Notes from Cusco

Good morning to all,

Well, it looks like we are going to be able to make it to Machu Picchu this week: we found a rather strange way of getting there, but the plan is to go there by buses and train on Friday. Usually one gets there by just one train, but we´ve managed to find a path that takes us on two or three buses and a train. Hopefully that´ll just make the trip that much more amusing!

Today Luana and I are going to do some more exploring in Cusco. We have this little map that has been getting us around the past few days, and we just noticed this interesting little symbol that is labeled "Steps to Saqsayhuaman", so we´ve decided to take ourselves on a little tour. Steps, by the way, are more than abundant here: each evening when returning to our hostel, we have to climb flights and flights of stairs that are built right into the street.

Also, I made an important little discovery about the tap water here: we´re not supposed to drink it. But, in spite of my ignorance about the water, I haven´t noticed any sickness from it. Hooray for strong stomachs!

Hope you all are well!

Katie




Edit: We made the trek up countless stairs to the place called Saqsayhuaman...only to find out we needed some sort of "tourist ticket" to get in. It was an Incan archaeological site, which would have been really awesome to see, but the tourist ticket would have cost us about 70 peruvian soles (roughly 25 US dollars) and neither of us actually had that many soles with us. So, instead, we got to take some great photos, and got an amazing workout (at 8,000 ft elevation, mind you)!

So, that was the adventure of the day. Well, actually, finding vegetarian food here is also an adventure that I get to do about 2 times a day as well. Needless to say, we are not lacking in adventure!