After a long day yesterday, I purposely gave myself an easy day today to balance everything out as I also have a couple pretty long days over the next couple of days as well.

I was in bed by 11pm and didn’t wake up until 10am this morning.

Let me just say that sleeping for 11 hours is not normal for me and I’m thinking it’s just a side effect from altitude sickness.

No worries though as, like I said, today was an easy day.

I had a handful of places around and on the outskirts of the city marked to visit and that was it.

I woke up too late for the free breakfast which, honestly, isn’t a huge loss so I popped back to the place I got that sandwich on buckwheat bread the other day.

By the way, after being celiac for 5 years, I only just learned a few days ago that buckwheat bread is actually naturally gluten free.

The things you learn along the way.

For breakfast I had a ham, cheese, and egg sandwich and it was perfect.   Just what I envisioned for breakfast.

While I was waiting for my meal I came up with a plan for the day…

The Plan

The places I wanted to visit were kind of scattered around the edges of the city in different directions which meant I couldn’t just walk from one to the next.

My first thought was to just take a taxi to one area, see a couple of things, and then taxi it over to the next area and do the same.

Then I remembered seeing these open air tour buses driving around town.

Hmmm…

Now, I’m really not a tour bus kind of guy.

I mean I’ll join a tour if there’s really no other viable way of doing it on my own but, for the most part, I try to figure out how to do things myself.

It’s actually one of the things I enjoy about traveling – figuring stuff on my own.

Well, having said that, I actually found a tour bus that would be leaving around 12:30 for a 2 1/2 hour trek around the city passing pretty much all the sites I had marked.

The price tag was only s/35 ($12).   I mean, you can’t go wrong with that, right?

Sign me up!

They even had the token “tour of some local business” where they will inevitably try to sell you some stuff thrown in for good measure.

So, again, I lathered myself up in suntan lotion, donned my tshirt and shorts and went to the meeting spot in the center of town.

Touring around Cusco

I actually arrived early at the meeting spot which was just outside some store and I asked the lady working there if this was the meeting spot which she confirmed.

Since I was early I decided to walk a little bit down the street to check in on a restaurant I was interested in for later.

As I was asking the waiter at the front door about a dish, a woman started talking to me.

Now, after being asked multiple times just on the way to the meeting spot today if I wanted a massage, or artwork, or whatever, I just assumed she was asked me the same.

Turns out she was the tour guide and it was time to go.

Well, here we go then.

We boarded the bus and took our seats on the open top.

It was a cloudy day and, despite it being 19C, I soon was wishing I could trade all that unnecessary sunscreen for a pair of pants and a jacket.

Eventually I actually moved to the bottom part of the bus to get out of the cold.

Note to self – always pack a jacket in my daypack.   Always.

The tour took us past the Saqsaywaman and the Q’enqo ruins which, let’s be fair, were a distant comparison to Machu Picchu I just visited.

We also drove by the San Cristobal overlook which afforded us an amazing view of the city down below and ended with a stop at the Cristo Blanco statue which is a huge statue of Christ that overlooks the city.

That was all well and good and it marked off all the spots on my map I wanted to visit but I want to talk about the thrown in “token” stop at a local business because, for me, that was the highlight of the entire tour.

A shaman, an alpaca, and me

So, from past experiences when a tour takes you to a local shop they usually do a little demo and then wait anxiously for us to buy some of their products.

I’ve never been a fan of these overtly touristy stops but understand that they’re necessary for tours like these so I just kind of smile, say “no, gracias”, and move on to the next stop.

However, this one was a tad different.

We did, indeed, stop in a shop filled with all the souvenirs you could possibly imagine but we were led through the shop to the back of the shop where we went outside to the backyard.

There we found a couple of alpacas munching on some grass and an a shaman waiting in front of a ceremonial table filled with all sorts of trinkets.

I am intrigued…

Speaking in Spanish with my tour guide translating, the shaman went through a Coca ceremony.

He was demonstrating one of the Incan rituals of thanking the mother earth, mountains and nature for our life using coca leaves.

He made his way around our circle of about 20 people and blessed each one of us individually 5 different times.

First with coca leaves, then saying our name and tapping us with a condor feather, followed by surrounding us with smoke, then he shook a bell with a tiny pillow, and finally he blew into a conch.

Of course tips were asked for at the end and, honestly, I was more than happy to tip.   I thoroughly enjoyed myself.   While others were tipping coins I gave him s/20 ($7) just because, for me, he was what made the tour for me.

I also finally bought an Inka cross chain from him.   I’ve wanted to buy a chain ever since I landed here in Peru but just haven’t found what I was looking for.

In Aguas Calientes every booth had these Inka cross chains but I was just holding out for something else.

Something unique.

Now you might be saying “Well, Todd, you literally just bought an Inka cross, how is that unique?”

Well, this Inka cross was from a local shaman.   This cross has a story behind it.   This cross means something to me.

By 3pm we were back in the city and after a quick shower to wash off all that unnecessary suntan lotion, I relaxed the rest of the afternoon typing up this blog.

Here (guinea) piggie, piggie

At 5pm I finally headed back out, this time adequately dressed in pants and a jacket.

They say when you’re in Cusco that you have to try Cuy (coo-ee) which is basically guinea pig so that was my mission tonight.

I went back to the restaurant I had stopped at earlier which was appropriately named Mr Cuy.

Smart marketing there, eh?

Now, if you’re one of my vegetarian friends out there, you know what, you should probably just stopping reading here.   I mean, you don’t really wanna hear about or see the pictures I took.

Okay, only meat eaters left?

So, yeah, got to Mr. Cuy around 5:30 after coming across some impromptu parade running down the street which, I gotta say, was pretty damn cool.

I ordered the Cuy al Horno which is baked guinea pig.

They serve it to you on a bed of corn and potatoes (although I opted for rice instead) and it comes to your table presented in traditional Peruvian garb

Sitting in front of me on a plate was a fully cooked, fully intact (and I mean fully) little guy sporting a little Peruvian knit hat with tassels and a little shawl draped over it’s body.

After taking a couple of photos, the server took it to the back to have the cook cut apart the cuy into edible pieces.

And then she said words I thought I’d never hear when eating out…

“It’s recommended that you eat with your hands”

I had actually read this online and they even went so far as to say that if you ate it any other way that people would look at you funny.

Hey, who am I to mess around with Peruvian tradition?

So, yeah, like a true carnivore, I got in there and ate it all.

People will inevitably ask me what it taste like and I’d have to say it tastes like chicken but extra salty.

Would it be something I had again?   Nah, probably not.   I mean, it wasn’t bad or anything.   It just wasn’t anything that elicited a “oh my God, this is the best thing ever!” response.

So, there we go.   I tried Cuy.   Knock that one of my list.

By 7pm I was back at the hostel and in for the night.

Like I said on the onset, this was meant to be an easy day because, frankly, the next four days are full days.

Tomorrow is a full day tour of the Sacred Valley starting at 6:45 in the morning while the next day is another tour to Rainbow Mountain which also starts early.

After that there’s a 10 hour bus ride down to Puno followed by another 15 hour bus ride down to La Paz, Bolivia with an afternoon stop in Copacabana to tour Lake Titicaca.

Not overly strenuous activities but, still, there are very long days ahead.

All good though.   I’m rested.   I’m happy.   I’m ready to go…