Diane: We arrived in Cusco early this morning after a relatively sleep-free 25 hours on a bus. This following piece from one of the local museums clearly demonstrates how we all felt during the night.
At this point, Tom and TM are ready to choose our next destination based on where the train goes.
After making a sweep of many of the budget lodgings, we found our current home-away-from-home in a quaint neighborhood of narrow cobblestone streets and Incan stone foundations. A couple of blocks away are the infamous 12-sided stone, carved to fit perfectly with the surrounding stones.
As it turns out, the place is also crawling with trendy restaurants, laundromats, chocolate shops, travel agencies, and women dressed in indigenous outfits holding baby goats ready to pose for a picture for a dollar. When I walk down to the central plaza, there are also tens, maybe hundreds, of touts luring me into the closest restaurant, pub, or disco, who have no compunction about pinning things on me, putting things in my hand, grabbing onto my clothing, and trying to unzip my sweatshirt pockets. I almost forgot to mention the vendors, who want to polish my purple sneakers, shove cigarettes in my face, or hold a large bag of individually wrapped hard candy next to their imploring faces. Gosh, I can't help but love it here ;-).
Maybe not today, but very soon we need to attend to the logistics of leaving Cusco. This is not because I can't wait to leave, but because the trains, buses, planes, and hotels here tend to fill up even in the low season. The only way to get to Machu Picchu is by train or to walk in with a guide. Consequently, not only are the train prices jacked way up, but the trains tend to fill up as well. And TM's best friend Paul needs to get back to Lima to catch his connecting flight to Miami. And lastly, we need to buy our onward tickets, which begs the question - where are we going next?
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