Cusco and Dave's last day in Peru

We toured Cusco today with Yahayra. We drove to several Incan sites, all of which are a little disappointing after seeing Machu Picchu. The fortress of Sacsayhuaman (mispronounced: sexy woman) was the nicest, reflecting again, the unbelievable, architectural abilities of the Incan people - to fit enormous stones together, so precisely and so tightly, that no mortar is needed. We stopped at a good textile place where I bought a black shawl made from baby alpaca wool and a table runner as a gift for my mother-in-law.
Within the Plaza De Armas - Cusco's main square, we went to Qoricancha, the Incan Temple of the Sun - the most sacred of Incan Temples.
From there we went to lunch where, prior to eating, we said goodbye to our tour guide Yahayra. Overall she was very knowledgeable though lacked some warmth and was very vocal when she felt she was wronged in some way or if someone wasn't following the rules.
We had a very good lunch at a Peruvian restaurant called Chincha. I'm enjoying stuffed red peppers here (and the empanadas have been great too!).
We walked back into the Plaza De Armas to see the cathedral. It's a very ornate church and has a funny mural inside, of the 'Last Supper' but with Peruvian food on the table (ie, guinea pig with it's legs in the air). I don't have a great interest, in general, of churches (go figure!), so it only took us about 20 minutes to walk through.
We walked back to our hotel and enjoyed watching the baby sheep in the courtyard of our hotel. We said goodbye to Dave at 3:45. We got some very disappointing news when Javier, the guide, came to get Dave. Apparently, workers of Puno are on strike and, because of this, the luxury train we were scheduled to take tomorrow was cancelled. Apparently, this occurs a couple of times per month. I was really looking forward to the train ride after hearing such great things about it, but that's foreign travel for you...
The local tour operator sent someone to walk us the 10-15 minutes to the LAN airlines office where we got airline tickets for tomorrow at 11:20. The flight only takes an hour to Juliaca. It will take 1 or 1.5 hours to get to the hotel. Not sure what we will do once we get there. Maybe just relax. Not used to that!
Ken and I went out to dinner at a restaurant recommended by Javier called Limo. We had a classic Peruvian meal. See picture below! It was delicious!! And don't worry mom, all cooked! Then we went to a small cafe for dessert. As far as I'm concerned, any place called café y chocolate has to be tried. 😊
On a completely different note, here's another interesting thing about Peru. They have weak plumbing here, so you are not supposed to put toilet paper in the toilets. It's a crazy thing to get used to! They all have small waste baskets next to the toilets. Lovely....Read more