Breakfast was good. They had papaya juice and the watermelon was so red and sweet. YUMMY. There was a station where they made fresh eggs with the toppings of your choice. So good. Pancake was dried bread with syrup - interesting. Oh and then I realized the hotel had free wifi - yay to that! :)
Note: Salman mentioned air smelled like the cross between an ocean and a butcher shop. When I walked out of the hotel, I realized he could not have been more accurate.
IN TAPIKAYLA HOTEL
Views from Lima to Cusco were very pretty. Hotel is up a very narrow street. Got my first taste of coca tea. What does Coca tea taste like? Hmmm. Salman thinks its a cross between soy rice and something that is delicately sweet. I don't know. Tastes interesting though. Boris picked us up from the airport and went over our plan for the next few days. It's going to be fun and I'm sooo looking forward to it. Glad we added an extra day at Pisac.
CUSCO CITY TOUR - starting at 3pm
After nap, we had light lunch, chicken soup and Boris took us for a walking tour. The streets are cobblestone, very eclectic and narrow. And the buildings on either side are neat - The walls and the ways the huge stone blocks come together. Apparently, the stones were ground down with stones, sandpaper and water to make perfect butt joints.
We visited 2 churches. The first one was clearly demarcated with the break in the Inca culture and the Spanish colonization. Very nice open ground between the walls.
The second church was quite extravagant. I think Boris said cedar wood was carved and then plaster added to it and smoothed down. And then gold leaves were added and entire arches were gold. Very extravagant. Couldn't get pictures as it wasn't allowed. Boris has an accent and some of it is hard to understand, but it's not bad.
He showed us where to eat tonight and we had pizza. I normally don't care for pizza but this was amazing and really good. Soup was alright. Had fresh fruit juice. That was nice. Salman ordered inca cola and I tried some. It was good too. Next time, I'll order it instead. The internet connection here is VERY SLOW. I was lucky to logon this afternoon. I don't wish to logon just now as I'm journaling. Tomorrow, we're off to the Sacred Valley - day 1 is over.
