Nice Things: Cusco

Ok, so this is a bit of a cop out "Nice Thing" (and oh my god I just realized that sounds like a really lame spin-off from Martha's "Good Things"...a name change is imminent). Anyway, this isn't very unexpected since people around the world love this town, but today I will explain why living near the beautiful city of Cusco is one of the perks of being in Peru. Also, I was looking through pictures I had already uploaded to the web to figure out just what today's post would be, and I was like, uhhhh, I have some pictures of Cusco! And look, I didn't even get this posted by Monday anyway. Sad.

In Cusco you can get your teeth repaired in the moment!

 Ollantaytambo is about a 2 hour car ride away from Cusco; said car ride costs about 3 dollars per person. The road winds up out of the sacred valley onto the pampa, through fields and smaller towns. You pass through Chinchero, the highest point on the ride, and soon dip back down into lowlands again and Cusco is all laid out there on the valley floor. All the twists and turns in the ride, the fluctuation in elevation and aggressively stupid maneuvering of the drivers usually mean I arrive in town with a splitting headache. You pass through the Tika Tika neighborhood first, which I can never tell if it's officially a slum, but all the same is not that nice. There is this street corner you pass with two or three dumpsters grouped together on a pile of dirt and trash. There are usually about 10 dogs and a pig or two around and inside these dumpsters. Soon, however, you're driving through narrow cobblestone streets, past Inca foundations and under colonial balconies.

Viva el Peru

One goes to Cusco to remember one lives in the 21st century. In Cusco you can do many things: drink artisanal cocktails at the Pisquerito, buy imported foods, black market goods, awesome handicrafts...all at low prices. When I'm in Cusco I make sure to buy patê, organic jungle coffee, pure cacao, delicious sausages, dried fruit, nuts, butter, cheese, black beans, crusty bread and tortilla chips. One can eat squid ink pasta with delicious wine or the fattiest most delicious chicharron (pork chunks pan fried in their own fat) and adobo (peppery, spicy soup with chunks of pork) you have ever tasted on the street with all the pork restaurants. I own an awesome blender and more bootleg DVDs than I even want to watch thanks to the black market in the Molino area.




Due to my love of shopping and eating out, I have not really spent much time doing the regular touristy things in Cusco. It's of course also home to tons of beautiful churches, cathedral and Incan ruins which I have not been inside. The one museum I have visited (twice) is the Museo de Arte Pre-Colombiana which has a collection of exquisite ceramics and one room full of wooden artifacts which I cannot get over.

In Cusco, there are lots of picturesque church doors. It is advisable to wear a hat because the sun is exceedingly brilliant, unless it's raining.
This wooden dude is hecka old and he haunts my dreams.