So after finding out that I'd had a 39.8º fever the whole day I spent that night writhing between shivering under 5 layers of blankets and sweating under a thin blue sheet. This continued until the wee hours of the morning when I finally was able to get some sleep. The next day was better, though still worrying as the thermomiter said I had 36º and then 35º and finally 34º...I'm now waiting for my blood to freeze and my body temp to drop below zero. Then everyone can have alex popsicles.
Apart from the family tradition of Cuzco sickness we like this place a lot. The city was the Inca empire's capital until the Spanish came and brutally buried all evidence of that by building cathedrals over temples and spanish houses over palaces. What remains is a curious mix of grand colonial architecture built on the sturdy remains of Inca fortresses. The regular houses are all of uniform whitewashed walls with red terracotta roof tiles while the city is spaced with fountained plazas and arched buildings resting on superb Incan masonry of rocks fitted so well together that it looks disneyland fake.
Apart from the family tradition of Cuzco sickness we like this place a lot. The city was the Inca empire's capital until the Spanish came and brutally buried all evidence of that by building cathedrals over temples and spanish houses over palaces. What remains is a curious mix of grand colonial architecture built on the sturdy remains of Inca fortresses. The regular houses are all of uniform whitewashed walls with red terracotta roof tiles while the city is spaced with fountained plazas and arched buildings resting on superb Incan masonry of rocks fitted so well together that it looks disneyland fake.
I decided to rest for a day to be 100% ready for our upcoming trek and spent the afternoon wandering the smooth cobblestoned streets of Cuzco. I don't think I've ever been to so many museums in one day, beginning with the Inka museum, then the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Regional History, the museum folk art, a monestary museum... etc. All very interesting and most very free.
I also stumbled upon the local market which had a great selection from ceviche to homemade chocolate, coca leaves to llama sweaters. All dirt cheap and full of chaos.
Inbetween sickness and museum hopping we went on a half-day walk through 3 Inca ruins near Cuzco, getting off the bus at the small water-themed Tambo Machay and then walking down to some site starting with a P and ending at the impressive Saqsaywaman with its jagged puma-teethed walls of huge rocks.
No comments:
Post a Comment