A day in Cusco

Trip Start Sep 15, 2007

Trip End Dec 13, 2007

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Flag of Peru Cusco, Peru
Saturday, October 13, 2007

Late yesterday afternoon I broke down and went to a pub called Norton Rat's and had a burger. There's only so much pollo con papas a guy can take. This was no ordinary burger. The beef (or was it alpaca?) was very flavourful. Reminded me of what hamburger once tasted like in Canada, when I was a kid. I enjoyed this very sumptuous meal while sitting on the veranda overlooking Plaza de Armas. And of course it was accompanied by a large cold cerveza. I won't go on about how cheap it was.

It's odd that a city so seemingly cosmopolitan and clean and well run could be so inexpensive. It's a tourist town, no doubt about it. Plenty of big buses full of Brits and Germans, some sporting matching florescent pink hats, damn I wish I'd gotten a photo. If anyone should catch me in one of those at any time in the future, you know what to do.

Within 10 minutes during a walk anywhere around or near the plaza or you will have been approached more than a dozen times for a massage...these are legit and only $10 for an hour

Norton Rat's

. They are persistant. So are the cigarette vendors, the postcard pedlars, the guys selling small paintings from a big book-like folder and the sad eyed Quechuans who have everything from little puppets to hats and dolls, all handmade. After a while you quit with the 'no gracias' and just shake your head. It's constant, but oddly, it's not all that annoying, at least not yet. Sometimes after a 'no', you get the 'Why, why won't you buy?' delivered in the best cutesy, whiney tone you can imagine. 'No espacione en mi maleta' is my answer, but that doesn't stop them. The older ladies and the little ones have learned that parading around in their traditional garb with llamas or reeeeaaaally cute little lambs and posing for photos is lucritive. 'Amigo, un foto?' It's cute. Sometimes. Early gringo tourists must have answered with 'maybe later' because often when you say 'no', the comeback is 'maybe later'

I think too of the sad-eyed mom sitting with her two children on the steps of Iglese San Blas, the children enthusiastically waving and smiling for the camera, the gorky (gorby and dork combined.) tourist snapping shots without seeing the sadness in this poor woman's face at feeling her loss of dignity and that she had to do this to her children. The look was the real shot. I hope he sees it.

Regardless, Cusco really is a wonderful city, stuffed with many and varied eateries, pubs and cafes

View of plaza from Norton Rat's

. Whatever you want, it's here and it's done well. Oddly, pizza is big. It would seem the Italians represented a large chunk of the immigration in years past.

It's also very easy to run into people here. You may recall, Maria from Virginia. I ran into her a third time! This time in Cusco. She is visiting with two friends from the states. Wild. I've also since run into everyone who was on the Colca trek who came on to Cusco after. I bumped into three Auzzies I met on the bus from Nazca. They were busy scoping out Manu tours so I tagged along for a couple of hours on an information gathering mission. These girls are some serious fun.

Today's food highlight was lunch at an out of the way hole-in-the-wall (I mean that in every sense of the expression.) called a chicharroneria. Chicharron literally means fried pork fat. I'm walking by and the aroma is amazing, like say, fried pork fat. I look inside and there are a number of tables, locals and a floor that looks like it hasn't been swept in a few days. I can see that chicharron in this case looks like a small plate of ribs, a few papas fritas, some kind of large white bean, not a chic pea, onions and fresh basil leaves, all for 3.50 soles or a little over a buck. Now everytime I come across one of these spots I do the old walk back and forth three or four times thing, thinking 'boy if I only had someone here with me I'd walk right in' until I eventually just work up the balls to go in

View of plaza from Norton Rat's

. Needless to say, as a slightly sunburned, blondish gringo, I stand out. It's fun. Oh and you eat this stuff with your hands and you drizzle some amazing tasting green shit on the pork. It comes from a little wooden bowl that sits on the table .

For supper I jam out and go to a place called Jack's Grill and have a frickin' tuna melt (with fries of course--come on, they have over 200 varieties of potatoes here.). And yes, I felt a bit guilty.

Tonight, it's briefing for my trek and Peru plays Paraguay in world cup eliminations.