Cusco

Nice town! Lots of tourists as it is obviously the portal to Machu Picchu, but that also means Irish pubs and nachos!

Luckily our drive into Cusco didn’t take us straight through the market and took us straight to our current permanent campsite for the next 4 years. An easy walk downhill into town with some Ruins right next to us and the planetarium which doesn’t have a laser show but shows how the Inca used the stars.

The city itself is very interesting. A combination of Inca ruins and churches. Can you worship both? Also plenty of good restaurants and two Irish pubs right next to each other. I compared the nachos at both. When they open up again, I will compare again!

We stopped at a half dozen tour operators getting info on Machu Picchu and comparing prices. In the end we book the jungle tour which involves downhill mountain biking, hiking the Inca trail, rafting, thermal and of course, Machu Picchu. For those interested in the Official Inca trail which is booked out 6 months in advance (Harald), global warming took out a glacier here very very recently. An absolute insane amount of water then flooded the entire region taking out large sections of the Inca trail. We were hoping since April is the lowest of low tourist seasons combined with the current situation that we could sneak into an Inca trail hike, but we found out, it is closed completely, but probably not permanently.

Anyways after we booked our tour we also saw an offer for…

We took the ATV’s first to a lake. Just like with a kayak, Michelle wanted to go tandem.

Got to do a little accidental off roading with the thing. Got mine stuck. Better than the Dutch girl that flew into a cornfield though.

I thought we would drive out to the salt mines but we hopped in a bus. Oh well. There were thousands of these tiny little pools where who knows the salt water comes from, and they make the 3 types of salt. Fascinating.

In the end it was just a tourist trap. Tons of stands set up to sell you salt and chocolate.

And that was it! Got back at camp after a lovely dinner, excited to leave next morning for our Inca jungle tour! What a surprise it was to see the president on TV. Wonder what he is saying?

Update

I really thought this quarantine would end at the end of April but it got extended again by two weeks. And then got extended again by two weeks. Considering the rate the cases are now increasing, my guess is it will be extended again by two weeks. Then two weeks. Then two weeks. I’m tired of being jerked off by these people, just say how it is. As I write this we are on week 9

Restaurants were supposed to be delivering 4th of May. Now the 17th, only Lima will offer this service. More screwing me over.

We are trying to find a way out. There are many flights a week from Lima to the States, but Cusco has its own rules and doesn’t let us leave. Maybe something will turn up. If not, I see no reason we won’t be here until September.