Monday, May 18th, we were done the Inca Trail and ready to just hang out for a bit. Made sense, especially because leaving the city to get to the coast meant at least 15 hours of bus riding. With that in mind, Matt got himself a week membership at Empire Gym, which entitled him to spin classes and boxing classes too. It was a good thing that we had decided not to rush out of Cuzco also because there was a transport strike for 48 hours (Tuesday and Wednesday) where large boulders were placed in the road to prevent entry or exit from the city via road. The airport was still in operation, which meant that Adele and Laura had to fork out some extra cash to make their departure flight from Lima on Thursday.
A beautiful city it is, which made us pretty stoked to spend at least an extra week there. While Matt spent plenty of time at the gym working out and enjoying some boxing lessons, Mitch opted for a much less healthy lifestyle for the week. I mostly hung out at the party hostel, occassionally venturing into the streets. It is unfortunate because the streets are not only flooded with tourists but also with people harrassing the tourists for their business, selling everything from paintings, to drugs to Inca massages and alpaca wool clothes. This made wandering the city a little less enjoyable then one would pressume from seeing pictures, but still an experience in its own.
We found a great restaurant called Jack´s Cafe. Apparently, so did all the other gringos because there was always a queue to get inside and it was worth the wait each of the 3 times. We also found a fabulous chicken place that had a free salad bar and dozens of rotisserie chickens on the go. One time we ordered a quarter chicken each, went to get some salad and returned to find our meal ready, fresh out of la brasa. It sure was swell.
The plaza by day...
The plaza by night.
More about the hostel: the mornings were a bit tricky, because the beds were so damn comfy and the morning air was pretty chilly that making that first leap from sheets to shower proved fairly difficult. Breakfast consisted of bread, jelly with tea or coffee. Fruit was extra cost and Matt and I brought our own peanut butter. During breakfast we would play pool in the vacant bar, often longer than we would like to admit, but it was all in good fun. The days were relaxing and great food was available all the time. The hostel was so great, it wasn´t even necessary to leave most of the time, but the city had plenty to offer. One morning after breakfast, we hiked to the northeast hill overlooking the city, where the Cristo Blanco statue was situated. A beautiful view and sunny day kept us gazing over the city for a little more than an hour. After that we paid a visit to Jack´s and then treated ourselves to a massage with hot stones. It was nice (and well priced), but my rocks were too hot. I thought they were meant to be hot, just not hot enough to burn my skin. A couple did and I had no luck getting a reimbursment. Meh.
The yard of the The Point hostel.
The nights at the hostel were consistently fun. Always new faces were coming and going during our stay there and the bar offered activities everynight, usually following happy hour. One night was strip twister, which Matt and I won because no other competitors were willing to take off more clothes (nobody got naked, just topless). Another had killer pool, which was very popular but we didn´t feel like our skills were up to par. Friday night was a Royal Army Party, where the staff led by example in getting properly blitzed and Saturday was Poker (as were many other nights). Sunday was the Drinking Olympics, but rather than representing Canada, we decided we had better make a split for it before we get stuck here like so many others.
With that as our idea, we hopped on a night bus headed to Ica. The bus departed at 6pm with an especially fast driver. The speedy swerving through the mountains made it a bit tricky to sleep, but eventually I got some sound shut eye. Waking up with the sun coming across the beautiful landscape made sleeping seem like a waste of time, so instead I played with my camera and got some better shots than I would have thought possible through a dirty bus window. Matt had trouble sleeping most of the night, but was out until about 7am when they decided to start blaring crappy Spanish music throughout the bus. Pretty brutal.
That wraps up the Cuzco blog but there is more coming soon...
The plaza by night.
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