Alpaca: clothes and food

The overnight bus to Cusco was incredibly hot. At least is wasn't freezing cold, but why can't they get it right? It seems that the temperature outside being above 23C means they have to try and lower it to 10C, whereas the outside temperature being above 23C means they have to try and increase it to 40C, which I'm pretty sure the achieved on this particular bus: my big bottle of water felt hot when we finally got off the bus. Incredibly the promised pick up from bus station was actually there, for which we were very grateful.

At first impression Cusco looked like a rather attractive place, in particular the main square and a wall near our hostel, which had been built by carving large stones so that they fit perfectly together; a technique I knew, from some documentary I once watched, was an Incan architectural technique meaning that no cement or grout is required. Incredible. Worried about how cold I was going to get in the Machu Picchu trek, considering that I still had no warm clothes since my thermals were stolen and my one pair of long trousers were ripped again, we went shopping for clothes for both of us. I bought a nice warm-looking alpaca wool jacket, though I wasn't all that keen on the style or the fact it was very bulky and therefore going to take up a lot of space in my bag. Nonetheless, the vendor lowered her price until I didn't feel I could say no and I really did need something warm. I also needed some shoes, since mine were finally starting to fall apart, months and months after having them repaired in Laos. I thought I might get some walking boots, but these were all very expensive. I nearly bought one of two pairs, but I couldn't decide which fitted better, deciding I could come back to choose in a day or two.

That night we met up with Tess and Liam, who had been in Cusco for two weeks already, learning Spanish. Predictably it turned into the usual late night and drunken carnage that seems to be all they do; though they claim that we are a bad influence on them and they spend all their time learning Spanish and doing other wholesome things while we are not around.

Guy in Liam and Tess's hostel with a big bag of coca leaves

The following day Lucy and Zdenek arrived and we met up with them to coordinate Machu Picchu, and bought very expensive train tickets to the nearby town of Aguas Calientes, which seems almost completely to have changed its name to Machu Picchu Pueblo, unsurprisingly. Pleased at our decisiveness and progress we went out for dinner and I had an alpaca steak, which was rather nice, but not a patch on an Argentinian Bife de Chorizo.

Alpaca steak

written by

The Happy Couple on November 6, 2009 from Cusco, Peru

from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon

Send a Compliment

This is truly superb! I love this post so much! I love the food, too! So mouth-watering!

written by Roy Connelly on November 29, 2012

comment on this...