Cusco – Part II

Day 1 – Dirty Franchises!!

Today we had a lie in due to not feeling great after our exertions of the last few days, this resulted in us missing breakfast and having to take advantage of the nearby Starbucks (yes, they are everywhere!).

After a nice coffee, we headed to the laundry to get some of our soggy/smelly trekking gear washed and then we headed to a travel agency to enquire about another trip.  Unfortunately, the agency we went to was shut so as it was lunchtime we headed to the Norton Pub to decide what to do next.  Also I was pretty sure they would be showing a live West Ham game!!

At the pub, they were indeed showing Liverpool v West Ham so we got a beer and settled down to watch the game.  Whilst watching it I realised that the guy on the next table was a Liverpool fan so we started chatting football.

The game finished 2-2 so no one was too upset (even though the Hammers had been winning 1-2) and after the match we joined the guy and his wife on the next table.  Chatting to them we found out that Dave was an ex-pat worked for a luxury tour company and his Peruvian wife Dori.

 

Dave and Dori were really interesting and did a lot of motorbike tours of South America, liked football and rock music so we had plenty of stuff in common to talk about.  It was also very useful as between them they came up with a few recommendations of places to visit in Peru, which then meant we made a decision to put off our jungle trip to somewhere else in South America…. I don’t think Shel was ready to face  more mosquito’s either

A few drinks turned into a lot of drinks and it was now getting late so we said our goodbyes and thanks to Dave and Dory and then headed to a nearby KFC where we got lots of dirty fried chicken to take back to the hostel to devour.  Shortly after our chicken feast it was lights out!!

Day 2 – Cusco Culture

Waking up a bit worse for wear we headed for breakfast passing the remnants of our KFC on the way out of the door. The breakfast here was pretty decent with eggs, cereals and fresh fruits, so we filled up on that before heading out.

As the weather was pretty overcast and with the threat of rain we decided against Dave’s recommendation of a quad bike tour and headed for one of the churches we had seen on our walking tour.

 

The church was one of the oldest in Cusco and we had been informed that there were catacombs you could visit there.  We paid our entry fee and were led to a courtyard with paintings all around the walls and waited there for our guide (included in the entry fee).

Firstly, we were shown some really large paintings and given the meanings before heading to another room where one of the catacombs were.  We were led down into a small room that was bestrewn with bones of the monks and clergy that had lived here, but it was really small and not that impressive.

We were then led around the rest of the rooms which had more large painting, one of note had the last supper scene (yet again) but this time Jeassy Creassy was tucking into some monkey/lamb hybrid dish, once again to get the locals on the catholic band wagon.

About 45 minutes later the tour was finish and I can’t say we were that impressed, we thought the catacombs were going to much bigger and impressive.  So, after the church we had a wander around the streets of Cusco with the intention of visiting the main cathedral in the Plaza.

However we were both a bit tired and as we were moving on the next day so we decided to go back to the hostel to relax for the afternoon, doing a bit of blogging and watching some TV.

In the evening, we took Dave’s and Dori’s advice and headed to an Indian restaurant a few blocks from where we were.  Walking up to the restaurant we really liked the streets and vibe of the area and were a bit disappointed that we hadn’t stumbled across it before.

 

We entered the restaurant which did have the feel of an authentic Indian restaurant. Although the service was pretty slow the food was fairly decent and it was nice to be eating something other than undetermined meat covered in chips/with rice.

After getting some nice spicy food in our bellies we then headed for our final drink in the Norton pub as we had made tentative plans to meet up with Dave and Dori there again before we left. 

 

At the pub we had a drink but there was no sign of the other couple so we called it a day and headed back for an early night.