Fresh Fruit and Ice-Cream
After spending $40 you better believe I enjoyed complimentary eggs with bread and marmalade. This is the typical breakfast at all of the hostels/hotels. I became addicted to the bread there and slathered a ton of marmalade on every piece. I usually ended up having to ask for more.
I set foot back into shitty TorCasa where I refused to pay, took my bags and left. Within 30 minutes I had found a new place to stay for my last night that had an inexpensive double room as Jessica would be arriving back that night from the Inca Trail. It was close to the center and had a friendly staff.
I did a bit of shopping this morning picking up Alpaca scarf’s, some pottery items, and the wonderfully comfortable colorful pants I saw every backpacker wearing. My haggling skills have improved since China, although they were great to start with. You can count on Vicki to get the cheapest possible price for a product. I know, the locals have very little and are happy if they can sell 5 small items a day but they try and scam the tourist with their outrageously high starting rates. And when I say outrageously high, I mean trying to sell me a scarf for $6 when I can get it for $2. As an unemployed backpacker, $6 is a high price for a local scarf. You better believe I bought nearly 10 of them.
I had been admiring a local restaurant called Jack’s Café in San Blas sine I arrived in Cuzco. Always crowded and the menu seemed deliciously non-Peruvian. Christian and I met there for a late lunch. After, he set off to get an “Inca Massage” and I set off to get my moneys worth on the Boleto Touristica del Cuzco. A museum/Inca pass that gets you into 16 locations. Most of the Inca ruins you have to take a bus to get to and I had already visited several of them on the Sacred Valley Tour, so today I hit up the museums. This ticket is one of the most expensive things I had to buy in Peru, normal price is 70 soles (roughly $23) but using my handy dandy ISIC card (international student Identification Card-you better believe I still get away with being a student if it means half off many purchases!) I was able to purchase it for 35 soles. This card has saved me a lot of money throughout my trip; I hope it can do the same in Europe.
On my stop:
* Museo de Arte y Monasterio de Santa Catalina: Religious art with several colonial paintings.
* Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporaneo: A small collection of Andean art on display.
* Museo Historico Regional: The home of the Inca-Spanish historian lies buried in the Cathedral. The museum houses hundreds of arrowheads, pots, a Nazca mummy, weavings, gold ornaments, and of course, paintings.
* Museo de Arte Popular: Some very unique sculptures and paintings I found intriguing to look at.
Following my non-stop museum tour I found a wonderful cafe that had deliciously fresh fruit and chocolate ice-cream! I helped myself to a huge bowl of both.
That evening I sat near the fountain of Plaza de Armas admiring the view, watching the locals, and listening to the other languages of the backpackers who surrounded me. This is the area where many sit, drink their coca tea, and watch the world go by. After about 30 minutes Michael sat next to me, a 30-something Acupuncturist from Seattle. Michael had spent several days in Cuzco and was preparing to set off to Iquitos for 2 weeks to perform some Ayahuasca ritual with the local Shaman. Naive me had never heard of this Ayahuasca drug like substance. He blabbed and blabbed about its healing effect. It’s an opportunity to re-balance and re-centre your life, to clear emotional blocks in a way that has to do with healing and personal evolution. Call me crazy but hearing that drinking this tea puts you in some crazy trance for 4 hours where you experience weird thoughts and dreams, followed by vomiting and diarrhea for god knows how long does not sound exciting. Most of my friends and family know that I am against all forms of drugs so hearing about all of this somewhat made me cringe. Money not well spent if you ask me and if it is not legal in the States, than yes, it is an illegal drug which Michael tried to deny. Sadly, I had originally invited this guy to have dinner with Christian and I but I could only stand hearing about this “tea”, his experiences with LSD, mushrooms, cocaine, how to get high and the best time to get high for so long. I said goodnight after 3 hours. But dinner sure was fun! I was able to ignore him through most of the night as we went to Inca Wall, a very touristy restaurant with a Peruvian dance show every night. Classic.
Tags: drugs
