Cuzco

Day 247 – Cuzco, Peru

I love when they say that the bus will arrive at 6am and it arrives at 5:30am. What are you supposed to do that early in the day?

I finally accepted the offer of a taxi driver -good thing I had some local currency!-, who touted his official status -guide books will tell you to take an official taxi, with the phone number on a placard above the car, and to refuse those that look like trustworthy.

So I arrived at my hostel at 6am, yeah! Fortunately for me it is open 24h, and there were three people at the reception -what were they doing here so early?!

So I stored my bag, they let me stay in the common room with a chimney and Wi-Fi for an hour, and checked me in… my bed was ready and everything! The bed is huge: extra-long, extra-wide, with shelves for my stuff and a very deep window ledge by my bed, it is amazing! I am so happy to stay here a week!

So I took a shower, gave my laundry to be washed (cheaper than in Bolivia, and ready in 5 hours), and got a good morning’s sleep.

Hunger finally drove me out, and I found -was guided to- a restaurant nearby -relatively expensive, salad, alpaca steak, chocolate cake and huge, fresh lemonade for 18€, tip included. Alpaca tastes closely like beef, so the experience was easy.

I walked a few step further to the Plaza de Armas, where a shoe-shiner took care of my shoes. He drew me in with the promise to get rid of the salt marks for one sol (26 cent), added some treatment to the plastic parts and glued close the tips that had come open in San Pedro de Atacama in the sand, I think, and that had let the water from the salt flats in. So of course, the final price was a lot higher! 25 soles (6,5 €). I had seen it coming but chose not to quibble too much -I am grateful for the glue job. And my shoes look really nice now.

It was in front on the Cathedral, see picture above. (I switched it later for one taken on a sunny day.)

The rain drove me back to the hostel.

I looked around for trips to Machu Picchu, and for now I’m not happy with the prices offered. I’ll have a look for going by myself.