Welcome to Cusco…massage?
If you shut your eyes, the center of Cusco could be interchanged with any backpacking tourist mecca around the world from Kathmandu to Bangkok to Bombay. With offers of guided tours, massages, and bland restaurant food amidst gaggling conversations of English, French, German, and Hebrew, you also want to put in ear plugs.
With eyes open, packed stone houses with terra cotta roofs lead away from the chaos way up to hills crowned with grass and trees. One of these nose-bleed houses will be our home until June.
In some ways, the neighborhood of San Blas is like the South Side Slopes in Pittsburgh: walking distance to chaos – if you have a strong heart and lungs – with breathtaking views of the city below. But tucked away on side streets in this neighborhood are candle-lit restaurants, eclectic shops, and quite a few bars and lavanderias. This was an irresistible combination for us, and luckily Pittsburgh has trained us for the many stairs.
Plastered on doors throughout this artsy neighborhood are postings for live music, lost dogs, and apartments for lease. Naturally, the door we knocked on was the home of a painter whose colorful works hang throughout the house. His influence is apparent in the wood furnishings, planked walkways, modern decor, and the vast array of windows overlooking the city. The mini-apartment also has the modern amenities of cable TV, kitchenette, and a hot shower complete with growing tree limbs entering from the courtyard.
Instead of a shower on these cold mornings we rely on strong stovetop coffee and a morning climb to a nearby bakery to wake us up. In peaceful Plaza San Blas, we eat our pastry and no one offers us a massage.
Tags: Peru
Adam
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