After three weeks in Lima both working and playing, we flew to Cusco. In a 56 minute flight, our elevation changed from sea level to 11,000+ feet. We heard people talk a lot about altitude sickness but didn’t really believe it existed. It does. Thankfully we only stayed in Cusco for a couple of days then stopped in a few other cities on our way to visit Machu Picchu, each time lowering our elevation. Other than the lack of air pressure, Cusco is a charming place. Cobblestone roads, tiny shops, and red clay roofs.
The Sacred Valley includes several ancient ruin sites and we explored almost all of them. I have enough pictures to fill two blog posts on each site but will condense them as to not bore anyone. The first day we were in Cusco we got a late start because our bodies felt strange and we didn’t exactly know how to handle them. Web MD suggested resting but there were too many exciting places to go to rest. So we started with breakfast at a little pastry shop, a tour of a Catholic Cathedral and the Inca Museum.
This gold man below has nothing to do with the museum but we passed him on the street and I had to snap a picture. He scared me pretty bad at first. I was convinced he was fake until his arms shot up into this position.
There were signs and employees everywhere enforcing the NO PHOTOGRAPHS rule. So… I didn’t get very many pictures and the ones I got are not very good because I was trying to be sneaky. Haha oh, well. Here is one.
The Inca’s were the first to map constellations in the dark spaces of the sky.
See the massive water bottle? That 2.5 Liter bottle is what we carried around every day trying to keep ourselves hydrated and calming the altitude adjustment. Also, we didn’t have a place to refill it with filtered water so we bought a new one every day. Lucas, stop being so handsome, will ya?
We found a large farmer’s/artisan market that was overwhelmingly packed with goods. This photo above was taken from the center of the tent where there was room to walk. Turned out to be the only place in the tent that was easy to walk through. All over Peru, there are street vendors that sell freshly squeezed fruit juice. It looks delicious but is scary to drink because of the unknown kind of water used in the juice and for washing the fruits. Bummer, right? I already got sick once (for an entire week!) or I would risk it!
After a morning of easy wandering in the city, we spent the afternoon exploring ruins. More photos coming!