Cuzco

24 hours in Cuzco!

A little bit about the town....

The town itself used to be the "capital" more or less of the Inca empire, eventually, it had a big Spanish infulence as well. It makes for a really pretty town with cobblestone streets, ruins from the inca empire and a lot of colonial influence from Spain. A lot of thing in the town remind me of Guanajuato, MX (esp. the steep roads and small alleyways.

The elevation is 3326 m. Comparatively, Denver is about 1580 m. Before we left Lindsey and I were taking Diamox to prevent altitude sickness, but you can still feel the effects of being so high up. My hands and feet get tingly and the 2 flights of stairs to our room leaves us panting for air. Last night I asked one of the workers for some help with the key, and he told me "calm down, it's okay" :) I preceded to tell him that I wasn't upset, I just couldn't breathe!

Linsey and I arriving in Cuzco. A representative from the school picked us up. He comes from one of the indigenous jungle towns and his primary language is Quechua, which most people speak in the really small/secluded towns outside of Cuzco. A lot of the street names and foods are in Quechua. However, its still easy to make things out and a lot of signs are translated because it is such a big tourist town. Most people come here to start the treck to Machu Picchu.