Monday, December 12, 2022

Day 4: Cusco & Lack of Oxygen

We caught a 5am taxi to the airport and flew to Cusco. It was amazing flying over the Andes Mountains. 



We have a guide for this portion of the trip to help with rides and tours. They picked us up from the airport and we had four hours until our next event so we thought “let’s head to San Pedro Square, it is only 0.7 miles!” Ya, it took us over an hour and almost killed us. We are at 11,150 feet and of course yesterday we were at 0. The elevation adjustment is no joke. 



Here we are in snail mode barely catching our breaths. I have seriously never walked so slow in my life. We made it to the square and had lunch at one of the counters. We just sat down and they started serving us food. We had no idea what we were getting. The corn here is very unique and can only be found in the Andes. Huge kernels. 











We took a taxi back (beat $4 I have spent in my life) and went on a (slowest in earth) walking tour. We visited a couple churches, the first being Convento Santo Domingo. 







The Incans built these walls using no mortar, just cutting each stone to fit the previous. Amazing. After the tour we were exhausted so we got massages. Everything is so inexpensive here. Our two course meal was $1.67 and our one hour massage was $20. 

We grabbed a churro on our walk home and came across some peaceful demonstrations. The President of Peru was ousted by congress last week so there is some unrest over the changes. It is bringing us some stress because protesters are blocking roads so we may not be able to see Machu Picchu but the demonstrations felt calm. 



 


We are tucked into bed and exhausted. The 6.02 miles we walked today felt like 60. 





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