Day 20: perfect match

After a good night of sleep in a warm and cosy room we were as new and ready for a whole day of Cusco.

We enjoyed the royal breakfast with fruit, eggs and delicious bread. Then we went to the city center for a free walking tour. We were a little early and enjoyed the atmosphere and sun at the pleasant square.  

Our free walking tour started at the san pedro market, one of the most famous markets of the city. Almost everything is sold there, from 'maybe' alpaca sweaters to fruit juices and Guinea pigs. Next there was some information about the plaza de armas and the Cathedral. We continued our tour to one of the colonial buildings with Inca foundations. Here we came to know everything about the incas as builders and architects. They didn't use any mortar or cement to keep the stones in place, but they carved the stones so they would fit onto another, a bit like enormous Tetris. Impressive how the stone formed perfect matches. 

In the afternoon we would explore the inca architecture further by visiting an old inca fortress and temple. Both were in ruins as they were quarried by the Spanish for building there houses, only 20% remained but impressive nonetheless. With stones over 4 meters tall and multiple Joachims wide, their mass was even too large for the Spanish to handle. Nowadays the sites are unesco world heritage, but not respected by all, as Elien shouted at a man trying to desecrate the historical masterpiece with his urine, just respectless! 

After this satisfying walk we needed to increase our protein intake,therefore we chose a peruvian steak house and ate the threesome alpaca, lam and beef.

Now we are ready for the Salcantay which starts tomorrow! So we will blog again in four days!