Here are another set of photos from around Cusco:

Here's a shot of a playground on the way up the hill to the Christo Blanco.

A few dogs lounging in the late afternoon. There are many friendly, free-roaming dogs all over the city.

This is another shot of the streets above the Plaza de Armas.Why aren't there any pictures of the streets below the Plaza de Armas? Because they're a lot more like any conventional city anywhere.


This is not the Plaza de Armas, but the side of a smaller plaza about a block away.

We found a new way up the Christo Blanco that involves an extremely long and steep stairway. Near the top of the stairway, we found this kitten!

This truck has been parked outside our favorite cafe since we arrived. This shot also gives a good detailed view of kind of walls that are so characteristic of this area.

This was taken from a bench in another of the smaller plazas.

Another shot on the way up to the Christo Blanco.

* * *

Jen has just gotten over a slight sickness for the past few days, so we've been doing a lot of low-key, indoor types of things recently. In this coming week, we have a few new sights we plan to see, as well as a day-trip to one of the smaller towns an hour or so out into the countryside. We also have our longer hike from last week to tell about. So keep an eye out for those!

About Food

Cooking is great. But Cusco has taught us that our interest in cooking wanes significantly with the availability of delicious, multi-course meals for $2-5 apiece.

There are a few distinctive varieties of restaurant we have run across so far in Cusco.

The Polleria: The most common type of restaurant are the pollerias and broasterias—restaurants specializing in chicken and other roasted meats. Walking past (which is the closest we have been to such restaurants) you can often see large stone ovens with 4-5 rotating spits, each containing 3-4 whole chickens. Because of the ubiquity of these restaurants, the number of whole chickens entering the city daily has been the subject of some speculation for us.

Vegetarian Restaurants: We've been frequenting a variety of restaurant I didn't expect Cusco to have—the local vegetarian hole-in-the-wall. I had (perhaps naively) assumed that if there were exclusively vegetarian restaurants they would market to upscale yuppie tourists. Instead, we were pleasantly surprised to find a robust culture of vegetarianism, and a greater density of vegetarian restaurants than many parts of the bay area.

The typical vegetarian restaurant we frequent is quite small, with 4 or 5 tables, often filled with locals, and offers a daily set menu for anywhere from 3 to 10 soles ($1-$3). The set menus usually include some kind of salad (often buffet style) consisting of parboiled carrots, beets, cabbage, potato, and other shredded vegetables (no greens); a hearty bowl of soup, bread, and your choice of a few daily main courses. If the menu's price is closer to 3 soles, you can expect main courses to be based almost exclusively on potato and/or eggs and rice (though there is a great variety of things one can do with these basic ingredients). As you get toward the 10 soles end, you branch out into other vegetables, grains, tofu, fake meats, etc. The set menus also typically include some kind of mate (that is—herbal tea infusion). Yesterday at lunch we had a delicious lemongrass infusion.

(Our--I should say Jen's--only disappointment so far has been the apparently sub-standard quality of the french fries. Though many restaurants offer fried potatoes, they tend to be kind of greesy and sad. Never having been much of a fan of the fry myself, I'm doing great).

Market Stalls:
The only way to eat even cheaper than the local hole-in-the-wall is to eat the snacks sold at stalls in the central market. It has several long rows of counters with 1 or 2 small wooden benches in front of each food stall. On our 3rd day, we enjoyed a breakfast of fried cheese on toasted bread for 1 sole each (30 cents). To our surprise, the elderly woman running the stall cut several slices of cheese off her wheel which she fried separately from the toasting bread. This turns out to be a delicious way to do "grilled cheese". You can get a fried egg on toasted bread for the same price. Other vendors sell chaufa, different kinds of soups, meat sandwiches, fried fish, etc. The market is certainly not on my list of cleanest places in the world, but it's a very lively and exciting place to be. The prepared food vendors occupy a place in the market next to large stainless steel containers of raw milk and butcher tables with many whole chicken and pig carcasses in various states of mutilation. If that's not a fun place to eat, I don't know what is!

Chifas:
Another very common variety of restaurant is the “Chifa”, or Chinese restaurant. They tend to be a little more expensive (10-20 soles, or $3-7), and it isn't unusal for them to be (apparently) run entirely by non-Chinese peruvians. “Chaufa” (fried rice) is far and away the most common dish served at every Chifa. Of the 30 or so Chifas we've walked past, every one has an entire column of their menu with 15 or 20 items that all say “chaufa con pollo”, “chaufa de verduras”, etc. Sometimes this assortment of chaufas constitutes their entire menu. Yesterday I did manage to discover a place that would give me a heaping plate of tofu and vegetables, but in my experience so far this is a rare occurrence.

For Tourists:
The last variety of restaurant are those aimed at tourists. They tend to be centered around the touristy Plaza de Armas, and can range in price from 20 to 40 soles ($7-14) (or perhaps more, we didn't really look very closely). Their menus are in English, and they often employ someone to stand in the street with a menu and attempt to shuttle tourists inside. In the evenings I've started replying to their invitates by saying “Gracias, pero ya he comido quatro churros!” which means “Thank you, but I've already eaten 4 churros!” (Often not far from the truth). This revelation has received many surprised and genuine laughs from the restaurant employees.

Bakeries:
There are many delicious and cheap bakeries everywhere. Every morning I walk to the bakery two blocks down the street from us and buy a “pye manzana”, which is something like a largish croissant, generously filled with apple pie filling. It costs 50 cents. For 30 cents, they also sell funnel shaped pastries filled with dulce de leche, large ovals of fried dough filled with a light coconut cream and dusted with powdered sugar, as well as several other confections we lack the vocabulary to describe. Almost every evening we walk to a stand which sells freshly fried churros—long, thin, fried bread with an apple cinnamon filling, and rolled in granulated sugar. Finally, it is not unheard-of for us to go to one of the many cake shops in the afternoon and buy a slice of one of their many varieties of cake--again, for 50 cents apiece--to top off lunch. Since we'll be in SE Asia soon, we thought it appropriate to eat as many non-bean-paste desserts as we could now, while we still have the chance. (Not that we dislike desserts filled with bean-paste; they're good too, just in a different way).

About the cuy:
"What about the guinea pig?" I hear you ask. Yes. Well, it's true that there might have been a lot of big talk before our departure about our plans to eat cuy. The real truth of the matter is this: We haven't seen cuy offered in any non-tourist restaurants. The cuy also tends to be comparitvely expensive, and, when push comes to shove, it's hard to pay 4 times as much as our normal, delicious meals to buy a cuy, which, at best, we will barely manage to choak down (and which would certainly necessitate 4-5 churros apiece to cleanse our palate, afterwards). So, no; despite the talk, it seems unlikely that we will be consuming those furry, lovable cuy on this trip.

On the other hand, I have begun referring to all the pigeons in the main square as squab.....

Some shots of the Fiesta!

We aren't terribly good at taking pictures--especially of people. Having a camera out when there are crowds of people makes us look like lame tourists (as opposed to the awesome tourists we know we are in our hearts), and, as Jen says, alters your whole experience of an event; instead of just enjoying yourself, you're constantly looking for or planning shots.

We also have trouble taking photos of individual people. We don't want to take (let alone post to the internet!) pictures of people without asking their permission. But it can be complicated to ask permission (particularly when you're a tourist; the question of money always seems to be in the air which can make it difficult to have normal interactions). Also, once you've asked permission, now they're posing when what you really wanted to do was catch them as you saw them originally.

What thoughts do all you photographers out there have about these dilemmas?

Anyway, here are some of the few photos we took during the festival last week.

Some views around Cusco

Our apologies for the gap in posting--we've been waiting several days for the internet in our new house to be properly installed. In the meantime we've developed a very pleasant daily routine, but more on that later. By popular demand we'll post a few of our Cusco photos.

This is the main courtyard of the hostel we spent our first 3 days at (paying 30 soles, or about $10 a night for a room). It's located about 2 blocks from the Plaza de Armas, the main tourist center of Cusco.



This view of the street the hostel is located on is typical of the smaller streets around the Plaza de Armas. The cobbled streets are narrow (this one is wider than usual) with numerous raised or lowered doorways opening onto very narrow sidewalks.

The combination of adobe above stone walls and brown shingled roofs are also ubiquitous.

This next shot is one of the streets heading uphill from the Plaza de Armas, leading eventually to a long stairway and short trail to a vista over the entire city of Cusco. The spot, known as the Cristo Blanco (or White Christ) has a large statue of Jesus that overlooks the city. Part of Jen and my daily routine is to hike from our new house, past the Plaza de Armas, up the narrow winding streets on the hill, to the Cristo Blanco (which takes around 40 minutes).

This picture was taken on a Sunday afternoon, so there's no one in the street, but at other times the percarious sidewalks are shared by tourists en route, Peruvian crafts people sitting on patterned woven cloth selling all mannor of crafts, a wide variety of local dogs that constantly roam the city, as well as locals and children going about their daily business.

This is a view of the Plaza de Armas from the vista at the Cristo Blanco. It's actually a small piece of a 7-photo-wide panarama I made which will hopefully be available for download later in some form. To the right is a shot from the Plaza de Armas looking up at the Cristo Blanco which is faintly visible atop the hill.















To the left: A shot in the other direction from the Plaza de Armas. Above right: The yard of an elementary school midway up the hill to the Christo Blanco.















Finally, on the left is Jen about to head up one of the many alleys that connect the streets above the Plaza de Armas. To the right is a shot up the hill from our favorite cafe, in which I am currently sitting!

More on our daily goings-on here, as well as more pictures to come!

La Fiesta de Cusco

Our current hostel is a few blocks away from the Plaza de Armas, a giant plaza in the center of Cusco's historic/tourist district. In our couple of days' experience in Cusco, the Plaza is home to an apparently permanent collection of locals circling the square on foot, selling woolen hats, watercolor paintings of llamas, and intricately carved gourds, among other souvenirs, as well as an ever-changing cast of tourists who make up their customer base. Additionally, we've seen several marches and parades, usually with an announcer on a loudspeaker offering a running commentary in the kind of overly-emphatic announcer voice familiar from monster truck commercials or Nuevo Mundo futbol programs. I listened hard for a few minutes and heard a few sentences about "our beautiful, historic Cusco", and then decided I could safely reserve my powers of concentration for something more interesting.

This morning, after a quick breakfast in our hostel kitchen, we strolled over to the Plaza to see if anything special was going on today, and indeed, encountered more parading and announcing. It didn't seem any different from the previous few days' parades, so we left after a few minutes and tended to some business. Yesterday, we picked up a classified ads pamphlet called "La Rueda de Negocios", recommended by the tourist office as a good place to look for rooms for rent. This morning, we called our first choice listing, got an appointment to visit, and after visiting and discussing details we've now secured a room in a family house, with internet and private bath, for the next 3 weeks. We're looking forward to moving our clothes out of our packs and into a dresser, and being able to spend some half-days playing poker and programming from the comfort of our new home.

In between our phone call and our viewing appointment, we had a little over an hour, which we decided would do well for lunch. We set out to return to an Indian restaurant that we'd seen a bit off the Plaza yesterday, advertising a full array of our favorite vegetarian curries at a good price. On our way, we found that the Plaza de Armas was now totally inundated by paraders and viewers, and that we had to manuever a bit carefully to get across the Plaza and back to the restaurant without stepping on anyone's toes, getting stepped on ourselves, or getting separated. We made it, though, and enjoyed a fantastic lunch on a balcony overlooking the parade as it worked its way up Avenida El Sol towards the Plaza. The parade consisted of groups of dancers and of musicians, all with unique costumes for each group (mostly based on the colorful woven patterns familiar from pictures of Andean people). Many of the dance groups were marching behind signs for all kinds of organizations -- Andean farming collectives, the Cusco hospital, the National Organization of Journalists, a language school in Cusco (with lots of foreigners dancing). There was a seemingly endless stream of these troupes, and it was great fun watching them all from the restaurant's balcony.

The restaurant's friendly, English-speaking owner let us know that times were tough for her restaurant, and that she hoped we could spread the word if we liked it. So: next time you're in Cusco, in the first block of Avenida El Sol, on the right as you walk away from the Plaza, you'll find a galeria (a sort of mini-mall) with a wooden signboard. The Indian restaurant is there, on the second floor, and it's delicious and welcoming!

This afternoon we were ready to test out our high-altitude athletic abilities, and so we went on a walk up out of the city center past Sacsayhuaman (an Incan fortress or ceremonial spot whose 3 fortifying walls still stand), and "El Cristo Blanco" (a large statue of Jesus, whose illuminated figure is easily visible from the city center at night). The walk uphill was a little tough for both of us, but not too bad -- we're looking forward to doing that walk every day in an effort to toughen ourselves up for the longer hikes we're hoping to take later. From the top of the hills, we had a fantastic view of the center of Cusco, and could see (and hear!) parades still happening in the Plaza de Armas.

After we descended from the hill (at about 5:00p, an hour or so before sunset), we found that the parade had turned into an all-our street party. The costumed troupes who'd finished their turn parading were now enjoying themselves dancing to the musicians' music in the streets, drinking beer being sold by the glass by various individuals with handcarts full of beer crates, and eating hamburgers, grilled meats, french fries, and other street foods being sold from street stands, card tables, and other improvised stalls. We spent the next few hours winding our way around the very crowded streets surrounding the Plaza, enjoying the music and happy atmosphere, and trying out some of the food on offer. We had "Sandwish Vegeteriano" from the hamburger stand, which turned out to be a delicious concoction of grilled lettuce, onions, and tomatoes, grilled salty local cheese, and ketchup, mustard, and mayo, on a hamburger bun. We also had a plate of rice with french fries, a fried egg, and fresh tomato salsa. Then we approached a lady selling some steaming, pale beverage out of a giant pot -- she was one of many popular stands in this business. We asked her what it was, and learned that it was a juice or refreshment made of "aba", which is apparently a local cousin of corn. We enjoyed our first few sips, and then accepted her advice that we let her add some "whiskey" made of sugar cane (a hot pink liquor that she kept in a reused water bottle). I monitored her closely to make sure we only got a tiny dash of that unknown liquor, and indeed, the little splash rounded out the taste of the sweet corn drink and made it much tastier. After finishing our drink, and a little more strolling, we headed back to our hostel, tired and happy.

Cruz del Sur

Reading other blogs about travel in Peru, there seemed to be two main ways to get from Lima to Cusco, both scary. First, you can take a small plane directly over the Andes. The cheapest native airline isn´t recommended for Americans (by the US government) since it lacks several safety measures and doesn´t carry adequate insurance. We read the account of an adventurous traveller who reported that the seats are folding metal chairs bolted to the cabin deck. Even the safe airlines are universally described as quite turbulent, however.



The second way to get to Cusco is by bus. Once again, there are very cheap buses of questionable safety, but two companies that everyone recommends as very reliable. We´d read conflicting reports about the buses. Some people seemed worried that it was common for them to crash. Others thought that robberies were common. Other accounts said they´re totally fine and nothing whatsoever to be worried about.



For $50 apiece we booked with the bus company Cruz del Sur for a 21-hour bus ride from about 5:30 pm to 2:30 the next day. Their pamphlet boasted the following safety measures:

-Two drivers who switch off every 4 hours

- Real-time 24-hour GPS monitoring of all buses. Any unscheduled stops or route changes are reported directly to local police.

- Id verification of all passengers, plus videos of each passenger taking their seat before departing, and leaving the bus upon arrival.



Some of this seemed to be more security theater than actual security, but we particularly liked the point about having two drivers. After having seen the roads, I am now quite sure that was a good idea.



The amenities of their buses included:

- Two meals (with a vegetarian option!)

- Seats that recline 160-degrees

- Two bathrooms

- (too many) movies

- BINGO, with the prize of winning a return ticket (sadly, we did not win, though it was fun to play)



Our overall asesment was: Cruz del Sur is nothing to worry about, unless your concern is being confined to a bus on a very windy road for 21 hours, in which case your concerns are thoroughly justified.



Since we left at about dusk, there was nothing to see out the windows, so we watched their amusing tourist videos about Cusco. My favorite part was the chef of an upscale restaurant explaining his signature dish, which looked like a small circular fort of sculpted mashed potato in the middle a large white plate liberally sprinkled with red and green shreds of something. Or, as he put it, ¨I call the dish, Papas Cusquenos. The two chili peppers represent the flames of hell......it also has mashed potatoes, butter, and paprika!¨. To be honest, most of the tourist advertisments horrified me and made me think I might have to turn around and go back to Lima.



We spent a fitful night being woken up by people going to and from the bathroom adjascent to our seats. Jen was also feeling a little sick in various ways and was pretty unhappy with the whole situation. The bus felt as if it were going a steady 20 mph or so. Out my window was only black night. On the other side of the bus I could see the pale base of a rough rock wall climbing past the reach of the buses lights.



By morning, our road was revealed to be wide enough for about 1.5 cars; hill on one side, precipice on the other. It really was an indescribable site--unphotographable as well, as it turned out. Though there were trucks and buses going in both directions, passing each other in ways I couldn´t fathom, all the drivers seemed to know what they were about, and we didn´t ever seem to be careening round corners or teetering over edges. It all felt very safe and controlled.

The most amazing part to me was seeing the small villages and farmsteads high up on the slopes of the Andes. It was quite common for us to pass a small flock of sheep or a few loose pigs on the side of the road. I also enjoyed seeing a community with no more than 10 buildings, all clustered around a barren-looking soccer field where the whole population had come to watch the children play a game.

Our arrival in Cusco was uneventful. We quickly found a taxi to our hotel, and booked a somewhat more modest room than our Lima accomodations, but quite clean and sufficient for our needs. We´re excited to have access to a small kitchen, so our next post will likely detail our adventures in the market buying vegetables for dinner!

Un poco Miraflores, un poco Chinatown

This morning we ventured to Miraflores, an affluent suburb of Lima, where most of the tourists stay, and where there are more and fancier restaurants and shops. We started by going to the street corner indicated in the guidebook as the place to catch a colectivo (bus), where we'd already been yesterday. Sure enough, they were there again today -- about every third vehicle at that intersection was some form of minibus, van, or giant touristic bus, most of which appeared to have been made in the 70s, and each of which had a few place names we didn't recognize painted on the side. The business going in and out of the buses was very quick; each bus has a manager who rushes new passengers in and old ones out whenever the bus is at least close to stopped. We conferred a little bit about which direction we thought we wanted to go, and assured ourselves that we could quickly ask "A Miraflores?" to make sure we went where we wanted to. After we had worked up enough courage, we approached one bus, where we were quickly ushered aboard with lots of nodding and "Si! Si!" in response to our attempts to confirm "Miraflores" and to confirm the price (1 sol, about 33 cents). Once aboard, we learned that the guidebook wasn't exaggerating much. David saw our bus pass within 12 inches of other vehicles at least four times, and we always seemed on the verge of running into cars or pedestrians.

It worked out great, though -- we made it to Miraflores, and managed to get off only a little beyond the optimal stop. In our afternoon of exploring there, we enjoyed a great lunch, and a coffee that (to our surprise) cost almost as much as the lunch (about $2.50). We also bought a novel for me for tomorrow's bus ride: El hablador, by Mario Vargas Llosa, en espanol. I'm excited to learn more about Vargas Llosa, who is one of the most famous South American authors, and who was nearly elected president of Peru in 1990, coming in first in the general election but losing in a runoff to Alberto Fujimori.

This evening we had one of our best adventures so far -- a trip to Lima's Chinatown. After almost giving up hope on finding it, we started to see a couple of "restaurantes Chifas" (Chinese), and soon came to a block where all the storefronts on one side were Chinese restaurants. After enjoying a tasty dinner in one of them, we continued further along the street and found ourselves in an incredibly active, bustling street, with shops and stalls of all sorts. It was about 7pm at this point, about an hour after sunset, and we felt like we had found the real place to be in Lima -- families, couples, and bunches of friends of all ages were browsing in the shops and walking down the street. The party zone was very big, too -- we estimated it was about 16 square blocks, or maybe more, and many of the stalls were in buildings that had 2 or 3 stories full of rows of stalls with lots of activity. Mixed in with the Chinese restaurants were a handful of Peruvian snack, dinner, and pastry shops. We're interested in finding a hotel nearer to Chinatown for our next stay in Lima.

Speaking of which, this is our last night in Lima for now. We'll be heading out on a 21-hour bus ride to Cusco tomorrow (it seemed like a fun adventure, and cost about 1/3 as much as the 1.5-hour plane ticket would've). We changed our plan to allow us to take a train ride from Lima to Huancayo later -- the train only runs about once every 2 weeks, returning a few days later. In our next update, we'll let you know whether the buses truly "remain in the category of adventure travel" (andeanexplorer.com), or whether they're actually safe and comfortable (Peruvian blog post).