Back in Cusco, we signed me up for a day hike to Rainbow Mountain. The next day
we did a little sight-seeing, in the form of a walking tour. The most
interesting part was learning how many of the modern buildings still have Inca
foundations. Subsequently we spent some time exploring the San Blas artist
neighborhood, picked up even more gifts, and bought me a pair of sun glasses to
use in the mountains.
That night we ate guinea pig (cuy), which is a local delicacy. The best part
was that we went to a somewhat fancy restaurant to do it. It takes an hour to
prepare, so we had a long, lazy dinner. Cuy itself was pretty tasty, definitely
with a unique flavor, but over-salted. The skin was mostly chewy, although some
of it was crispy.
I’d been pretty sniffly the previous day, and when the alarm went off at 2:45am
for my 3am pickup to hike things were no better. After getting up out of bed
and walking 4 steps, I was breathing hard and my heartrate was over 120bps, so
I decided not to go hiking. Good thing, too, as I spent the entire day in bed
except to go to a close by cafe for breakfast (toast and jam) and lunch (half a
bowl of soup). I skipped dinner. Danielle ran a few errands during the day,
mainly shipping home 7 kgs or so of gifts/souvenirs.
The next morning I spent in bed, but I ate all my soup for lunch, so in the
afternoon we visited the Saqsaywaman Inca ruins in Cusco. These included a fort
built with the biggest rocks the Incas used, some large number of tons each. It
was nice to be outside and walking again, but I’d been getting a bit of Inca
fatigue. Good thing, because that night we got on a night bus to Puno.
