Cusco

I really dragged my feet in Cusco, kept coming up with every excuse not to leave on my bike. It´s comfortable there for expats, they´ll even give you oxygen masks in your hotel room if you pay enough. I missed out on almost all the touristy things besides seeing a military parade in the main square and taking a picture of a mom, son, and their llama. Immediately after the kid ran across the street to collect 30 cents from me, but I thought that would happen.

I have huge respect for the Peruvian army. I saw those guys running in formation in the hot sun in full fatigues with AK-47s and if that´s not enough, singing at the top of their lungs. All at 10,000ft altitude.

The second night I had a good time in the main square. You definitely can´t sit there peacefully. Within minutes a six year old girl was selling me a knit llama finger puppet for sixty cents. I thought it would be light enough to carry on my bike. Just as I pulled out my wallet I was mobbed by four other vendors who now saw a willing buyer. There were more finger puppets to buy, and paintings and everybody wanted my attention. I couldn´t listen to a full sentance from anybody before someone else would be beating me with their product. All the children were right in my face, leaning on my knees. And some of the best English I heard on the trip was from those guys.

Another hilarious thing in the main square were the fake deaf people. Two people approached me within minutes with clipboards that said in German and Spanish only, ¨I´m deaf, please give me a donation.¨ What an awesome idea, how can you argue with a deaf person?

I love how there are so many German tourists here the locals have picked up on a few phrases. They assume sometimes that I´m German, so I get a few words dropped. I´ve heard Tagesmenu (menu of the day), ¨Ist das dein freund?¨ and plenty of Hallos.

That´s about all for Cusco. Hostal Estrellita is really comfy, central, and 15 soles a night ($5.50). Stay there if you go.