Cusco For Sale

The Convent
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Ok so after Quito we went to Lima, then Cusco, then Aguas Calientes-Manchu Picchu, back to Cusco and now back in Lima.  Now instead of writing about the trip day by day we are just writing about each area.  This part is obviously about Cusco.

Everything is for sale in Cusco.  At least that is how it feels.

Print up T-shirts that say "NO GRASIAS"

We arrived in Cusco on Saturday morning really early since those are the only flights that come in to the city.  The biggest problem with our first day was the altitude. We drink the worthless coca tea and took a nap since walking up a few stairs leaves you breathless.

Main Square
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After that we walked around the main square and wend to see a Convento de Santa Catalina.  Which was really beautiful.  What is interesting about the convent, and about every other colonial building in Peru, expecially Cusco, is the the foundations they were built on.  When the Spanish came to colonize S. America they demolished the Inca´s buildings and places of worship, but built on their foundations.  The Inca foundations and architecture were superior to anything the Spanish had built or seen before. I´m including some pictures of the block stones the Inca´s made.  It is pretty amazing how perfect they were consitering the tools they had.

Early in the political rally
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It is kind of a big metaphor for S. Americas political strife.  The Spanish coming in and building crappy buildings on Inca foundations.  There is the possibility of good because there is a strong foundation, but because you have to keep repairing the walls, and everyone has a different idea of how to repair them, they just keep crumbling.  Anyway i guess I´m in to this political stuff because the elections in Peru are this Saturday and it is a pretty big deal.  Ill come back to this in a minute.

I paid one sole ($0.35) to take this
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After visiting the convent we walked around the city and just took it all in. Now, if anyone is looking for a business opportunity we have discovered it.  Print up T-shirts that say "NO GRASIAS" and sell them in Cusco.  Every shop, restaurant, market and person is wants you to buy something, pizza, lunch, shirts, toys, blankets, etc.  Now I know that most tourist areas have this. If you have been to Mexico and the beach you know what I mean.  But it really can wear on you after a while, no grasias, no, grasias.

The superior Inca Stones
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Besides the hassle of that the city has preserved its historic colonial feel.  Beautiful buildings and cooblestone streets, etc.   Everyone, locals and foreigners, hang out in the main square just enjoying the day.

Now our first hotel was just off the square, which turned out to be not that great for 2 reasons.  One, it just was not that great, very blah and sparatic hot water. Two, as I mentioned earlier, I got altitude sickness which is just a spliting headache that will not really go away with ibuprofin.  Well it just so turned out that there was a political rally that night in the main square, so needless to say we did not sleep well.  However, it was pretty cool to see this rally.   There was an "American Biker Bar" through the courtyard and upstairs from our hotel.  The bars balcony looked out onto the square so we watched for a little bit. There was a big stage and probably 3,000 people, pretty intense.

It turns out this rally was for Ollante which is one of the top 2 candidates in the running.  It is him and a lady, Lourdes.  So far from what we gathered, the polls are around 33 percent Ollante, 28 percent Lourdes, 24 percent undecided and the rest split among the other 20 people running for president.  What is scary about all this is the fact that this Ollanta is in the lead.  Anyone educated, a relative term, seems to want Lourdes. And anyone uneducated, which is probably a lot, wants Ollante.  Ollante sounds like a psycho, militant, is againist "TLC"-the North American Free Trade Agreement, agrees with Venezuelas Chavez and a whole bunch of other nasty stuff.  Basically if this guys is elected I am glad we got to visit Peru now.  But on a personal note, it is pretty cool to witness this.

We only had the one day in Cusco, because we left for Aguas Calientes the next morning at 6:00am and when we returned it was late at night and raining, so not alot to see then.

One last note about nothing related to Cusco, if there are some grammer errors in these, I apoligize.  The keyboards here are trick keyboards, like today I couldnçt find the apostrophe, yesterday quotations marks, it will show quotations, but not type them when you try to type them.  Next Agua Calientes and the vortex, Manchu Picchu.