7-Jan-2003 - Got up and packed up. The first thing we did is went downstairs and had a very heated "discussion" with the proprietor who basically admitted that we were being overcharged but that it was the travel agents doing. She offered to refund the difference (which would have been five nuevos soles per person or like about three bucks total) but we didn't settle, we wanted a full refund for a room. We ended up storming out, with a threat to call the tourist police on them. The only thing keeping the situation from escalating to violence was the thought of Peruvian prison conditions.

We also kept our room keys, as souvenirs. Spite is a good thing.

We also felt bad about Fabian, we were unable to locate him when we found out what was going on, and unlike us, he spent a bunch of money on the tour that they tried to sell us.

la Plaza de Armas	Iglesia de La Compa?ia
Park Fountain	Coricancha
Gran Hostal Machu Picchu	Cars parked in the median (!?!)
Coricancha again	Viva El Peru!

Anyways, the first thing we did was find a new hotel in a place that was deemed safe at night. We ended up at the Hotel Machu Picchu, on the other side of the main plaza (la Plaza de Armas). We also gave them our laundry.

We then spent the morning doing errands, and in the process, wandering aroung Cusco. Had breakfast at La Tertulia. Unlike La Paz, the view of the town center looks very European. One could be forgiven for mistakening the sight for Spain, especially given the larger presence of tourists. However, some aspects are still very South American; the somewhat anarchic traffic, the omnipresent litter, and the shoeshine boys.

On the subject of shoeshine boys, we had our shoes shined again. These shoeshine boys have learned to target tourists, so they speak a bit of English. They are also a bit more pushy. Additionally, while our shoes were being shined, we got decended upon by street vendors selling knick knacks, alpaca sweaters, and all kinds of other stuff. I found the experience very annoying.

The bulk of the morning got spent on logistics. We went to the train station to get tickets to Aguas Calientes, the village that is in the immediate shadow of Machu Picchu. We got tickets to leave Thursday morning, and come back Friday night. We also got our tourist passes that give us access to the ruins right around Cusco. We also needed to decide what our plans would be after Cusco. Corey's flight home from Lima was on the 12th, so he needed to get that ticket. After he got his ticket, he went back to the hotel for a nap.

Given that Pradip and I havn't fully finalized our plans, we had work to do. We pondered the merits of visiting Arequipa and/or Nazca or spending extra time in Lima, a city of which most accounts are not positive. Over some beef empanadas, we decided that we would briefly see Lima after Cusco, and from there go to Cuenca in Ecuador, which is supposed to be an attractive, colonial town. From there, it would be easy to get a flight to Quito, for the trip home. We went to the offices of TACA airlines, and changed our tickets.

We then spent a bit of time exploring around town. We went into a small museum at Qoricancha, which contained a small amount of artifacts. Outside, a nine year old boy came up to us selling postcards. He actually spoke quite good English. Upon learning our nationality, he said "United States... Capital: Washington... President: George W. Bush... Former President: Monica Lewinsky"

Many of the other sites like churches were just beginning to close at this time, which was disappointing. We got back to the Plaza de Armas, and I spotted a street vendor selling artwork. I found two pictures that I liked, and negotiated a price (fourty nuevos soles for both of them). Naturally, he did not have change for a hundred, so he advised me to get change from a supermarket, which wouldn't break it either. One hundred nuevos soles is just under thirty bucks; the inability to make change proved to be a very irritating aspect of Peru. Meanwhile, like earlier, the fact that I was negotiating with a street vendor attracted other vendors, much like flies on shit. And this guy was going as far as to running up to random people asking them to break the hundred.

I began to find the situation very annoying so I gave up and we started going down the street. Undaunted, this assclown vendor started following us around and we would duck into a shop, and he would be waiting outside, with a greeting of "Mi Amigo... It's possible!" Perhaps foolishly, I just decided to ignore him like he wasn't there and started checking out other shops. Eventually, one of the shops had a back way out and we managed to ditch that guy, laughing all the way down the street. My guess is that he was probably waiting for a half hour... we considered having Corey go there to check up on him.

We took the evening very easily; went back to the hotel and met up with Corey. We also got our newly done laundry, and went to dinner at the Chifa Siban (Chinese restaurants are called Chifas here). Then, it was time to sleep.

8-Jan-2003 - Got up and headed out. Our plan was to visit a few of the old Inca ruins just north of Cusco. The area north of Cusco is higher up than the city proper, so we would go to the ruins farthest north on our itenirary first, and head south downhill, until we were back in Cusco. At first, we were going to get a bus, but after some difficulties, we decided to take a taxi.

The taxi ride was about ten minutes and took us up to Tambo Machay, and the next ruins that we visited was Puca Pucara. After that, we saw Saqsaywaman after walking down a road in the countryside for a short while.

Tambo Machay

Puca Pucara

Saqsaywaman (or Sacsayhuaman or Sexy Woman) is a set of ruins of what could almost be described as Castle Cusco. When the Incas were building Cusco, it was designed to be shaped like a puma. Saqsaywaman is the head of the puma, and was the main fortification of the city. One of the most famous battles of the Inca conquest took place here. After the conquest, Saqsaywaman was stripped down in order to provide building materials for Spanish homes and buildings. Even stripped down, the ruins are impressive; massive multi-ton blocks form gargantuan walls that were mere foundations. If Saqsaywaman was still standing, it would be one of the largest castles in the world.

Saqsaywaman

For the most part, we crossed the site at a leisurely pace. Afterwards, we took the foot trail down back into La Plaza De Armas. We finished up both our flight to Lima and to Guayaquil. We then got a late lunch at Kusikuy; we were originally going to try to get cuy (guinea pig) but it was pretty expensive, so I had alpaca instead. Pretty tasty stuff. We also finally got around to reporting our experience in the first hotel to the tourist police and INDECOPI, the tourist protection office.

The walk back down to Cusco

We took the rest of the evening very easily because of how early the Machu Picchu train leaves the next day. Thinking about our experience in Copacabana, we made reservations for our stays in Aguas Calientes and Ollantaytambo. Had a few empanadas, and got some sleep.