Day 8: Cusco

Last night was extremely exhausting. We waited in the airport for a few hours then we took a flight from Santa Marta to Bogota. We had a 2 hour layer over in Bogota and then flew to Lima where we had an hour layover.  Finally, we flew from Lima to Cusco. We left Colombia at 10:20 PM and arrived at our final destination in Peru at 8:30 AM. The hotel we are staying at, Palacio Del Inka, is amazing! It used to be an Inka castle and it was then turned into a mansion by the Spaniards. It still has some of the original stone walls and it is decorated with a mix of Spanish colonial style and the indigenous culture. I have to say that Platinum status for Starwood is an awesome perk because they really do treat you like royalty. They let us check into our room right when we got there even though it was only 9:00 AM. They also upgraded us to a large suite with a view of the grand courtyard and our butler sat with us for 45 mins telling us everything we should do for our day. We are guessing that we got about 3 hours of bad sleep max last night. However, we only had one day in Cusco and we didn't want to waste it, so we drank lots of coffee and set out to explore! 

We didn't really know what to expect from Cusco, but it is a really amazing city.  We walked around the whole historic part of the city admiring the architecture and the views (the city is set on a hillside at 11,800). We then walked up to the top of the city to some of the Inka ruins called Sacasyhuaman (pronounced “sexy woman,” which is pretty funny to hear people talk about it). We also went to the local market where I bought an alpaca blanket for our new couch and Jeff bought an alpaca sweater.  We also had a nice dinner at a traditional Peruvian restaurant and pisco bar, which we both agreed was our best meal of the trip so far. We were pretty much delirious after dinner since we were running on no sleep and literary walked up and down hills all day. When we got back to the hotel they had turned down the bed and put on some nice relaxing music, so we got right into bed. It was sooo nice.

We really liked Cusco. The people and the culture reminded me a lot of Quito Ecuador. Everyone is super nice here and I love seeing the people in their traditional dress with all the beautiful textiles and colors. It’s not that people in Colombia weren't nice, but I don’t think they are as use to tourists and hardly anyone spoke English which made it difficult for me. I also felt like you had to be a little bit more on alert while in Colombia, so it feels a little more relaxed in Peru. We are excited to see more!