Day 2 - Tour of Cuzco - Saturday

After a few hours of rest in our hotel (we were told to take it easy because of the altitude), the six of us met downstairs for a light meal (chicken soup, which was actually quite good!), then boarded a small tour bus for a tour of the city of Cuzco. Our tour guide for the afternoon was Yvette; she did an excellent job explaining the history of the area.

My impression of the city? It was much more developed and larger than I was expecting. As I had expected, there was a lot of areas of poverty; houses on the hills stacked very close together, laundry hanging outside, etc. But, on the other hand, I was surprised by the nice areas with decent looking houses as we passed through the various parts of the city. The Inka ruins we saw were just amazing when you consider what it took to build these areas.

The elevation in Cuzco is at about 11k feet. Since this was essentially our first day in the high elevation, we definitely felt the thin air as we were walking around. I could definitely tell the air was thinner as I was walking up a slight incline and could tell I was more out of breath than I would be normally. By the end of the day, I had a slight headache.

The tour took us up a hill that gave this wonderful view of Cusco below.

I guess this is a "touristy" area as there were Peruvian natives nearby dressed in their native garb who we could take a picture with - for 1 Sole ("sol-lay", the Peruvian currency), or about 40 cents. "Hey lady, wanna take a picture? Only 1 Sole." Everything comes at a price I guess. Here's a picture I took of Sharon, yah we broke down and paid the Sole.

We next visited an Inca ruin called "Saqsaywaman" I kinda think it sounds like "sexy woman" when it is pronounced) in which we got our first glimpse of the incredible architecural abilities of the Inkas. The walls here were made entirely by hand and use no mortar. Amazingly, the huge rock below was over 12 feet tall and weighs around 120 tons.
Next, we headed to an area called "Tambochay" meaning "temple of the water". There is a natural spring here that is said to keep you healthy if you touch the water, so of course we indulged, especially since the Inka Trail hike starts the next day! Here's a picture of Sharon at the "fountain of youth".
Our next stop was to visit the center of the city, "Plaza de Armas" or the Main Square of the city of Cuzco. This is a picture of one of the cathedrals which we toured, it was huge and very detailed inside. The second picture is of the "triple window" if you look through it, you can see through 3 windows, amazingly, the precision which these walls are built are amazing considering there is no mortar used in these walls!

Our last stop was to visit an orphanage in Cuzco that housed about 30 girls between the ages of five to seventeen. The tour company works with this orphanage to allow travelers to make a lasting impression on the areas they visit. We were asked to bring any sort of donations (ie, old clothes, school supplies) with us to donate when we received our trip documents. This home is called "Hogar de Menores San Judas Chico" and we were treated to a couple of songs by the girls and given a tour of the orphanage. The Sister running the place explained that the girls were often abandoned by their parents due to drugs, etc. Stuff like this really makes you realize how good we have it here in America.

Thanks to Yvette, we received a recommendation for a place eat dinner that night. We had a nice meal at a place called in the Main Plaza. The Main Plaza was located only about 7 blocks from the hotel, but we all decided it would be best to take a taxi! :-)