Peruvian Adventure Day 6

Day 6  Amazon to Cusco

Today we leave the jungle.  Not one of us will miss:
1. Heat
2.  Humidity
3.  Insects
4.  Putting on layers and layers of DEET and suntan lotion
But, I think we all had a good time and were glad we went.  We walked back down to the river one last time and headed back downstream for a quick 2 hour boat trip to Porto Maldonado port.

We (let's face it, the guides-  these monkeys were about 300 yds away in the trees) spotted some howler monkeys in the trees.  Now that they woke us up at 0:dark 30, they happily went back to sleep.  This was the best I could do at 300 yes in a moving boat.

after landing at the dock, we had to take the kishke-shaking bus ride back to the airport.

The flight to Cusco, though delayed a bit was pretty short, 40 minutes.  Flying in was interesting.  The airport is in the middle of what appeared to be a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood (zoning, what zoning?) with the runway running along and between two  major roads.  It was very strange watching buildings and people whiz by in a blur during landing.

Cusco Airport

We were met by an employee of Vaya (Samuel) at the airport.  He informed us that Rich and Suzie's flight had been cancelled!  After offering us coca tea (one of the alkaloids in it is the raw ingredient in cocaine) to help with the effects of mountain sickness, he ran off to find out what he could about if and when they would arrive.

Dave and Carol enjoying some coca tea

Fortunately,  they were able to get on another flight from Lima and would make it after all. Phew!

We had a 20 minute drive to our hotel, El Mercado, near the city center.  On the way, we saw several statues of   Pachacuti, the 9th ruler of the Kingdom of Cusco.  He was also known as Sapa Inca and began the expansion of the Incan Empire from the valley of Cusco to much of western South America.

We arrived at the hotel about 4:30, and Rich and Suzie made it there shortly after 5.

We were extremely fortunate that there was a 2-hour laundry right next to the hotel, because everything we all owned the we brought to the Amazon was sweaty and stinky (even Jeri's clothes, and she never sweats).  We brought the gross bags of wet clothes in and handed them to a couple of seedy looking characters, who assured us (in Spanish) that they would bring the clean clothes to the hotel.  We prepaid  2.5 Sols/kg (for those who don't know their Sols and/or kilograms, that's about 40 cents/lb, not bad if they don't make off with our clothes).

After the Rothstein's arrived, we left for dinner.  Walked about 15 minutes to the city center (down hill) to the Inka Grill on Samuel's recommendation.  It was perfect, excellent Peruvian food.  After dinner we wandered around the main square, the Plaza de Armas.  

This is the heart of the centro historic, with two major churches, La Cathedral, 

and Templo de la Comania de Jesus

After hitting an ATM and buying water with a 200 Sol note so we could get some small bills (a liter of water was  3 Sols, about $1), we headed back to the hotel.  Since going to the restaurant was downhill, you know the rest of the story.  Now I have to give you a bit of info about Cusco.  Cusco is at 11,000' and at that altitude planes have pressurized cabins for a very good reason.  The available oxygen at sea level is 20.9%.  At 11,000 feet it drops to 13.7%.  After walking about 20 yds uphill we were all (except the 2 Daves, not sure, but I think they may be androids) huffing and puffing.  We did make it back, though, and low and behold, our laundry was in our rooms clean and folded (sort of).  Now if we could just get the stench out of our suitcases.

Back at the hotel, Dave couldn't resist a little horsing around before bedtime.

Tomorrow we begin the Lares Trek.  Hopefully, the walking will get easier.