Cusco!

Okay, it´s been pretty hard to blog lately because of the high demand for internet and lines at the hostel, so some of our posts may be out of order and really long because they have taken days to finish, but I´m sure you can handle it.

Cusco is fantastic. After our first day we got up bright and early to explore and learn about the city. There are several sites to visit here, including many ancient ruins and churches that date back over 600 years ago. Leah and I decided that we are going to be getting plenty of ruins along the Inca Trail, so we wanted to stick to the museums and churches within the center of the city. UNFORTUNATELY that is impossible without buying a ten day pass for 130 soles (about 50 bucks) to see every site possible within two hours of the city. We went to several museums, hoping to pay an entry fee and enjoy the delights of the exhibits, but were told we could not unless we bought the huge pass. Please believe that we fully plan on writing a letter to the city of Cusco telling them what a stupid idea it is to make everyone pay for that pass.

Luckily, we were able to hire a guide who walked us through the city and told us all about the history. The main thing about Cusco is the "Inca Walls." We were expecting a huge temple or something constructed by the Incas centuries ago, but in reality, pretty much everything in the city is constructed from Inca Walls. These buildings have survived several earthquakes and centuries of erosion and are still standing and looking pretty amazing, so we were impressed.

That night we had a couchsurfing gathering at a bar, so we rested and enjoyed the hostel food (it´s amazing) and got ready for our first night out in Cusco. We were late arrivals, obviously, but there were about 15 people sitting around and chatting when we got to our meeting. We know a couple of people that we had met in Lima, but it was basically a group of strangers. Being me, I headed straight to the bar and got us some drinks to hopefully ease the awkwardness. Then we went and sat directly in the middle of everyone.

Thankfully this was a games bar, so with a little encouragement, we got a group of people to play jenga with us. We were surrounded by a bunch of guys from Chile on summer vacation from school, all very nice and all WAY too good at jenga. After about the 8th time we ruined the tower, I introduced my amazing drinking game (if you have played it you know what I´m talking about). Everyone loved it and we had a huge group going, but then happy hour ended so we decided to go to the clubs.

The first club we went to was boiling hot, but great because they played 80s rock and some hip hop. The most memorable moment was when this ridiculous ripped man jumped up on the bar and began dancing to "I´m Too Sexy." Everyone cheered, especially when he stripped down to his underwear. It was pretty hilarious. From there we went to a different club that played cumbia music and the Chileans we were with tried to teach us how to dance the cumbia, but obviouly failed.

The next day we woke up at about noon and the weather was pretty terrible. Leah and I were on a mission to find these colorufl, striped pants that everyone, both tourist and native, wears. We went to a market that was pretty fantastic and had thousands of the pants we wanted. We each bought two pairs and then wandered through the meat section and almost threw up at the skinned bull´s head just chilling out in the open.

After that we went and harassed the people at Llama Path, the company that we are doing the Inca Trail through. We asked this poor guy so many absurd questions, I´m sure he hated us. Then we went to this amazing pre-columbian museum. I say amazing because the descriptions of every artifact were each three paragraphs long and written by the most pompous asshole ever. These are our two favorites:

"The symbolic realism achieved in the physical representations of the two reptilians is truly startling. One finds oneself virtually deprived of the rudimentary elements of esthetic appraisal required to assimilate the magnitude of these extraordinary objects."

AND

"Attempting the exercise of viewing them through the eyes of someone who lived centuries ago one would be surprised at one's own reflection in these images, where the unfinished detail is completed by our vision, converting them into exponents of delicacy of form, grace and movement. Again, esthetics show a leaning toward harmony, whilst beauty remains bound to time."

I mean, can you really understand this? Imagine an entire museum written like this. It is pretty fortunate Leah, Phil, and I were intelligent enough to handle it. It was also fortunate that no one else was in the museum so when we laughed obnoxiously loud we didn´t disturb anyone.

Our night was pretty much the same as the night before. There was a live rock band at our hostel and then we went on to some dance clubs.

Today was pretty stressful and long. We had a list of things to get for our trip, so we headed to a market that sold really cheap things. We each bought alpaca sweaters, hats, and mittens for ourselves, and if you are lucky, we might have bought stuff for you... ANYWAYS we met the two other people we will be traveling with on the trail. Unfortunately, they seem pretty fit. We hired 2 porters to carry our stuff, while THEY are carrying their own stuff. After that we went to a book store in an attempt to buy books that were mentally stimulating and thought provoking. Instead, realizing all there was was harloquin romances, we bought the trashiest books we could find including Leah´s purchase and my personal favorite, Hard Warm Rain. We resisted buying the bachelor of the month books, our favorite being about a Texas Ranch owner who was attacked by sex starved women.

So we leave tomorrow for the Inca Trail, hopefully we will survive, WISH US LUCK!