After Arequipa we rode a 14 hour long bus ride to the Inca capital city of Cusco. We arrived quite early in the morning and upon arriving at our hostel we discovered that our reservation had been cancelled. I did contact the owner to change our reservation but it seems as though he thought I meant cancel the entire reservation. We eventually got things sorted out and when we finally got to our room we all had a nap. Our first day in Cusco we didn't do much since we really just wanted to acclimatize to our new altitude (3326m) instead of suffering like we did in the colca canyon. The day after arriving we explored the city and found that it was quite a touristy. Almost everyone who hikes the Inca trail or visits Machu Picchu goes through Cusco at some point so it makes sense that there are so many people trying to sell things.
An interesting aspect of Peruvian culture is the way they conduct their day to day lives. They simply do things much slower than us North American folk. Many times you will find yourself stuck behind a slow moving person on the sidewalk or notice how many people congregate at the city's numerous plazas. At nearly every time of day you will find people sitting and passing the time in the Plaza de Armas (universally the name for 'main plaza' in Peru). There just isn't the type of rushing about that there is in North America. The first photograph is the Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus with the Plaza de Armas fountain in front of it (there is always at least one church attached to a plaza).
With all of the tourism that is attracted to Cusco (or Peru in general) because of Machu Picchu also has it's fair share of negative effects as well. I tried not to photograph many locals because I didn't feel that it was right to take the photographs of strangeres without giving something back. And I didn't want to give them money for a photo because then you get people who just dress up pose for photos on the streets. So walking around Cusco you get women and small girls asking you to take a photo, dressed in 'traditional' Peruvian clothing carrying a small satchels with a baby llama in it. I guess I just feel that they should be treated as people and not solely as a means to an end by tourists, but by the same token you want to help them I just think there are probably better ways to do so.
Anyways enough politics. While walking around the city we found a huge mural on Av el Sol. It was probably about 50 feet across and I'm not entirely sure what is depicted on it but you can definitely see an Inca (probably Inca leader Pachacuti) with a model of Machu Picchu. Also, I guess our hostel neighbors had a pet parrot. Stay tuned for postings from the Inca trail!
