered at every restaurant and you can buy in in the store.  Kinda nutty, huh?  I think it goes without saying that we couldn't go to bed for AWHILE after our cups of tea.  Also safe to say we probably won't be bringing any home.  We wanted to live like locals, we just didn't know the locals did a bunch of cocaine.  Oh well, it's all in the name of travel, right??

Next up: Macchu Picchu!!!