Back to Cusco

 We got up this morning in Ollantaytambo and went for a walk around the small town. Directly out the door of our guest house was a hike to some ancient Incan ruins. These were completely free, which was nice because I feel as though Machu Picchu really takes advantage of the foreign tourist. As an added plus, once we were at a slightly higher vantage point, we could also get a good view of the Ollantaytambo ruins, which were $25 per person to enter. The view from above was just fine. We could also look down into the alleys and check out the whole town from up high. After coming back down, we walked around a little bit, taking in the town once last time before getting in our taxi that would take us to Cusco.

It was an easy 90 min drive up to Cusco, which is over 11,000 ft elevation. Ollantaytambo was around 9,000, yet that extra 2000 ft seemed to push Nicole over the edge. We found ourselves struggling a bit more with steps and our hearts were beating just a little bit faster.

Our hotel is very close to the Plaza del Armas, or the main square, so it's a fairly easy and short walk to things. We made our way to Qorikancha, which is some kind of weird church/convent/inca site. It had a nice courtyard area that was bordered on the outside by various Incan walls. The upper floor contained modern art exhibits and some nice views of the surrounding city and hillside.

As this is essentially our last stop before going home (Lima doesn't really call to us with much excitement), we felt obligated to do a little shopping. Cusco being a tourist town, this was not a difficult endeavour. In fact, I could have stood still in the middle of the square and vendors would have come to me to peddle their wares, but I wasn't keen on being hustled, so we went into various markets instead. They all had essentially the same stuff, but just slightly different so we had to do a bit of hunting for things like ornaments.

As the sun started to go down, the temperature did as well. Surrounded by alpaca-knit sweaters, our decision was easy. For about $11, we each got a hand-knit sweater. Not a lot of money was spent on all of our purchases. Hopefully they don't fall apart in the first wash.

We spent a little time taking pictures around the square at night before heading back to the hotel, which was strangely warm. We talked to the reception about this mystery, but all the other rooms were equally as airless and stagnant.

Tomorrow we may explore a little bit more of the town before catching a flight to Lima in the mid-afternoon. It's unclear how we're getting back to the U.S. as of yet, so our time in Lima is kind of up in air. We should know in about 24 hours.