Cuzco

Finally left Lima today. Took a flight over to Cuzco, the oldest continuously inhabitated city in the Americas. The place does indeed look old. Narrow little cobblestone streets that are really little more than sidewalks. Most of the streets still manage to host two way vehicle traffic, however. Don´t ask me to explain why the traffic patterns are as they are in places like this. The town is pretty...though I have to say my initial impression was not favorable; there was a strike going on this afternoon with all sorts of people making noise and burning tires in the streets. Took awhile to get to my hostel as a result since many streets were closed. Didn´t seem violent though. I had forgotten the word for ´strike´ in Spanish when I was questioning my cab driver what was going on...so instead I described it as a 'parade for complaining'. The cabbie was like, ¨yeah, that´s a pretty good way to explain it¨. Never ceases to amaze how you can get a cab for a 3rd of the price if you walk outside the airport parking area and wait for one on the street. Let me rephrase that...you can get a cab for a fair price and not pay triple if you walk out of the airport area to find one.

Cuzco is pretty high up in the Andes - about 12,000 feet I believe. Chilly. I feel pretty fine, although I get winded walking up the stairs in my dump of a hostel. Crappy hostels are great for making you get out the place to type up your blog though. So I´ve got one more day to acclimitize myself as I´ll be hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu starting Friday. It´s going to be a 5-day hike, so should be interesting for sure. I think I´ve gotten a little soft as I can´t really say I´m looking forward to it. But I know it´s something I will enjoy and remember so be happy to do it. Think I´m going to take a little mountain bike tour tomorrow. Hopefully, it won´t rain.