there John and I realized it's because the buses get full very quickly, so if you want to save money on transportation you have to be one of the first to get there. The bus we had originally taken in to the city was already full, so we wandered around for a while unsure of what to do. A man approached us and offered us a private cab ride back into the city of Cuzco. It wasn't too outrageous of a price, so we agreed. We sat in the cab (with no seatbelts, of course. None of the cars there ever seem to have them) ready to go, and then our driver asked me if it was alright if a friend of his rode into town with us too. Random. So, all cozy in the cab we headed on the route to Cuzco. We drove over cobble stoned streets for a while (bumpy!!), then we got out into the more rural mountaintop areas. We drove past many interesting things, and it was unlike anything I've ever seen before. It was more so the "real Peru" than anything we'd seen the last few days of being in tourist towns. We passed families out farming with their children, and I wondered things like where they went to school, where they go when they need a doctor, where they get clean water from etc. because it is a very remote area. It just makes you realize how much you have and take for granted as an American when you see any sort of poverty. The drive was beautiful though, and the altitude was definitely getting to me. I started getting my first of what would be many random headaches during the trip. Finally, we arrived back into Cuzco. I was glad because our cab driver was listening to a radio station the entire time of the same little girl singing multiple whiny mournful love songs with a man yelling things in Spanish in the background like "sing it girl!". It was a bit odd. Cuzco. 11,000 feet above sea level, and man you can tell! If you aren't used to high altitude like me, you will be out of breath after about 1 minute of walking. The city is very historic and is the ancient land of the Incan rulers and has many ruins still standing. The main part of the city has the central Plaza de Armas with the 600 year old Catholic churches, modern day restaurants,
fountains, shops, and vendors. Most of the buildings are colorful and seem to have orange terra-cotta or adobe style roofs. I think the city is beautiful! There may not be too much to do, but it is nice to look at! The first thing we did in Cuzco was take a cab to our hostel, Pirwa Colonial, located in the Plaza San Francisco (about 2 blocks away from the main square). It is situated next to a 500 year old church and is a renovated old colonial building with an open air courtyard. It has two stories and the second floor has a lounge area with pool tables, free internet, and a restaurant and bar that were buzzing with activity in preparation for the big New Years Eve party. I was feeling better, but when John and I set out to get lunch I was still too nauseous to eat anything besides a candy bar. John had a coworker who had been to Cuzco before and taken a photo of a little restaurant that she said had amazing empanadas. John printed this photo, and by 
coincidence the hostel woman recognized it, and we found it easily! John was thrilled of course, and since it was a local place it was very very affordable. John had about 4 empanadas and an Inka Cola for probably 2$ US. I just sat and observed him eating, willing my stomach to stop being so mean. Our first stop for the day was the Qorikancha ruins. We walked up a hill and on the way up saw a group of local girls wearing brightly colored traditional style clothing. One of them was even carrying a lamb. It seemed so cute and natural that I made John take a stalker photo. Then, one of the girls ran up to me and started chatting with me in Spanish. It was then, we realized, that they were only dressed like this so that tourists would take pictures with them and then they could get money for posing. This girl asked if I wanted a picture, so I figured "sure I'll just give her 1 sole and it'll be fine." We stood there for the photo then instantly the 4 other girls, baby, and extra lamb jumped in the photo too. I gave the girl I talked to a sole, and then the bad stuff went down. Those girls were mean, rude little you-know-whats! The girl whined to me that the sole "was not enough". I told her all she had to do was stand there, so that should be plenty. Then she said the other girls wanted money, and she wanted more since she was the one who talked to me first. Demanding!! I kept walking up the hill but they followed me, pestering me and all sticking their hands out in my face trying to block me in. I pulled out all the change I had in my pocket which was only 5 more soles, and I tried to hand it to the original girl. However, one of her other friends snatched it out of my hand and ran away! She then yelled at me that she should get more, and I
scolded her back saying that 6 soles was more than enough and that it wasn't my fault her friend left and wasn't going to split the money evenly. The other girls eventually gave up following me and after the main girl asked if John had any money I finally just yelled at her and said "that is all I have, it is plenty, go yell at your friends who aren't sharing, it's not my problem." I was getting very irritated and flustered at this point, and she was still following me. I then just totally ignored all the whiny, annoying, rude things she was saying until we got to the entrance of the ruins. I was relieved to get her out of my sight. They all seemed so cute and innocent at first with their little lambs and babies but no, they are fierce! The only plus side of this is it's a good story and I probably spoke Spanish more rapidly than I ever had before because I was put on the spot so much. Good practice. If you read this and go to Cuzco, avoid those deceiving little lamb girls!! Anyways, the Qorikancha ruins are really just stones now, and these form the base of the current colonial church and convent of Santo Domingo. It was once the richest temple in the Incan empire, but all that remains of it today is the original stonework and some carvings of Incan gods. In the Inca times the place was literally covered with gold, but within months of the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors the incredible place was looted to just the stone base. The Spanish wanted to oppress the local people and "put them in their place" and so constructed a
church on top of the Incan ruins as a way to dishonor and desecrate the Incan gods and religion. Through putting their Catholic church on top of the site, they successfully disrespected the local people's beliefs and heritage. How kind of them! (in the photo the stones at the bottom are the Incan ones) John and I walked around and since we had no map we were confused about where to go. We heard a man giving an English tour and so, assuming it was a complimentary tour, joined in. We learned a lot about the history and saw most of the church, colonial artwork, and Incan walls. Then, the man asked us if we were in his group, and we said "no..." and then he basically told us he was a tour guide for a company, so we just awkwardly ran away. We ended up finding someone with a map, which they just forgot to give us, and once we had that we were fine. We explored the garden area and overlook of the city, and it was very beautiful. The next thing included in our ticket was entry to the nearby Convento de Santa Clara. We walked down some alley where John was pestered by a man to buy his un-original artwork. When we arrived, the interior was very dark and empty. Although there were a lot of interesting artwork and artifacts, it was a little creepy because they had wax mannequins of the nuns acting out the activities or duties they used to do, and they looked like they were going to start moving or talking at any minute! After that, we headed back towards the main Plaza de Armas. It was a very exciting place to be since everything was bustling with activity in preparation for New Years Eve. In Peru, everyone
wears yellow and decorates with yellow for the holiday. There were yellow balloons, banners, confetti, and children selling yellow necklaces and hats everywhere! There were also many vendors selling fireworks, roman candles, and various other unsafe pyrotechnics. It was definitely an exciting atmosphere though! Since the main Catedral de Cusco was closed because they were decorating and setting up music in front of it for the fiesta that night, we decided to go inside and check out the other church of La Compañía de Jesús. From the exterior it is beautiful, and inside is even more impressive. It reminds me of most of the Gothic cathedrals in Europe, but much of the artwork had local people or natives painted in place of the traditional "white people" that appears in most religious art. According to the brochure the church was "originally begun in the late 16th century but was almost entirely demolished by the earthquake of 1650, rebuilt, and finally 
finished 18 years later. Like the main cathedral, La Compañía was also built over the site of an important ancient palace, that of the Inca Huayna Cápac, said to be the most beautiful of all the Inca rulers' palaces." Again, how nice of the oppressive Spanish people! We hired a very friendly guide for about 30 minutes and he explained the history and some of the artwork, then took us downstairs to see the catacombs (luckily I saw no creepy skulls like the one in Lima). Then, we walked up an extremely narrow and steep set of steps up towards the second story bell-tower area. It had a great view of the plaza, and made for some great photos.Once we left the church I bought some yellow necklaces from a little girl so we could be festive for New Years Eve! We then returned to the hostel and gathered up our dirty laundry into a bag. We walked about 3 blocks up a hill from our hostel to the first place we saw advertising laundry. We gave the man our names and he told us to come back to pick it up tomorrow. At this point in the evening I was feeling the effects of the altitude, some dehydration, and my nausea, so I decided to stay in the room and take a nap. I felt so sick though that I just laid there listening to music and couldn't fall asleep at all. Luckily no one else was there to see me, because it would have been so embarrassing. John walked around the city for a few hours, enjoying the hype in the atmosphere, and found a good local place to eat dinner. I had looked forward to celebrating New Years Eve in Cuzco ever since we started planning this trip back in April, and I tried to make myself feel better so hard, but it didn't seem to be working.
When John came back around 10pm it had started raining, and he said the city was so alive and fun and that I absolutely had to
go out for it. I started crying because I felt miserable, and honestly didn't have the strength to walk around unless I really forced it. I was feeling sorry for myself, hadn't eaten anything the whole day, and really what else would a girl do besides let a few tears loose in that situation? John talked me into standing up, and then I somehow put on all my yellow accessories and made myself presentable enough to take a photo holding the grapes he had bought from a local woman. It is tradition in Peru to eat 12 grapes at midnight, one for each month, for luck and prosperity during the coming year. We also put coins in the corner of the hostel room to have financial success in 2010. 
To get to the Plaza John basically just walked for me, holding up most of my weight. It was around 10:30 when we went so I could look around and see the gigantic party and crazy firework shoot-off it had already become. It began to rain harder so we came back to the hostel to wait until closer to midnight. We went up to the bar where the dance floor was hopping with some awesome salsa music, and John got himself a Cusqueña beer. We got some free party hats, and just enjoyed the festive atmosphere. I was sad I wasn't feeling better because I would have loved to have a drink and done some dancing. However, I was thankful to just be able to walk around. Closer to midnight we headed down to the main square again. I made John stand with me underneath the balconies that line the plaza because I felt it would be slightly safer from all the random haphazard fireworks. There are no rules or restrictions on New Years Eve apparently because anyone and everyone were shooting off fireworks, roman candles, and various other explosives without any warning to the people nearby. You would look over and see a kid sticking their arm up in the middle of a crowd, with babies nearby even, and then shoot off a roman candle that was taller than they were! It was pretty entertaining actually, but you just had to be on guard. People were popping champagne bottles too and just drinking and dancing in the square. It was so crowded and lively though, I loved it! I was starting to feel slightly better too so I was definitely glad John dragged me down to the Plaza for it. To quote John's take on this: "Here we celebrated the coming of the New Year by wearing as much yellow as possible (even the dogs did), eating 12 grapes at midnight and running from children with 5ft long roman candles (yes, taller than the kids were). I didn't get any really good pictures that night because I feared for my limbs due to the high explosive content in the air".
The clock on the main cathedral got to 11:59, and then the countdown began, it was fun to yell
out "DIEZ! NUEVE! .... FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!", people went crazy at midnight and threw confetti which got everywhere, all over our hair and clothes, and John even got sprayed by someone's champagne! We celebrated the American tradition of a New Year's kiss (how cute) and then we each ate 12 grapes. Even though I thought I was going to get sick the whole night, I somehow digested the grapes. Miracle! Then, the people in the center of the square began running the traditional 4 laps around the plaza. It was a crazy group, and it was fun to watch. Back at the hostel, things were hopping. I went to bed early but the bar party was going on with the loud Spanish music bass booming til about 4am or so. Despite being sick, New Years Eve in the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco was a crazy, insane, fun experience that I will definitely remember the rest of my life. CLICK to watch someone else's video of their experience in the Plaza!
No comments:
Post a Comment