Cusco, Peru

Tuesday, May 6 – Day 140

Cusco is a really cool city, and it’s been around for nearly 1,000 years. With a population of 500,000, it’s also fairly large. The elevation here is 11,150 feet, and a lot of people get altitude sickness – no wonder I felt dizzy carrying my stuff out of the airport. The locals suggest drinking Coca tea to help acclimate. It tastes pretty much like any other green tea to me, but the crazy thing is that you can buy great big bags of coca leaves here right on the street.

Plaza de las Armadas is a beautiful square with two large churches. I walked into one of them this evening, and there was a service going on. Besides the service, people were making confessions, and others were praying at the various altars in the alcoves. At one end of the church was a large silver cross about 10 feet tall. There were families lined up to pray, and when it was their turn, each member would put a hand on the cross while the father said the prayer. And this is on a Tuesday night.

I went to a restaurant across the street from my hotel and had an alpaca steak and fried guinea pig for dinner. The alpaca was great. The guinea pig, on the other hand, took a fair amount of work to eat and didn’t seem to have a lot of meat on it. It’s is usually served on special occasions and they deep fry the whole animal, including the head (note the sprig of parsley in the pig's mouth), then serve it up on a plate or on a stick. I think that it’s a different animal than the guinea pigs that we know as pets, but I’m not really sure.