Day 1 in Cusco
So we made it Cusco alright. The Kiwi’s ended up being on the same flight as us, and Karl said he was staying at the Loki Hostel, which, incidently, was where we were thinking of staying per a previous recommendation. In the airport the night before, we also met up with two guys from Boston that were trying to figure out how to get to Cusco. They also were on our flight, and ended up staying at Loki. We’ve only been here a couple hours, and it’s already getting to be a party! I think everyone else ended up bussing it, but the four of us grabbed a cab. I was the elected translator in the group because, well, I’m the one that knew Spanish. Not that I’m fluent, but I can get by pretty well. Blu learned a bit before going, too, but didn’t know as much. I’m glad I did know it, because it makes hagglng prices easier. We got the cab to the hostel for 5 soles (about $1.50 USD)
On the drive we got to see our first impressions of not only Cusco, but our first venture into a South American city. Along the outskirts of town, it seems a bit grimey, and very brown. There’s obviously not much money in some of these families, and it’s rather run-down and dirty in areas. As we got closer to the city centre it became a little cleaner, and we started to get paved roads.
We were lucky enough to be able to get a room at Loki… they were pretty full, but we all managed. It’s a nice place, set in a 16th Century house. There’s apparently quite a bit of political history with the house, which you can read on their website if you’re so inclined.
Being as how we’d hardly slept in the past 2 days, we laid down for a bit of a nap… until Karl came in and said that that he and his other friend from NZ, Jane, were going to rent some motorbikes and drive around the mountains. Well, that caught Blu’s and my interest, so we went off with them, but Joe and Lindsey stayed to sleep some more.
Karl was able to negotiate us quite a deal on the bike rentals, only s/80 each for 4 hours, plus another s/25 for petrol… that’s about $32 USD total. 
I have to admit, I was a bit worried because, well, I hadn’t actually ridden before… though that’s not what I told them 😉 I mean I already knew where the throttle, brakes, clutch, and shifters were and all that, and I know how to ride a bicycle, and have been driving a manual tranny car for years… so it can’t be all that hard, right? Well, no, it really wasn’t that hard… except, of course, for my making a partial ass of myself when I first got going… Too much gas and let off the clutch too fast, and those fuckers sure take off! I had it under control, though… just took a second to get used to it. It didn’t help that it was raining a bit, either. We took off up a mountain on the north side of town, and passed by the ruins of Sacsayhuaman. As I was still getting used to the ride, I was lagging a bit behind, so we let Karl and Jane take off ahead of us and do their thing while Blu and I did ours. As we continued, we passed by some other ruins and got out to take a look around. 
Luckily, it stopped raining for a bit while we walked among the ruins, but, of course, it started right back up as we got riding again. Argh. My camera wasn’t in a waterproofed pocket, so it got a bit wet and started acting up, which blew cuz there were some really awesome shots as Blu and I took trails through the mountains and came across these little Andean villages. I was so glad that Karl suggested renting the bikes, because it’s not something I would have thought of, but it’s the only was we could have seen some of these villages. As we wound around tiny mountain paths, we would occasionally come across small groups of children, just hanging out, playing, and hiding in the grass and trees. They would always shout out “Hola!” as we passed, and we’d always respond with an “Hola” and a wave. 
After a bit, we realized we weren’t exactly sure where we were, but had a feeling we were going the right way… we just hoped we were right… We saw more buildings in a valley below, and headed in that direction. Once there, Blu thought we should head to right… and turns out he was right. Apparently we had gone up the mountain on the north side of town, circled around, and come down the mountain on the south side of Cusco, south of the airport. We still had some time left on our rental, so we just cruised around the city streets a bit. That was probably one of the scariest things we did… those car drivers in Cusco are fucking nuts! I guess stopping at intersections is optional, they just honk their way through if they don’t see any opposing traffic. And if there’s anyone walking near the street, or they’re about to pass another car, they’ll give a quick honk to let them know they’re nearby. I guess they’ve got the system down well… I expected to see an accident about every 4 seconds, but not once did I.
When we were done riding, we had to take care of some business regarding our Inca Trail tour, grab some dinner, and rest a bit more. Joe, Lindsey, and Blu ended up hanging in the hostel bar for a bit while I napped, but when they came in to get ready to hit some bars in town, I got up to join, but Blu stayed.
We hung around the Plaza de Armas deciding where to go, as everyone approached us to promote their discotheque, and why we should go there. At first we were trying to figure out where some of the others from the hostel went, but after we couldn’t find them, we ended up in Mama Amerika because they seemed to have a pretty good scene going on. And boy, am I glad we did 😉 They were running a drink special, 3 rum and Cokes for s/6 ($1.80), and they mixed em pretty strong. Man, I’m really beginning to love South America. After a few drinks, I went out to the dance floor to get my groove on. Within a song or two, an incredibly hot little Peruvian girl started dancing with me. This clearly must be a mistake on her part, but I’m sure as Hell not complaining! But low and behold, she kept dancing through the next few songs. Turns our Catherine is from Lima, and was visiting Cusco and Machu Picchu herself for the first time… and, she thought I looked like Jesus. Again! It always works! Everywhere I go, no matter what country, people tell me I look like Jesus. Fitting, too, since it was technically Easter morning. We ended up hanging out the rest of the night, and when things started dying down there, we headed next door to Mama Africa. Not sure what became of Joe and Lindsey, but honestly, I wasn’t too concerned. They could fend for themselves, and I had other preoccupations 😉 I knew the wouldn’t mind.
In the morning, I found myself in the San Blas area where I grabbed a cab from her hotel back to Loki… now about 8am Sunday, and the last real full sleep I had was Thursday night, so I crashed out. It’s been a loooong and eventful couple of days.
Tags: Cusco, Lima, motorbikes, Peru, South America, Travel
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