I’ve spent a lot of time planning this mini-travel within Peru, to Cusco and Machu Picchu. Initially, Souvik was only supposed to join me for Machu Picchu, but when he decided to make it a work trip, I added Puno to the list. After tons of research on http://www.tripadvisor.com, and some panic buttons pressed, in the nick of time I managed to book Pension Alemana in Cusco, a darling little B&B in a nice part of town. One of my reasons for picking this place? The gorgeous views from the hotel:
Rooftop view of Cusco
After an invigorating cup of mate de coca (my latest morning ritual – coca tea) to help acclimatise to the high altitude, I was ready for Cusco.
Walking down to the Plaza de Armas, I had my first sight of the iconic Andean ladies with their llamas – they are ever willing to pose for photos for a little money.
The walking lanes are no less picturesque. And steep.
When I spotted these ladies, lined up, selling stuff along the steps, I HAD to buy something, just to have a picture. Goodness knows what I ended up drinking! Probably chicha.
A few steps on, Plaza de Armas was a sight to behold. My photos do no justice to the scale and the magnificence of the site. This is the centre of the historic town of Cusco or Cuzco, which was the capital of the Inca empire.
You may enter any of the cathedrals, for a fee, but I’d rather enjoy the feel of the sun on my face, after a week in grey-skies Lima. The local souvenir sellers didn’t bother me much because, apparently, I look quite Peruvian, until the camera came out. Then there was an endless stream of llama keyrings, and Inca pendants, and whatnot.
Looking up my Lonely Planet, I thought of doing their walking tour, which was meant to take me back to the area of my hotel at the end. Starting from the Plaza, I walked to the Mercado de San Pedro, but not before a quick stop at the Choco Museum for a quick snack of …ahem… chocolate.
The Inca flag has all the colours of the rainbow. Those are to be found in most of the local garments and handicrafts.
The market of San Pedro was as fun as a market ought to be! Some of the ladies offered their bread to taste, and I was a willing sampler.
Getting out of the market, loaded with a snack pack of dried fruits and nuts, I went about my merry way on that walking tour towards the Palace of Justice, stopping, as usual for photographs.
The sights were so interesting that I kept putting my phone (with the directions) away, to bring out the camera, and also munch on those nuts. That’s it. In the space of 2 minutes (the interval between peeking at the phone), my iPhone was gone. I have a strong feeling somebody may have followed me and stolen it, or just observed my inattention and taken the opportunity. Whatever it was, the phone was gone. Thankfully I had a 2nd phone with the local number, and called Souvik who was about 10 minutes away. We couldn’t call the iPhone because of some international dialling issues, so I rushed back to the hotel to access the iPad and lock down the phone remotely. In the grief of losing the phone (it’s like losing an arm, the amount of dependence I had on that), I was probably not thinking clearly. I should have changed all my apple and gmail passwords, which I didn’t. Within a couple of hours, the thieves had disabled the Find My iPhone feature, and all hope was lost. I simply couldn’t focus on anything after that, and hung about the hotel room, moping, cursing my own stupidity.
Souvik did his best to drag me out after that, but my heart simply wasn’t in it. We sat in the plaza for a while, watching the kids play and dance, and after a comforting meal at Inkazuela, called it a day.
A Busy Life of Leisure 
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