Lima to Cuzco

Well, right now I am in Cuzco, the ancient capital for the Quechua people (more commonly known as the Inca people). Actually, Inca was the Quechua word for king, so there really were only about 13 Incas that lived. Cuzco is really cool. Old terracotta roofs on thousands of small houses in a valley. It is really different.

I´m sick... I have some sort of gastrointestinal thing... I am having trouble eating full meals and have some wicked acid reflux. On top of that, I had a scare with a lump on my arm. It started as what I thought was just a mosquito bite (but that strangely didn´t itch) and soon grew slightly larger. Lumps are not cool. So I had the doctor here in Cuzco look at it. 50 American dollars later, I was told that it was a lymph node infection and I had one in my armpit as well. Supposedly, it will go away in, oh, 2-3 months or so. Yay.

Anyway, in other news...

While in Lima, I took a tour of the area, looking for cool stuff. Lima is ok, but I don´t really think there is a lot to see. A tour of the city on foot from Miraflores turned up a few things...

Here is an old train in a park that I saw. I thought it was kind of cool, so, picture taken.

This is the style of many of the buildings in Lima. I really like the bold colours.


I took this picture for Dad. I don´t know the year or make of the car, but I am sure he could tell you. I was surprised to find this just sitting on the street.
A building for the engineers in Lima, I think. Pretty fancy Spanish architecture, huh?

Here is a pile of rocks in the middle of the city. It is supposedly the ruins of an ancient Inca pyramid, but it just looked like a fenced off pile of bricks to me. It was a really big pile of bricks though...Here we have a saint of some sort. I don´t know who. He was positioned outside of the church close to my hostel, seen in previous pictures.
Here is the famous dish of Lima / Peru. It is called cerviches. It is basically raw fish cut into tender cubes, marinated with lime juice and some other kind of spicy sauce (perhaps onions and something else) and then topped with tomatoes and seaweed, with a side of sweet potato and dried corn kernels. It was tasty... and spicy!
Here I am with a man named Richard that I met while touring around central Lima. There is a large plaza there with a lot of interesting architecture. This guy was a shoeshine and showed me around. I was kind of lonely, so I offered to buy him supper.
Here is some of Central Lima by night.
The architecture of one of the many churches in Lima that Richard showed to me.
Here is Richard again, posing with my sunglasses on.
After having my fill of Lima, I took to the bus and traveled for 22 hours to Cuzco, a city to the southeast of Lima. Here, you can see that parts of Peru are desert-like, with small houses dotting the sand. This picture is probably close to Nazca, home of the famous Nazca lines (which I opted not to see). Cuzco is much more interesting than Lima, in my opinion. So much more character.
Some of the mountain scenery on the way to Cuzco.
The roads here are all very winding and usually have steep drop offs to one side of the road. Here you can see some of the winding roads up ahead.
More mountains on the way to Cuzco.
Once I got to Cuzco, I set out to find the office of the tour guide that I booked with in Lima. On the way, I got lost and these two ladies asked if I wanted a picture taken of them. Of course, after I had taken it, they asked for 10 soles (Peru currency). I gave them 9 - partly because I was tricked, and partly because the picture really wasn´t worth 3 dollars. Oh well. Anyway, after unsuccessfully locating the tour guide office, a group of 3 boys insisted on taking me to the proper place. Of course, I knew that it would cost me. Oh well. With their help, I found the place just fine and got all the necessary tickets and such for my Machu Picchu hike. The boys told me that their names were Mohammed Ali, Hulk Hogan, and something else. In the end, I ended up giving them a small tip for being such good tour guides.
A mural on Avenida El Sol, in Cuzco. I thought that it was very much like the painting "Guernica".
On the same day, I visited this church. It was really interesting. No pictures allowed of the interior though. I had a nice guide all to myself who explained the different styles of architecture and names of the painters for the various paintings inside.
This is the central square near two cathedrals in Cuzco. It is called Plaza de Armas. This picture is taken from the second story of the cathedral in the previous picture.
Here is the main cathedral of Plaza de Armas. It is called simply "La Cathedrale".
This is the street that my hostel is on (Santa Ana). It is stupidly steep, and I have to stop halfway up just to catch my breath... even after the Machu Picchu hike. In the distance you can see the rest of the city. Cuzco itself is really high above sea level - higher even than Machu Picchu, but not higher than Dead Woman´s Pass (the highest and most painful point along the Inca Trail).

Here is a good shot of Cuzco. In the center of the picture you can see Plaza de Armas.


In my next entry, I will talk about Machu Picchu and the hike to get there!