Peru Day 3: Cusco, Peru

Empezar con una Feliz Navidad a todos mis lectores!

Today is my second day in Cusco, Peru. I was so drained from my almost 40 hours of actual transit that I slept most of the day. The guy at Keros Hostel where I am staying came to get me around 1 PM and told me that checkout was at 10 AM. Oops. #TravelProblems

So, I am staying at Keros Hostel where the water is hot and the prices too high. The place is nice enough in itself, but for $30 per night, I would expect 24/7 refreshments o algo. I mean, come on. Por lo menos, un te o galletas. But, I shouldn't complain. It's very clean and only a 5 minute or so walk to the Plaza de Armas, or the City Centre (depending on how out of breath you get from this 3,000 + feet altitude).

This altitude sickness is no joke. Shortness of breath, definitely weakness of all extremities, constantly feeling like you are going to pass out. Not to mention everything in Cusco is up or down a giant hill. Yeah. So, good luck with that, my fellow backpackers.

I heard that some fancy hotels offer in-room oxygen treatments. Once money starts flowing, I may look into that because it sounds as close to heaven as I could reasonably get while hanging out in Cusco.

La ciudad es bueno. La gente son amables. I am enjoying my time here even if it is not exactly how I envisioned it to be. A Native woman with a baby and a baby lamb accosted me in the street today asking for money to be permitted to take a photograph with her super cute baby lamb. I passed. Good thing I have a pretty decent command of the Spanish language. Another hombre chased me around en las calles for awhile screaming, "PAIS?" and I just ignored him until he left. Otro hombre was following me asking me to buy something or other, but then I told him quite firmly en espanol, "Porque no molesta a ESE HOMBRE y no yo?" He promptly ceded his annoyances.

Keros Hostel is convenient but I wouldn't sing it's praises. Too expensive. Too cold. Not bad though if you're desperate and on the less broke side of things. Neither of which I am, which is why I will be relocating hostels manana cuando llega el dinero! (The bank man is the worst.)

Off to find some Christmas eats (or basically anything that my altitude sickness will permit me to stomach)...

Feliz Navidad a todos!

Day 1 (and 2): Lima y Cuzco, Peru

Well, now is as good of a time as any to start blogging.

What a day+ of travel it has been! This Peru trek (just getting here) makes any camping trip I've done in the states seem like a cakewalk.

Well, as the great queen said: Let them eat cake! [Sidenote: she was murdered.]

I am working on eating mine.

But really, I'm working on some caldo de gallino from across the street from my Cuzco hostel. It's the first real food I've had in about 3 days which isn't good. Maybe I came down with some kind of early travel bug because I can't stomach the smell much less the taste of most food. I need fuerza if I plan to make it across this vast country and up into Ecuador!

Anyway, caldo in bed is happening. Interesting: across the street, my caldo estaba servido en bolsa sin cuchara. Pues, forward thinking V brought her own chopsticks and cuchara/tenedor combo (shout out Hong Kong Supermarket). Also, looks like this must be a standard thing because I asked the front desk hombre for a bowl and he brought me a lovely bowl on a platter.

So, apparently most hostels are booked because of one of three reasons: 1) Navidad; 2) la lluvia (that never stops apparently); or 3) that one dude's birthday party (que?). So, my taxista amable Cesar (who is a mad hustler apparently; he also runs multiple tour companies) found me one of the "few" hostels left - a whopping $30 per night. My jaw dropped when I heard that as I was anticipating paying around $6-$15 for a decent hostel with 24 hour agua caliente (apparently, some hostels offer hot water, but not 24 hours of it. Yup.)

Maybe it was poor planning on my part, but I seriously did not expect the daytime temperature in Peru to be like 50 degrees (tal vez porque de la lluvia). Anyway, I'm seriously cold and the hostel doesn't offer any sort of warming apparatus or device. I definitely miss heaters. I would think they had heaters here for when it snowed? Pero, I asked and they looked at me as though I was entitled and crazy, both of which are probably partially true.

Well, off to bed with me, all the layers I can muster intact. So tired.