Chapter 2:

Day 5) City Tour of Cuzco and Surrounding Area

Today was a free morning, there was nothing planned till after lunch. We could do what ever we wanted in the morning, and what we wanted was to sleep late !! Woohoo !!

After our nice simple breakfast at the hotel, we walked down to the main square, Plaza del Armas. We walked around the entire square checking out all the stores. Along the way we were constantly approached by street vendors wanting to sell art work or postcards. They'd do it in such a furtive manner as to give the impression they were offering porn or something else illegal. We were also often approached by locals dressed up in local costumes offering to pose for photos, only 1 Sole of course! The more savy ones would carry a bleating lamb with them wrapped up in a blanket for extra color.

Kids would pose for $. Several carried a lamb for extra tourist appeal.

Being low on local currency we visited an ATM at the local Banco de Peru. I love technology, when I can stick my American ATM card into a Peruvian ATM and get Peruvian Soles deducted from my home checking account!

When we exited the bank we found the streets filled with hordes of pre-school aged children. There must have been THOUSANDS of them! There were all blowing on plastic whistles and many of them were in various costumes! It turned out to a parade in celebration of Children's Day in Cuzco. We sat on the stone steps of the cathedral in the main square and watched the children parade by. We had a great time watching them. They were all so excited to be in a parade!

That afternoon we took the "City Tour of Cuzco" with our tour guide named Raphael. This tour included some of the cathedrals in town along with some of the Incan ruins in the local area including Qorikancha and Sacsayhuaman. While at Qorikancha we first learned about Incan architecture and their fondness for trapezoidal window and doors. Unfortunately, the tour was loooong. We ended up visiting the last ruin in the dark so it was hard to see.