From SATA-Peru-2007
Today was our first full day in Cusco, so naturally Manuel started off the day by showing us the main square of the city (La Plaza de Armas). In La Plaza de Armas, there was some sort of religious celebration involving loud American rap music and two very large stuffed chickens (maybe condors) on top of cars. We then immediately realized that the festival must of been the reason that we were all woken up with very loud firecrackers at 7:30 this morning. This confused us Americans because not only do we rarely use firecrackers (aside from the fourth of july), but never light them off at 7:30 on a saturday morning. From there we began to hike to the giant white statue of jesus that we can see from our rooms and also to sacsaywaman. The hike was very difficult on our lungs because it went straight up and we're not yet acclimated to the altitude. We did, however, buy coca leaves about halfway through the hike to aid our ailing bodies. It was a beautiful day and the view from jesus (the statue) was unbelievable. We then walked through sacsayhuaman among other places as we chatted with people, watched boys play soccer, and took pictures. We eventually made our way up to an even higher and more unbelievable lookout over Cusco and its surrounding areas.
After the walk we had lunch at the hotel, then relaxed and chewed coca. Hans and I then proceeded to mess around with skype and even talk to each other when we had no other online companions. Hans and I went off alone in search of the professional soccer stadium and eventually found it, despite having to circle the city first. We then made our way back to the Plaza de Armas and stumbled into an Irish Pub. We immediately realized that this was a cop out because off all the tourists, but still stayed for a couple cusquenas (the local beer).
Since it was saturday night in Cusco, Manuel decided to take us out for some pizzas and Pisco sours (which is a delicious native Peruvian drink). After leaving the dinner spot, we began looking for a spot to salsa dance and for whatever reason I was leading the charge. I started talking to a guy on the street, who turned out to work for a bar, and he asked me if I liked latino girls. Naturally, I responded "of course", and then lead the group to this guy's bar. There was no salsa dancing here, but some of us stayed while others wandered off to find salsa dancing. I was with a small group who found a club with some real salsa dancing, but are skills were not adequate and we believed we were being watched when we starting dancing like Americans. The night ended soon after.
August 31, 2007 September 2, 2007
