cuzco 2nd day

so my cheeks are no longer on fire. instead my head was throbbing all day. but at least that has now stopped since i finally popped two aleve.

so since we did like absolutely nothing yesterday, we had decided to go spend quality time with alpacas today. the peru treks lady had recommended this place called awana kancha. it´s like some community project by a bunch of the highlanders, where they have different varieties of alpacas, llamas, vicuñas, and guanacos for petting, and demonstrations of the processing of the wool, and finally completed goods for sale. nick had an amazing time! we videotaped a bunch of the interaction. and no, they didn´t spit on us ;) since they didn´t charge any entrance fee, we figured we had to buy some stuff so we purchased a baby alpaca wool hat and scarf for nick for the upcoming trek. it´s sad but roberto said that for every 100 people who visit that place (for free, mind you), maybe 10 people will actually purchase something. balls!

by the way, we both slept like shit last night. it´s like impossible to get a decent night´s sleep here in peru. our first night in lima was facing the street and all the honking cars. our second night they moved us, so it was better. and last night, our really cute room in cuzco also faced the street and there is a bar like two doors down which had live music all night. they played covers of classic rock. also, maybe it is the altitude since we really couldn´t get to sleep at all it seemed. they´ve moved us so i hope tonight is better. i brought some ambien for an emergency, and i´m getting pretty damn close to using it.

anyways, so we barely dragged our asses out of bed this morning to make it for breakfast. we had some scrambled eggs, fresh bananas and papaya (or guava, i really couldn´t tell), bread and jam. i also had some more coca tea. i´ve been having lots of coca tea lately.

so first thing, we set out to get some cash. we also went to a pharmacy and picked up baby wipes for the trek. did i mention we´re getting picked up at 5:20 am monday morning to start the trek?! also, the third day is considered "unforgettable." ha, cuz it´s gorgeous or cuz there are over 200 steps you have to descend?

anyways, since we were near peru treks, we also decided to stop by an office supply store and pick up school supplies to donate. we got pens, pencils with erasers, notepads, and color pencils (we mustn´t deprive the poor children of art after all). peru treks collects tons of donations and distributes them to the neighboring poor villages.

anyways, after that, we went back up the damn hill to our hotel and asked the lady to call us a taxi to the alpaca place. lucky for us, we got roberto, who also was the one who picked us up from the airport yesterday. he offered to take us to the alpaca farm, show us around, and give us a tour of the pisaq ruins. we´ve signed up for a sacred valley tour for tomorrow but pisaq wasn´t included, so this was perfect.

well i also told you about the alpaca place, so about pisaq. wow, it´s gorgeous. it´s like a mini machu picchu. roberto offered to wait for us while we explored the ruins on our own, which would take probably 1-2 hours. well there is this main fortress at the very top of the hill (by the way, the sacred valley is super hilly and apparently grows the best corn in the universe), and we took our time climbing it. the top of it gave a great view of the pueblo of pisaq. so we then headed back down. it was only when we got back to the main trail that nick noticed he lost his little notepad. the fool decided he had to climb back up and retrace our steps and find the damn thing! man, we were both exhausted from lack of sleep and high altitude climbing but he was going to redo the whole thing for some stupid notes. anyways, i didn´t want to split up so i ended up going back with him. by some miracle, he actually found the damn thing. i heard clapping and whooping coming from the top of the mountain so i knew he´d found it. unfortunately i started getting worried since retracing our steps wasted a lot of time and it was getting late. i forgot to mention, but apparently saturday afternoons are not busy tourist times so we had the alpaca farm and the pisaq ruins like almost entirely to ourselves. anyways, to make up time, we practically jogged/ran the rest of the way down the mountain. so at least i now know that the massive headache i´ve had is not due to altitude, but is instead entirely attributable to the lack of sleep. not much consolation, but it makes me happy. however, the very end of the trail was totally uphill to the parking lot where our taxi was. nick got so tired he finally resorted to this knock-kneed alpaca walk. it was ridiculous. and good news, i actually almost fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel.

actually by the time we got back to the hotel, not only was the headache out of control, but the flaming cheeks were back too. i laid down and maybe sleep for about an hour. meanwhile, we hadn´t eaten anything since breakfast so we were both starving. finally i dragged myself out of bed, took two aleve, and we headed out to eat. by the way, it´s really cold in cuzco at night. our hotel beds have like six layers of comforters, which we at first thought was excessive, but it´s absolutely necessary. we both took super hot, long steaming showers this morning. and while nick showered, i stood outside by the shower cuz i didn´t want to enter the freezing main room.

so we went back into the main square and tried this restaurant, tunupa, which we had tried to hit last night but didn´t serve food till later. we did the buffet which included pisco sours. i had to at least try these since peru is famous for them. but considering how i was feeling, i didn´t think a lot of alcohol would be a good idea. overall, the buffet was a great idea. it was huge so we got to try a bunch of different peruvian specialties and some cool desserts too. i had a banana and orange slushy-type thing, and nick had that and two more glasses of pineapple juice. the pig. oh yeah, and we ate more alpaca. aren´t we horrible? pet and eat, pet and eat.

anyways, the aleve seems to be working cuz i´m feeling alright now. i need to wash some t-shirts tonight and then go to bed as early as possible. our sacred valley tour starts tomorrow at 8:30 am. tomorrow will be our last night here before we leave for the trek. by the way, i neglected to mention just how touristy cuzco is. like when we got to our gate at the lima airport it was kinda a joke cuz everyone there was white. everyone in the main square is either foreign or trying to sell shit to the foreigners. but seriously, their plaza de armas is beautiful. one of the coolest squares nick or i have ever seen. i need to photograph it before we leave.

i think that pretty much sums up today. i´ll try to update again tomorrow and then nothing for four days. i need to feel better tomorrow. i´m not enjoying the prospect of four days of hiking with throbbing headaches and cheeks of fire.