Cusco

 Cusco, Peru

I arrived in Cusco at 6am on a Saturday morning.  It was cold, I was exhausted, and couldn’t check-in to my hostel until 1pm that afternoon.  So, I chilled in the TV room of my hostel, and ended up falling asleep in a pile full of pillows.  I woke up about an hour later to a lively, sunny atmosphere, full of young people talking, playing ping pong, and lounging in bean bags in the courtyard.  As it was only nine o’clock, I headed to my tour group’s office to pay for the rest of my trek, which was to start on Monday, and headed out to explore the city by foot, and most importantly, find some food.

First impressions:  totally full of tourists, great food, colonial architecture, lots of colors, and really nice people.   The colors are really attributed to the hundreds of different kinds of arts and crafts you can buy here.  You walk into the local market, and its overwhelming how much stuff there is to choose from.  Everything is made of wool or warm woven materials: blankets, scarves, hats, mittens, ponchos, bags, purses, socks, bracelets….and everything comes in all kinds of beautiful colors and patterns.  I’m pretty much obsessed.  I bought an awesome blanket (great for overnight bus rides), socks, hats, and earings.

I ended up eating at a restaurant called Jack’s café.  It was recommended to me by friend Meaghan, and totally lived up to its reputation.  Went there twice during my stay in Cusco.  I’ll let the food pictures speak for themselves, but in short, a great place with fresh, homemade soups, salads, sandwhiches, breakfasts, juices, smoothies and desserts.  The food reminded me of an organic, grassroots CA restaurant, and I’m pretty sure they made their own homemade bread, ‘nough said!

My hostel, Pariwana, was fun.  I think total, there were about 100 people staying in it.  I stayed in a 12-person dorm room.  Every bed had it’s own down comforter, and the beds were abnormally large.  The breakfast wasn’t that awesome (just bread and jam), but the hostel had its own bar, and was super resourceful and helpful when it came to doing treks or exploring Cusco.

Lunch at Jack's

Plaza de Armas

Market-meat section

???!!!-E.coli?

All kinds of different colored maiz being sold at the market

the main square of my hostel-Pariwana

Bar/Restaurant/Club at my hostel

Cathedral overlooking some Incan ruins in the middle of the city.  There were lots more ruins in the city itself, but all were protected with walls-so you couldn't just walk in.

Viva Peru!