Cuzco, Cusco, Peru
Friday, July 15, 2011
For our final day in Cusco, we decided to just wander the streets and BE there.
Sadly, we had to check out of Andenes al Cielo, the most fantastic hotel experience... I would absolutely recommend that place to anyone. 60 bucks a night... I felt like I Was staying at the Ritz!
The next hotel, Rumi Punku, was just up the street. We had looked around for a place for the final night but had no luck, so we splurged on a 100/night hotel almost across the street (5 minutes farther from the action). I immediately knew it was a waste of money. They put us in a room that was basically in the lobby and pushed twin beds together to make a king. There was a mini bar with expensive bottles of water and snacks. Oh well- one night there and we certainly wouldn't be spending much time in the room. By 9am we were out and about, wandering around. We had a couple more museums to cross off the list... so we bopped into those (can't recall the names) before shopping some more for goofy trinkets and alpaca sweaters. Spontaneous parading seemed to be occurring among the school kids because of the Virgen del Carmen festival (happening tomorrow)
After wandering for the morning, it was time.....
Mike had never tried Cuy (guinea pig) which I happily choked down while on a horseback ride in Ecuador a few months prior. It was his turn. Our Pisac driver, Isaac, told us about a place that was just across the street from our new hotel Rumi Punku. Quinta Eulalia is a local spot visited by families out to lunch, business people, and not many tourists. No English was spoken there, but I definitely knew I was getting Pollo and Mike was having Cuy!
He went for it - a whole guinea pig... not quartered .... head, eyes, teeth, whiskers. mmmmmmmmmmmmm rodent.
I think the most disappointing thing for mike was that there wasn't enough meat. I really didn't love Cuy, so I'm happy I didnt eat it again. I enjoyed taking photos of the frisbee shaped Cuy, but that was it.
The restaurant patio was really packed...great atmosphere. Two guys strummed on their guitars, we laughed and cringed at the guinea pig (poor guy) and enjoyed a Cusquena in the sunshine. What a great last lunch!
It's easy to lose days in Cusco - every building is interesting, every alley feels like a museum. I was happy to spend the final day here.
Of course we made our way to a bar overlooking the Plaza de Armas - how could we not? The people watching is spectacular...kids trying to sell postcards to tourists, guys playing guitars, little crowds of uniformed students. So we sipped a Pisco Sour and let some time pass..
San Blas definitely stole our hearts - so we wanted to spend our last night there, relaxing and enjoying the neighborhood, artists, hippies and locals.
Just above the Plaza de San Blas is a narrow street with bars and street artists- we stopped into one and had an outdoor drink ... 2 for 1 mojitos? yes please.
The temp in Cusco drops about 20 degrees once the sun sinks, so we finished our second drink inside the bar, where we talked for a long time with a couple from the Amazon - really nice people, explaining their lives here in Cusco and life in the Amazon. I wish I remembered what town they said they were from. Their spanish was beautiful... and by beautiful I mean slow.j
Quick trip back to the stupid hotel, shower, back out! It was COLD when we got out... we had had a little too much to drink and didn't care much about dinner, but we knew we had to eat....so we hoofed it up Hatunrumiyoc, the steep street that leads up to the plaza san blas, where we'd just come from an hour before.
One place on the left had spaghetti - perfect. So we had nachos and spaghetti on our last night. I took a picture of the condor origami which I got a huge kick out of.
After dinner we visited one bar in the plaza to listen to live music. I bought a winter hat from a street vendor because I was cold- Mike was amazed at my impulse buy. I had already purchased quite a few of these hats but they were back at the hotel - it was 2 bucks... I explained that we'd easily spend twice that on a beer in the US... it didn't seem so amazing after that. My head was warm.
We emerged from the bar to a celebration in the Plaza- probably for Virgen del Carmen... sparklers and fire crackers sprayed all over cars parked in the plaza...dancing, drumming, trumpets, celebration! What an atmosphere.
We soaked that in before heading to bed - our last night in Cusco was perfect.
Otavalo, Ecuador 
Buenos Aires, Capital Federal District, Argentina