We arrived by bus at about 6:30am and the beautiful city of Cusco welcomes you with its arms wide open... Along with altitude sickness, which include massive headaches, stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea... Lovely!!!
Being as "tough" as i want to believe I am I thought altitude sickness was a joke and I wasn't going to get it. Well, since last night I was feeling sick and even called my mom crying from the night bus. I woke up feeling a little better and rested for about 3 hours before going on my own to explore the city.
At 10 I ventured on my own feeling better. I walked down to the plaza de armas and was pleasantly surprised to see they were having some kind of ceremony. I asked a police man what was going on and he said "Desfile de Domingo" so apparently every Sunday they have this very elaborate ceremony with army guys and the whole thing... It was impressive! There was a huge band, the military marching, they sang their national anthem and they even had a huge parade with kids dancing!
I really didn't understand if the whole dancing happens every Sunday or this day was more special because they were also celebrating teacher's day. Many school aged kids were dancing in traditional costumes and it was beautiful!!!!!!!!
I have been looking forward to Cusco for its food, I had done my foodie research and have my must try restaurants such as Chicha, Limo, Map Cafe, Ciocciolina, Greens organics. I had even planned when to eat at each restaurant but by noon I was feeling like crap!!!
I decided to power through the yucky feelings and decided to go on a short city tour with the rest of the group and was hoping to feel better to go and try Chicha!
We first stopped at the plaza de armas
Then Ricardo took us to a bakery to get some yummy brownies... Guess who was the only one not to get a taste?!?! Yeap, ME... That should have been the sign that I needed to go back to the hotel and rest! But no, I'm stubborn and I powered through it!
We passed by a plaza where they were having a big celebration and selling local food such as this delicacy: Cuy (or guinea pig)... That made me feel even worse!
Then we stopped at the chocolate museum... I tasted a yummy cocoa tea made from the shells of the cocoa beans and it was delicious but I could hardly lift the cup... I didn't even buy chocolate!!!!!! That's how sick I felt!
Despite feeling very weak and light headed I decided to go to the local market... Bad idea!!!
The smell, the meat section in particular made me feel even worst.
A horse's mouth anyone?!?!
After the market I slowly walked back to my hotel and slept for 4 hours before I had to attend the Inca Trail info session.
I have been dreading this Inca Trail hike... I'm so scared of it and I get my nervous stomach pain when I think of it...
Our inca trail guide did a fabulous job at explaining what to expect from this hike. He explained in details how everyday will be and what we should expect from it. We will have a total of 22 porters... That means people running the inca trail with our clothes, food, tents, toilet tents, kitchen equipment, sleeping bags, air mattresses and what not... How crazy is that?!? We need more people to carry our $h!-l- than the actual number of people hiking the darn trail!!!
I'm glad we have them, don't get me wrong, if I had to carry my own tent or sleeping bag I think I would rather take the train up! (Even now I feel like I should take the train... But it's too late!haha)
Somehow this orientation made me feel more at ease about the whole hiking thing and in some weird kind of way I think I'll enjoy it.... After the meeting it was time for me to go back to sleep for another 10 hours!
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