Aguas Calientes to Cusco

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Today we were on the road again. We left Aquas Calientes by train back to Ollantaytambo.  Peru Rail, the operators of the train, put on a show about half way through the ride to sell alpaca products complete with an employee dressed in Inca costumes who performed a native dance.  After we reached Ollantaytambo we met our bus to go to Cusco. We arrived around 6:00pm.   


The drive into Cusco is very depressing. The town is built on bluffs with “houses” built everywhere, garbage thrown down the sides of the canyons and stray dogs running in packs of 5-7 rummaging through the garbage. Everything is muddy. The water and rains come down the canyons and coat everything in sight.   And this continues until you get within the very center of the city. They try to call these the “young neighborhoods” but they are what we would call “slums”. However, the poverty is not hunger - just lack of money. Peru is such an agricultural area that food is not an issue. Even the dogs were large beautiful dogs.  They may have lacked human kindness but they were not hungry.

 The city center is totally different. Beautiful hotels, shops that sell quality goods, no mud, cobblestone streets and people gainfully employed.

Since this was a travel day, we thought we would share some random things we have learned:

- Alpaca products may be very soft but you need to read the label - it might say “may be Alpaca”.
- the cheaper silver is just jewelry bathed in silver. The quality silver is more expensive because it is pure silver.
- Quechua became the unifying language of the Inca Empire and is considered, along with Spanish as the official language of Peru.
-coca tea made from coca leaves and hot water help with altitude adjustment. Coca plants can only be found in Columbia and Peru.
-the infrastructure is lacking in Peru. The water that comes from the highlands is not processed so unless you are used to it, you must use bottled water for brushing teeth, etc. Some high end hotels have filtered water so you can brush your teeth and eat fruit with skin, and drink a drink with ice, but not many.
- due to the lack of infrastructure, most toilets cannot accept toilet paper - it is to be placed in a covered trash can next to the toilet. 
-you will see bulls (and sometimes crosses) on the roofs of houses. The bulls are for fertility and good luck to the family, the cross because they are Catholic.


  

- You can tell an Alpaca from a Llama because the Alpaca’s tail is down and the Llama’s tail is up. (Plus Alpaca’s have longer necks and legs.). 
- It is mandatory to vote in Peru.  There is an 80% turnout.  The way it is enforced is time.  Eventually a person will need a passport, license or something from the government - if you  have not voted, that is when you are caught.
- Tremors and earthquakes are frequent in Peru.  While we were here, there was a 6.8 earthquake on the Peru/Chile border.
-70% of Peru is catholic.

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