Cusco has a European city feel but with the random South American quirks, like stray dogs everywhere and houses made of mud.
Yesterday my new English friends and I did a walking tour of Cusco, and today we did a tour of the Sacred Valley. Our guide today was pretty bossy and mean, actually. Most of the other guides have been funny and charming, but this guy was a drill sgt.
He would tell us to be back at meeting spots at random times, like in twelve minutes or at 12:47. He told us we had to take pictures of certain things. And he mocked us when he would ask questions and we gave wrong answers. He was a little scary, but at some point I realized he didn't know what he was talking about. The turning point was when we were in some church looking at a picture of the Virgin Mary and little 8 pound 6 ounce baby Jesus. He started the story by saying that everyone in South America thought she was black, but at some point they thought she was white.
Irrelevant detail.
But I laughed out loud when he said that Baby Jesus is depicted with red cheeks and wrapped like a tamale because that's how babies look here - tightly wrapped and born with flush cheeks because of the altitude. I'm pretty sure he made that up.
But it was a great tour and very amusing.
Tomorrow I hope to eat my heart out, hydrate and get ready for the Machu Picchu hike on Friday morning.
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