The entrance to our hotel is in an alley off a narrow one way street. From our rooms we have access to a roof level patio.
Entrance to our hotel:
Patio outside our rooms:
Overlook of Cusco from our room:
This is how narrow the street is outside our hotel:
Walking down the narrow street takes us toward the Plaza del Armas, we pass some green granite Incan stonework. Notice how the pieces fit without mortar. This particular piece has 12 corners. According to the local con man hanging around nearby, this is to represent 12 kings. Notice that the Incas placed smaller stones beneath the large ones. Many places in Peru commonly have earthquakes. The smaller stones are supposed to give flexibility to the building to withstand quakes.
And of course in the plaza is the cathedral, which seems to be the standard.
In the plaza is also a Starbucks.
For l unch, we eat at an Irish pub in the plaza. That's right, we're eating at an authentic Irish pub in Peru. Paddy's Pub, the highest 100% Irish owned pub on the planet. Peruvian food has been good. But this was stiff competition.
(photo courtesy of Pauletta)
Tuscan Soup:
Pizza with the toppings you see:
After lunch, it's onwards to a local museum that houses some Incan mummies.
These skulls are examples of brain surgery having been performed.
Incas practiced skull deformation. They reshaped skulls by tying boards to young children's heads.
The burial ritual included putting the body inside a basket in the fetal position. The tombs we saw near the Condor caves were in the side of a mountain. With the reverence given to mountains, it's probably safe to assume that many Incas were buried in mountains. I don't know where these were found though.
After the museum, we head to the Cusco local market.
Outside the market:
Inside the market:
We try some fruit smoothies, and I have the mango con leche (mango with milk). One of our guides suggested to get con leche to avoid getting smoothies made with tap water.
Making the mango smoothie:
Final product:
The market contains all the things you'd expect: meat, nuts, fresh bread, vegetables, grains, cheese (homemade), fish (& eggs), even clothes, bags and a food court. Allegedly one can also find frog smoothies here, but we were not able to. We buy nuts, fruit, bread, and cheese for snacking the next day.
Garlic:
Never a shortage of potatoes in Peru:
Fish eggs:
People in the food court:
That evening we go to another pub: Cross Keys Pub. This one is English based. Inside there are lots of photos and souvenirs from folks who have stopped here on their Machu Picchu journey.
Cross Keys photo album:
That's the day! Tomorrow we have a guided tour of sites in and around Cusco.
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