"H" is Horrid ATM machines and How did they do that? And Huffing and puffing from the altitude.

I love Cusco. I really do, it's like the best mixture of colonialism and Havana and parts of Africa as well as bits of Spain, and of course the Inca.
I'm not liking this iPad version of Blogger because the pictures will only download at the end of the blog, and you can't put a comment beside them. And the Safari version doesn't have a way to load pictures from the iPad to their site.
Point being, I'll finish up a bit of an explaination of Cusco, then I'll blog properly when I get home, which is only a couple of days from now.
So these are comments that don't really need pictures.

First of all, thank the gods that I'm anal and bring cash, for fear that my debit and credit cards won't work, because guess what? My debit and credit cards won't work. I tried two or three different ATM machines, all at reputable banks, and every one said things like "We do not recognize this card" and "error in reading card" and sometimes a Spanish sentence would appear that I couldn't decipher, it either said "Notify your bank" or "WE are notifying your bank". In any case, I'm thinking I might have to actually go into a bank and get a cash advance on my MasterCard, and that's a piss off. But hey, for the time being I have cash in my pocket and I'm in South America on a sunny day. Can't ask for more than that. Except maybe a working debit card and perhaps some coffee. All they serve here is "Nescafé". Ah yes, the infamous Nescafé. It was the same in Africa, a country that grows some of the best coffee in the world, yet they serve Nescafé. Very same here, Peru exports phenomenal coffee, yet they are so proud of their Nescafé.

In any sidewalk cafe:
Me : Cafe? preparado?
He: Si. Nescafé
Me: Nescafé instante. (Making a sad face)
He: Si. Nescafé.
Me: Necesito cafe preparado.(trying to look pleading)
He: Si, Si, Nescafé! (Looking very happy at having solved this crisis)
Me: Si, Nescafé. Con leche. (said in a pretend Happy Voice)

It's very discouraging

Anyhow, after exchanging some money, or attempting to, and having a refreshing coffee, or attempting to, we had some downtime to just wander the Plaza de Armas, the centre of the city. It's a truely beautiful city, "founded" by the Spanish in 1532, in reality however, the Killke were pre-Inca from 900-1200, and the Incas were there from 1300 until the Spanish came and decided to colonize it. They replaced indigenous temples with Catholic Churches, and replaced palaces with mansions for the invaders. I'll show some pictures as soon as I get home, showing how the Spanish used the walls of the Inca temples as foundations for their church. You can see how the church walls have shifted and moved and partially collapsed due to earthquakes, yet the Inca walls are still so exact that you literally (and you know that I know how to use "literally" correctly) you literally cannot slide a credit card between the rocks. How did they do that?

We actually toured this church the following day, so I'll tell a few more tales about it then, And show some pictures.

So now it's about supper. We went to Los Toldos Pollos, a chicken place, roasted chicken and fries. It's a dish that the Peruvians are extremely proud of, and they suggest it at every meal, but really, it's like chicken on a spit, the same kind we get at any supermarket, and fries. They love it however,and ya gotta try what the locals eat. It was fine, but not what I'd consider peruvian cuisine. We also thought we should try some Peruvian wine. There was only a white, called Tacama. Little tip: Dont try it. Chile is next door, bite the bullet and drink a great Chilean wine.

So after dinner, a few of us went to a local pub, a very cool little place down a side street, down some stairs, sort of like a rocky basement turned into a nice bar and had pisco sours. The place actually specialized in them, it was called The Pisco Museum. The pisco sour is the national drink. Ummm....it packs a punch. I'm a lightweight and less than a half a drink was all I could manage.

Headed back to the hotel, and I decided to take the altitude meds. I didn't want to, I'd rather not put weird chemicals in my body, but I was pretty winded and had a faint headache and upset tummy. I could feel my heart pound after I walked up the two flights of stairs, and I just didn't want to get sick this soon in the trip, so,I decided to take the Diamox for a day or two, suck back lots of coca tea and toss the malaria pills.

So I huffed and puffed my way upstairs and slept like a log. It may have been a combination of Tacama wine, pisco sours and Diamox, but the magic was there and I didn't move all night.

I will try to add one photo here, of the magnificent Inca walls that still run throughout the city