Cusco - start of the dark days

  Cusco, Peru
Monday, March 31, 2008

Late on Saturday night we reached the Hotel Monastario in Cusco. As the name suggests, this was a converted monastery. It was owned by the Orient Express people. The conversion had been carried out opulently rather than tastefully, although our bedroom was, in keeping with the surroundings, a monk-cell size. The nagging feelings of doubt that I had about the place were increased when the rucksacks that were swiftly and efficiently taken from us upon arrival disappeared. I found them lying abandoned in a courtyard about half an hour later (thankfully still with our valuables on board).



The next day we were picked up early by our favourite guide Oliver for a tour of Cusco. This was the capital of the Inca empire, and had ruins to match. After a couple of hours visiting various sites (including, in Oliver's words, the first operating table for brain surgery; me, I thought it was another sacrificial altar) we parted company.






Jane & I stopped in the town square to listen to a local band then had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the square. By this time, the altitude problems had caused us to more or less give up on booze, drink lots of coca tea and eat lots of carbs. Certainly brought on loads of funny dreams.



In the afternoon we visited an old Inca temple that had been converted by the Spanish into a Dominican monastery (but which the Peruvians had not got round to converting into a hotel). That rubbing the noses of the local religions into the dirt through the imposition of Christianity was typical of the Spanish of old. The beautiful mosque that the Moors built in Cordoba had a Catholic Cathedral built right in the centre of it when it was taken over by the Spanish. How they could be so high minded yet mean spirited at the same time is beyond me.



Talking of which, when we got back to the Hotel Monastario and wanted to go on line, we were told that yes, they did have wi-fi but it would cost us $10 for the privilege of using it. I explained to them that I had not paid for wi-fi in any other hotel in South America and they waived the charge (but one of the hotel flunkeys entered the password in my machine in case, God forbid, I tried to go on line a second time for nothing). Overall I found the Monastario was a pretentious hotel run by Accountants looking for a bottom line rather than Hoteliers looking to give good service to their customers. Or, as my Mum might have put it, all fur coat and no knickers.

Jane was not really looking forward to the next day, when we had a ten hour train ride to Puno, another 1,000 metres higher than the 3,000 we were already at, so we had a quiet meal at a local pizza restaurant and went to bed early. Overall, Cusco was interesting and could have been a lot more fun under different circumstances.