First off, can we say that Cusco is much bigger of a city than we expected. I don’t know what we expected, but it wasn’t what we saw when we were landing. Unofficially, we were told there were about 400,000 people living in Cusco! And yet even with its size, the city manages to have a smaller village feel.
Cusco is also “the oldest city” in the Americas. People can’t seem to agree on how old it is, but is certainly is the oldest. A large part of our hotel was built back in the 1600’s. It is actually a very cool little hotel and has a great location. We completely lucked out here.
Also, did we mention that Cusco has an elevation of about 11,000 feet? This small fact pretty much occupied our first afternoon/evening here. There are a couple of ways to deal with the altitude changes. Many people get sick. For us, we opted for getting meds from our doctor before we left.
Thanks Doc, they worked like a charm.
For the first night here it was a little difficult to breathe – it felt like a large weight was on our chest. On top of that, our hands and feet were continually going numb. When we got up and moved around we became dizzy. Apparently, this is common.
The next morning things were much better. We still had some dizzyness but everything else seemed ok. However, we knew whenever our high altitude meds were wearing off because our hands and feet would start getting “pins and needles.” By the afternoon, we were feeling pretty good and ended up bumming around the city on our own followed by an organized city highlights tour. The tour included going up another 1000+ feet to see some Inca temples. Yep. We just got used to 11K and we went to 12K. Don’t think we didn’t notice!
On our way up the hillsides of Cusco enroute to Saqsayhuaman, our guide told us that the homes on the hills are the least desirable. In our part of the world, homes with fantastic views (of the city, hills or water) command a premium. No so here. All the homes on the hills have a pretty cool view; and while they have electricity, water, cable and internet most do not have roads, driveways. Access to most of these homes is via long, steep stairways. Climbing all those steps under normal conditions would be quite a workout but try doing so in a high altitude setting. Better yet, while carrying your groceries (including a nice and plump roasting Guinea Pig).
Click on the llama below to view pictures from our Cusco experience.
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| Cusco, Peru |
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