first night in cusco

I didn't really know what to expect in Cusco. But it turned out to be a beautifully charming city with narrow, hilly streets. My camera rarely got a rest in this picturesque city. We arrived in the afternoon and got settled in our hotel. Then we ventured out and visited the Museo Inka, the archaeological museum of Cusco. When we emerged, the evening lighting was so fantastic on the main square. We wandered a bit more and then went to a performance of some traditional Peruvian dance and music. We ended the evening at a restaurant with a great view of the main square.

A huge crowd gathered to watch a soccer game being broadcast on the square.

There were wild dogs everywhere. I'm pretty sure these dogs were after me.

pumpkin break

I'm interrupting the Peru posts to declare the awesomeness of Pumpkin Salted Caramel Blondies (recipe from Baked Bree). Somehow this week became crazy busy and all I really wanted to do was make (and eat) these pumpkin blondies. So I did.

And the sea salt and vanilla bean caramel sauce that goes inside (and on top if you're me) is heaven. In case you need something to do this week...

jungle to mountain

We left our cozy jungle home Tuesday morning and headed back to Puerto Maldonado. The first part of the journey was by boat and the second part was a very bumpy van ride on a dirt road. We had a long, hot wait at the airport since only a few planes actually arrive and depart (at their leisure) each day. We flew to Cusco (the ancient capital of the Inca Empire!) and were greeted by a completely different landscape and climate. It was mountainous and much cooler. And higher. The elevation is 11,000 feet. Cynthia, our fantastic Cusco guide, picked us up at the airport and immediately briefed us on the symptoms and treatment of altitude sickness which is very common there. Luckily there are coca plant remedies everywhere you look. I experienced some various sicknesses over the next several days but it's hard to pinpoint the exact cause...altitude, bumpy rides on curvy roads, heatstroke, dehydration, more curvy roads, bad queso, etc. And those cooler temperatures were deceptive...we all had sunburns by the end of the week. Darn that thin atmosphere.

The view from the bumpy back seat of the van.

We passed by this family...who says you need a minivan?

I'm pretty sure we never stopped at a stop sign.

Bathroom signage.

Exploring the Amazon rainforest.

We did another hike through the rainforest, this time during the day. We had all packed/prepared for a lot of rain on the trip and we only ended up with a five minute downpour in the jungle right before our hike. (The only other rain we saw on our 9-day trip was in Florida on the way to and from Peru.) The hike was really beautiful and the trees were like nothing I'd seen before. We heard lots of strange noises and made good use of the rubber boots they gave us since the brief downpour created lots of mud.

When it got dark out, we loaded onto the boat and headed out to find some caimans. Our guide would shine a bright light out in the water and look for two glowing red eyes. We spotted a few but it was too difficult to get a picture at night.

Lunch before the hike.

 

a walking palm tree.

These owl butterflies were awesome.

I couldn't get a good photo at night, but this is what a caiman looks like.