School here is held 5 days a week. However, the kids go to school in 3 different shifts. The last shift ends around 7:30pm.
Our guide for the city tour says that more than 90% of the children attend school, but it is difficult to know for sure about all the kids who live up in the shanties up on the hillside.
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.
Here´s the deal - Both Cusco & Machu Picchu have horrible Internet connections (we´re talking worse than dial-up). Bear with us until we get to someplace that has a decent connection.
Until then, here´s a little quiz about the culinary habits of the folks in both Cusco & Machu Picchu.
Ready?
What is a small, fuzzy, fairly common household pet in the US?
Think of one that starts with the letter G.
Gerbil? No.
Goldfish? Umm, if your goldfish is fuzzy you have a problem.
Are any of you thinking Guinea Pig?
Are any of you also thinking, "I wonder what Guinea Pig tastes like?"
Think no longer. Come down to either Cusco or Machu Picchu & order Cui Al Horno (that´s Guinea Pig). Yeah...these are eaten on special occasions.
The long flights down to Santiago were pretty uneventful with one exception. When our plane left Dallas/Fort Worth it lost a generator & then had to dump fuel & circle back to the airport to land. When we did land back in Dallas we were greeted on the tarmac by a fantastic flashing light show from the local fire & emergency departments. Dallas is such a welcoming place! We were then put onto another plane around 12:30am which was about 3 hours later than expected. Inconvenient? Yes. Big deal? No – everyone was ok in the end. However, it was amazing how many other passengers were upset & filing complaints. Our favorite complaint? There was one older couple who kept asking if they were going to be changing the catering to a breakfast because it was too late for dinner. Seriously!
Santiago Update
Temps have been the mid-high 80’s yet it is cold here for the locals & they are wearing their woolies. That makes us stand out as tourists even more.
This is towards the end of Semana Santa (Holy Week) so many of the locals have been on holiday and/or have been involved in the various celebrations throughout the past week.
Yes, we’ve seen a fair enough amount of earthquake damage here. Parts of the airport looked like a bomb had gone off inside & out & some of the poorer neighborhoods (where the buildings were not up to code) had been totally flattened (very sad). Most of our hotel survived. Overall though, we’ve been amazed at how much of the city is still operational. We’ll head back there at the end of this next week.
Due to the earthquake Chile delayed ending their daylight savings time until today (Easter Sunday). Their seasonal schedule is opposite from ours. Fall recently began here. Of course, because of this time change & the regular time zone change, we’ve given up trying to figure out what time it is here!
Next, we leave Santiago for 5 nights & head for the Cusco & Machu Picchu areas of Peru. Think there’s another time change involved. High altitude sickness opportunity, here we come!
Santiago Update - The countdown to Santiago, Chile is on & things are looking up. The shaking down there continues (ugh). However, we just learned that the airport is 80% functioning. Most flights are actually arriving & departing. Word is that the international terminal is a currently a tent set up on the tarmac. We're OK with that! We also learned that our hotel is now operational.
Machu Picchu Update - The January flooding in the Cusco area of Peru washed out the rail link to Machu Picchu. While most of the rail service won't be restored for months it looks like the link from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu will be restored by the end of March. Without that rail link the only way to get to Machu Picchu was by hiking (in high altitude, no less).
We're so very happy, happy, happy that some things are improving down there!!!
Presidential Inauguration Day in Santiago + 3 Strong Earthquakes (6.9, 6.7 & 6.0 magnitude) Darn Close to There = J&L May Now be Heading into the “Area of Severe Shaking” (see map on previous post).
