Volcan, Diamonte and Frappucino too!!
Trip Start
May 03, 2011
1
66
129
Trip End
May 10, 2012
Where I stayed
Pisko and Soul - Grill and Garden
Cusco, Peru
Friday, October 14, 2011
Cusco was the site of the historic capital of the Inca Empire and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1983 by UNESCO. It is a major tourist destination and receives almost 2 million visitors a year. It is designated as the Historical Capital of Peru by the Constitution of Peru.
To get to Cusco we took a 22 hour journey on a deluxe bus. 22 hours seemed excessive however, once on the bus it became clear that the route took us right through the mountains and speed was definitely not an option on the treacherous, windy mountain roads. We had the seats right at the front of the double decker bus and seats that reclined like a bed. I think this was the first coach where we got a good night's sleep. One of the major problems on this bus was that the bus didn´t stop once during the whole 22 hours and so once we headed up into the mountains the altitude started causing us problems along with motion sickness. Nick couldn´t look out of the huge glass window any longer as the motion of the bus was really making him feel sick. Once we arrived in Cusco the altitude caused us problems for the first couple of days. We both had headaches and walking up even a short incline left us gasping for oxygen. Dennis joined us in Cusco on our second day and the altitude issues hit him straight away too.
We had a fantastic hostel in Cusco ran by Pedro who was so welcoming and friendly. This friendliness is usual in Cusco where everyone loves the visitors to their city. Cusco is a fantastic city and really clean and well presented. It is a lot bigger than we thought it would be and has numerous churches and wonderful squares to explore. We saw much of what Cusco has to offer through a free walking tour of the city and we got to make a Pisco Sour, which is Cusco´s famous, strong alcoholic beverage.
On our second day we booked a horse riding tour through the hills. Rob had never ridden a horse before and Nick and Dennis had not been on a horse since they were kids so this should be interesting. When we arrived at the ranch (think dilapidated old stables rather than Southfork). We were assigned our horses who all looked like they had seen better days and were one step away from the knackers’ yard. The only good horse was given to Hannah, a German girl who joined us for the ride, as she had lots of previous riding experience. We had a great time on the horse ride. The hills of Cusco are absolutely stunning and our guide made things even better by playing traditional songs of Cusco on his flute. Rob had the most temperamental horse as he would not let either of our horses get ahead of him and kept on biting our poor horses when they tried to pass. Nick´s horse was definitely the laziest and he seemed more interested in eating the grass than moving. This could have been because the poor little thing had to carry Nick´s weight on his back as he did struggle to get up some of the steeper hills. It was a little bit worrying when after our first stop an old guy from another group went to get onto his horse and it bolted and started bucking and eventually threw the old guy to the ground. The guy was a bit bruised but got back on his horse and we were a little nervous as we had no riding hats and we hadn´t been on the horses for very long at that point. In the end the horses (Volcan, Diamonte and Frappucino) were all fantastic and we had an absolute blast. We were sorry to say goodbye to our horses at the end of the ride. Anyone visiting Cusco should definitely give this a go as you get to see the historic sites of Cusco in the hills rather than just in the town.
Cusco has been one of our favourite places on our world trip so far, it is a wonderful city with so much to offer and see and for this reason it gets a 9/10. We are going on the four day Inca Trail whilst in Cusco and so spending a couple of days in this brilliant city first meant that we were able to get acclimatized to the altitude.
